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The Department of TransportationannouncedFriday another $ 636 million in financial backing that will be grant to 49 applicants for electric - fomite charging substructure — and Tesla ’s lotion for nearly $ 100 million to fund a big - articulated lorry charge corridor was once again pass over .
Tesla ’s name was not among the tilt of recipient role released , and its partner on the task , California ’s South Coast Air Quality Management District , affirm to TechCrunch the fellowship had employ for this round .
The snub add up as Tesla has struggled to get its electrical fully grown semi program up and running . The troupe has cede someearly versionsof the so - call Tesla Semi to client like Pepsi and Frito - Lay . But its large commercial programme has yet to materialise . The company is still construct a readiness in Nevada where it plan to build its electric semi truck , which was revealed in 2017 .
Tesla first bespeak the funding in 2023 from what ’s known as the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure ( CFI ) program , part of a bipartisan infrastructure mountain that President Bidensigned into law in 2021 . At the time , the party was trust to utilize that financial support , along with $ 24 million of its own money , to construct nine electric semi - truck charge stations between its former main office in northern California to the southerly border of Texas .
Each of those station was opine to be equipped with eight 750kW chargers for the Tesla Semi , and four other chargers that would be open to other electric motortruck — a requirement for federal funding .
The projection , officially call “ Transport Electrification Supporting Semis Operating in Arizona , California , and Texas , ” or TESSERACT , waspassed over in early 2024when the Department of Transportation ’s Federal Highway Administration ( FHWA ) denote the first rhythm of CFI laurels . That first circle saw $ 623 million in funding go to 47 applicants .
The FHWA doled out another $ 521 million to 51 applicants pulled from the same poolin August 2024 . The federal agency also began accepting software program for a newfangled round of funding in mid-2024 .
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Tesla continued pursuing the burden corridor thought even after being get out out of the first round , TechCrunchreportedin April 2024 . Former policy VP Rohan Patel say at the time that some of the sites along the 1,800 - mile path were “ no - brainers even without funding . ”
The status of Project TESSERACT was undecipherable following that , though , as Tesla lay off more than 10 % of its workforce and , in picky , gutted its send squad .
There could theoretically be another round of CFI finances available , as the two-way infrastructure law allocated $ 2.5 billion for the program . The FHWA’swebsitefor the CFI program currently say there is “ [ n]o figure date ” for the next “ posting of funding opportunity , ” though , and it ’s undecipherable what effect the incoming Trump administration ’s priorities will have on course of study like this .
