Governor Newsom announces $95 million plan to expand EV charging and hydrogen fueling across California

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Aug 18, 2026

Governor Newsom announces $95 million plan to expand EV charging and hydrogen fueling across California

What you need to know: Buying a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) in California is getting easier twice over. Days after announcing instant rebates for first-time ZEV buyers, Governor Newsom is putting $95.2 million toward more chargers and other zero emission infrastructure close to where Californians live, work, and drive. It is the latest move to make clean cars cheaper to buy and easier to own, even as the Trump administration guts federal charging investments nationwide.

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced that California will invest $95.2 million to accelerate the build-out of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure across the state, funding EV charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty ZEVs and cementing California's position as the nation's leader in ZEV infrastructure.

As the world's fourth-largest economy, California is keeping its foot on the accelerator, cutting pollution, creating good-paying jobs, and breaking Big Oil's grip on Californians' wallets. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has put America in reverse, handing the global clean economy to China and our competitors. California is taking the wheel: putting more zero-emission infrastructure on the ground in more communities so every Californian can fuel up and keep moving forward.

Governor Gavin Newsom

The investment, approved Monday by the California Energy Commission (CEC), outlines how its Clean Transportation Program investment plan will support $95.2 million in the current fiscal year, with projected allocations through 2028-2029. Since 2008, the program, secured through the Governor's continued partnership with the Legislature, has made significant progress in ZEV infrastructure build-out through grant-focused investments totaling more than $2.7 billion.

Today's investment builds on the momentum from earlier this month, when Governor Newsom announced instant rebates for Californians buying their first zero-emission vehicle through the MyFirstEV program. Together, the two announcements tackle both halves of the equation: making ZEVs more affordable to buy, and making sure Californians have somewhere to charge or fuel up once they do.

Powering the buildout: where the funding is going

Today's approval allocates funding towards the following categories:
  • $48 million for light-duty electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, focusing on direct current (DC) fast charging and at-home or near-home charging;
  • $30.2 million for medium- and heavy-duty ZEV infrastructure, focusing on freight, port, public fleet, and school bus infrastructure;
  • $15 million for hydrogen refueling;
  • $2 million for ZEV workforce training and development

At least 50% of program funds must go toward projects that benefit or serve low-income Californians and residents of low-income and disadvantaged communities. As of March 2026, more than 62% of Clean Transportation Program and supplemental funds have gone to projects in disadvantaged or low-income communities.

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"Tailpipe emissions from transportation account for roughly 50% of the pollution dirtying our air and harming the climate," said California Energy Commissioner Nancy Skinner. "The faster California can build out ZEV infrastructure, giving drivers the confidence they need to get off of gas-powered vehicles, the quicker we can clean the air and improve public health."

Nearly two decades of results

Since the first investment plan was released in 2009, the Clean Transportation Program has:
  • Installed or planned more than 52,000 EV chargers, including about 41,000 lower-power chargers and more than 11,000 DC fast chargers.
  • Funded more than 40 manufacturing projects supporting in-state economic growth, ZEV manufacturing, ZEV components, and ZEV infrastructure.
  • Funded more than 30 workforce training projects to prepare workers for the clean transportation economy
  • Helped build the nation's largest network of hydrogen refueling stations, including over 100 stations for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty fuel cell electric vehicles

The Gold Standard for ZEV infrastructure

Thanks to continued investments, like the annual Clean Transportation Program Investment Plan, California now has 216,445 publicly available and shared EV charging ports across the state. Earlier this year, California surpassed 20,000 DC fast chargers, easing range anxiety for both short trips near home and long-haul travel along California's major transportation corridors. DC fast chargers offer substantially faster charging speeds, and continued advances in vehicle and charger technology have achieved even faster speeds.

California's growing number of publicly available EV chargers can be found at locations that are fully publicly accessible, like grocery stores, park-and-ride lots, and even gas stations, whereas shared chargers can be found at workplaces, doctors' offices, sports facilities, and other parking areas that may have some level of restricted access. This statewide network of public and shared chargers is in addition to the estimated 800,000 EV chargers installed at residential homes.

California's clean energy leadership

Since Governor Newsom took office in 2019, California has added more than 38,000 megawatts of utility-scale clean and renewable energy to serve the California grid. That's helped make the grid more reliable and pushed the state further along its path in the clean energy transition.

Batteries play a key role in California's goal of getting all of its electricity from clean sources by 2045. The most recent numbers, from the end of 2024, show real progress: 67% of retail electricity sales in the state already come from clean energy. Last year, clean energy met 100% of the state's electricity needs for at least part of the day on 279 separate days. So far in 2026, that's happened on more than nine out of 10 days during the first half of the year.

California is building this fleet safely. In 2024, Governor Newsom launched a State Battery Storage Safety Collaborative that has already delivered updated fire codes, new state oversight of battery facilities, and stronger safety standards statewide. The CPUC helps maintain electric grid reliability for the public by ensuring power plants and energy storage systems comply with CPUC standards for operations and maintenance.

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Clean energy is also good for the economy. California leads the nation in total clean energy jobs, with 552,300 workers employed across clean energy technologies, nearly twice as many as the second-ranked state, Texas, according to a 2025 report from E2. California's clean energy workforce grew by nearly 7,300 workers in 2024, outpacing job growth in the rest of the state's economy by more than three times.

Today's investment builds on the momentum from earlier this month, when Governor Newsom announced instant rebates for Californians buying their first zero-emission vehicle through the MyFirstEV program. Together, the two announcements tackle both halves of the equation: making ZEVs more affordable to buy, and making sure Californians have somewhere to charge or fuel up once they do.

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