NEVI News
The U.S. Department of Transportation has just released “interim final” guidance for the NEVI (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) Program. This is effective August 13, 2025, and the comment period ends August 27, 2025.
This guidance offers the opportunity to streamline and speed up the deployment of the NEVI Hubs. It will be up to each State to optimize its policies regarding deployment, which is a positive. Overall, this creates the opportunity for Hawaii to accelerate its NEVI deployment.
EV Fires are Rare and Manageable
Electric vehicle adoption continues to rise in Hawaii. We now have 37,000 of them on our roads. They are paving the way to a cleaner and more resilient energy future. As with any emergent technology, there are questions and concerns raised that may create unnecessary hurdles to adoption.
One concern area that we’ve heard more about lately is the risk of fires. The Matson decision to pause shipments of EVs and recent headlines have heightened concerns about EV fire risk. The fact is that EV fires are rare and can be managed with modern firefighting technologies and techniques.
How many EVs are cruising Hawaii?
Adoption is accelerating across Hawaii, with very positive YoY growth. This is very positive, but more must be done to accelerate adoption. Hawaii consumes nearly 40,000,000 gallons of gasoline and diesel each month, and gas vehicles still represent about 94% of registered vehicles.
Image courtesy of unsplash.com/@robinpierre
Good news for VW fans!
This just in: The VW ID.4 qualifies for the $ 7,500 federal tax credit! Thanks to domestic manufacturing (in Tennessee) and their utilization of SK On batteries (manufactured in Georgia), the ID.4 is now on the list of EVs that qualify for the full credit.
Image courtesy of Andrea De Santis.
Pole-mounted EV chargers?
Earlier this year, EVSE LLC’s pole-mounted EV chargers were deployed in Melrose, MA as part of a pilot with the local utility, National Grid. The devices were installed 10 feet up several power poles around the city. To access the service, users utilized a mobile app offered by AmpUp, a California-based software company and network provider.