The Biden administration ignores Tesla's request for $100 million in funding for large truck charging stations for the second time.

The Department of Transportation has announced a new funding award totaling $636 million, which will be granted to 49 applicants for the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. However, Tesla’s application, which amounted to nearly $100 million to fund a charging corridor for large trucks, has been rejected once again.

Tesla is not among the published beneficiaries, and its partner in the project, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, confirmed that the company had submitted its application in this funding round. This episode comes at a time when Tesla is facing challenges in launching its electric truck program. The company has begun delivering preliminary versions of its Tesla Semi to customers such as Pepsi and Frito-Lay, but its broader commercial program has yet to materialize. The company continues to construct a facility in Nevada aimed at producing its electric truck, which was unveiled in 2017.

Tesla applied for this funding in 2023, which comes from the Charging and Refueling Infrastructure (CFI) program, part of a bipartisan infrastructure deal signed into law by President Biden in 2021. The intent was to use this funding along with $24 million of its own capital to build nine electric truck charging stations along a route from its former headquarters in Northern California to the southern border of Texas.

Each station was designed to feature eight 750 kW chargers for the Tesla Semi and four additional chargers accessible to other electric trucks, a necessary condition to receive federal funds. The project, officially named "Transportation Electrification Supporting Semis Operating in Arizona, California, and Texas" or TESSERACT, was rejected in an initial round of CFI awards in 2024, where the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) awarded $623 million to 47 applicants. In August 2024, the FHWA distributed another $521 million to 51 applicants in a second round.

Despite being excluded from the first round, Tesla remained interested in the idea of the charging corridor. Rohan Patel, former vice president of policy, stated in April 2024 that some locations along the 1,800-mile route were "obvious even without funding." However, the status of the TESSERACT Project became uncertain after Tesla cut more than 10% of its workforce, particularly affecting its charging team.

Theoretically, there could be another round of CFI funds available, as the bipartisan infrastructure law allocated $2.5 billion for the program. However, the FHWA's website for the CFI program currently indicates that there is no estimated date for the next funding opportunity announcement, and it has not been defined how the priorities of the incoming Trump administration will influence such programs.