You’d assume Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and its wide-reaching Supercharger community, would already know in regards to the workings of the federal Nationwide Electrical Automobile Infrastructure (NEVI) program that has devoted $7.5 billion to constructing a nationwide charging community. Nonetheless, he wanted Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to chime in on X yesterday to cease some Republican leaders from spreading misinformation about this system.

“Please put up the rebuttal,” Musk requested Buttigieg below a Donald Trump Jr. put up quoting Ohio congressperson Michael Rulli, who accuses Buttigieg of “squandering billions” to construct “8 EV charging stations.” Buttigieg tells Trump the put up is “false.”

As Buttigieg defined, the $7.5 billion is “the complete program funds” for NEVI, a part of the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation. The best way it really works is states apply for a chunk of the $7.5 billion, which, opposite to the preliminary put up, has not but been spent. As soon as granted, the states construct EV chargers with the cash, not the federal authorities.

“That is useful to know,” Musk wrote on the finish of the thread.

There’s been criticism over the gradual rollout of government-funded electrical car chargers after The Washington Publish reported earlier this yr that solely seven stations and 38 ports have been put in throughout 4 states as of March. However the administration continues to make progress: Buttigieg famous that 9 states now have NEVI-funded chargers in operation, which is just the primary handful with most deliberate to be inbuilt “the second half of the last decade.” He linked readers to a Google Map exhibiting NEVI-funded chargers’ standing.