Electric vehicle charging infrastructure in region set to get a boost from $5.5 million grant

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure in region set to get a boost from $5.5 million grant

JACKSON (WNE) — Teton Village, the Jackson Hole Airport, and Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks may have electric vehicle charging stations within the next few years thanks to a recent federal grant.

“The idea is to create connectivity through the region,” said Tanya Anderson, ecosystem stewardship administrator for the Town of Jackson. “Allow people to take their electric vehicles and drive them up into the parks and have a place where they can charge them and do so reliably and without having that range anxiety.”

The town would also get new charging stations, adding to the 71 already in town.

In three years, the town and other recipients have to pick a company and lay out plans to purchase and install the chargers, Anderson said. There’s no timeline for when the project needs to be complete.

The grant money will cover about 80% of the cost of the project. Some $150,000 will fall to the town, and Teton County will be responsible for less than $100,000 in match money, according to Anderson.

The award is part of a $521 million federal grant package aimed at improving EV charging infrastructure across the country.

The town entered a $90,000 one-year contract with Sustainable Strategies DC that ends in June 2025. Anderson said there’s a third round of grants, and the town plans to seek more funds in the next round.

Right now, electric vehicles are an “eccentric thing,” not something people can rely on entirely as a primary form of transportation throughout the Jackson Hole region, Anderson said.

“Hopefully this will fill in some of those gaps and allow people to charge in multiple areas in the region and use electrical vehicles as a primary vehicle,” Anderson said.

This story was published on August 28, 2024.