Category: VW Settlement

In a significant stride toward electrified mobility Thurmont, Maryland, has recently installed Level 2 workplace charging stations at two locations—the Municipal Office and Police Headquarters.

Support for EV Adoption

Convenient access to charging at workplaces can encourage employees to consider purchasing an electric car, especially those without access to home charging, such as individuals residing in apartments, condos or townhouses. Installing more workplace EV charging stations is one of the most effective ways to support the adoption of electric vehicles.

This electric vehicle charging installation was made possible through the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program (CAGP), an initiative funded as part of the Volkswagen settlement.

There is one single-port EV charging station located at the Thurmont Municipal Office at 615 East Main Street. A posted sign indicates that the charging space is reserved for town office staff only.

A Chevy Bolt EUV with a town emblem on the door was parked in the spot when I visited Thurmont last weekend.

Ten Level 2 charging stations have recently been installed in the Gateway Crossing office complex in Columbia, Maryland.

These are some of the first workplace electric vehicle charging stations to be funded by the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program (CAGP).

There are four dual-port EV charging stations located in the rear of 7175 Columbia Gateway Drive. These will accommodate up to eight electric vehicles charging at the same time.

The stations at this address are already turned on and I’ve seen a Mustang Mach-E and a Tesla Model 3 there during the week. There is a credit card reader on each of the charging stations but I’m not sure if payment will be required or what the price will be.

Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program

Maryland announced that funding was awarded for 74 charging stations with 145 Level 2 ports at 24 locations in the first of three rounds of the Charge Ahead Grant program (CAGP). PlugInSites has gathered information about the workplace charging locations and which companies won the awards. We’ve compiled the info into the accompanying map and chart.

Funding for the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program is provided from the “Appendix D” portion of the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated about $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions from the transportation sector. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

CAGP Round One Uses $642,942 in Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Funds

Maryland is releasing the funding in three rounds of grants. The first round includes $642,942 for Level 2 workplace charging. Here is the list of awardees along with the total grant funding they were approved for.

$234,000 Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI)
$117,000 Under Armour
$117,000 Maryland DGS
$86,665 WSSC Water
$45,000 MDOT
$36,000 Prince George’s County
$4,500 Fork United Methodist Church
$2,777 Town of Thurmont

Funding Award Chart

The chart below details the applicants’ locations, the number of L2 charging ports at the site, the total cost of each site, and approved grant funding amounts.

CAGP Awardees, Round One Chart:

Recently, Maryland announced that funding was awarded for 36 new public DC fast chargers at 13 locations. PlugInSites has learned a bit more about which companies won the awards and how many stations each charging provider will be operating.

Funding From VW Settlement

The funding comes from the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated approximately $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions from the transportation sector. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Maryland decided to release the funding in three rounds of public-private partnership grants. The first round is for $3.7 million for Level 2 workplace charging and DC fast chargers along highways.

Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program

The Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program (ECGP) is for fast charging stations along Alternative Fuel Corridors that have been designated by the Federal Highway Administration. The Alternative Fuel Corridors for electric vehicles include US Routes 50 and 301 on the Eastern Shore and I-68 / I-70 in Western Maryland.

The chart below details the applicants’ locations, number of chargers and funding amounts. EVgo was awarded $950,500 in grants for 22 fast chargers at 5 locations. Blink got $1,114,832 to install 8 chargers at 4 sites. An independent gas station in Annapolis, a gun store in Cumberland and Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI) were awarded funding for 2 chargers each. EVGateway got $315,840 to install 4 chargers at Ashley Homestore in Lexington Park. Here is a link to a map of all the ECGP locations for round one of the program.

Funding Award Chart

ECGP Awardees, Round One Chart:

To Distribute $11.3 Million in VW Settlement Funds

The Maryland Department of Environment, in coordination with the Maryland Energy Administration, has developed frameworks for proposals on two grant programs to distribute $11.3 million of the state’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding to help install electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Will this finally lead to our promised DC Fast Charging in Western Maryland?

Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program

The proposed Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program (ECGP) will help fund the placement of DC Fast Charging stations to be located along Federal Highway Administration designated Alternative Fuel Corridors. The electric charging Alternative Fuel Corridors include I-68/I-70 in Western Maryland and US Routes 50 and 301 on the Eastern shore. Grant awardees will get up to 60% of the cost to install DCFC stations that conform to the ECGP guidelines.

The ECGP grant guidelines are similar, but not exactly the same, as previous MEA administered grant programs to fund DC Fast Chargers. The Maryland electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (eVIP) initially distributed $1 million to seed private investment in the build-out of a statewide fast charging network. The eVIP program was supposed to cover every corner of the state when then Attorney General Doug Gansler announced it in April, 2014. It helped to fund early DCFC installations at Royal Farms stores as well as chargers installed by EVgo and others.

The eVIP initiative was later expanded to include funding for other alternative fueling infrastructure and renamed the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Program or AFIP. The guidelines for AFIP have been tweaked in recent years to include improvements that benefit EV drivers such as requiring at least two chargers per location to ensure redundancy.

Guidelines in the newly proposed ECGP framework include:

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ruling in Favor of SemaConnect

Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the decision of a lower court in a dispute over an EV charging patent case brought by electric vehicle charging company ChargePoint, Inc. of Campbell, CA against a competitor, SemaConnect, Inc. of Bowie, MD.

Just over one year ago, Judge Marvin J. Garbis, of the U. S. District Court in Baltimore dismissed a lawsuit brought by ChargePoint that alleged that SemaConnect had infringed four patents in the area of networked electric vehicle charging stations. The lower court judge found all of the patent claims asserted by ChargePoint were invalid.

The judge had agreed with SemaConnect’s defense that the patents were invalid because the claims were drawn to an abstract idea, and the method of implementing those claims was not enough to transform the abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.

Plan to be Submitted to Trustee

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) released its Volkswagen Mitigation Plan yesterday (PDF). The plan details spending of $75.7 million that the state is eligible to receive under a settlement agreement with Volkswagen.

A draft plan for the VW settlement money was released by MDE on August 1, 2018. Public comments were solicited for the next 30 days and two listening sessions were held including one at MDE headquarters in Baltimore on August 20, 2018. Feedback received during the 30 day public comment period is said to be incorporated into this version.

The Plan will now be submitted to the Trustee overseeing the Volkswagen Mitigation Settlement funds.

Full Allowable 15% Going to EV Charging Infrastructure

The Settlement Agreement limits the amount of funds that can be used for Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure investment to 15% of the total funds allocated to the state. Maryland plans to use the allowed maximum, or about $11.3 million, to deploy EV charging infrastructure.
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