Longer than two years, apparently.

The $7.5 billion in funding for electric-vehicle chargers from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law has so far yielded zero new chargers, according to Politico. “Odds are they will not be able to start powering Americans’ vehicles until at least 2024,” the story says.

The Biden administration wants to build “a national network of 500,000 electric vehicle chargers” by 2030, according to a February 2023 statement. That statement said the charger plans were “evidence of the President’s successful industrial strategy, ensuring that federal funds are attracting private investment to ensure the clean energy transition is powered by American manufacturing and good-paying union jobs.” A December 2021 statement called the charger spending “a transformative down payment on the transition to a zero-emission future.”

A letter from 3,882 car dealerships to Biden says that electric vehicles “are stacking up on our lots.” The letter includes signatories from all 50 states and all major car brands. “Today, the supply of unsold BEVs is surging, as they are not selling nearly as fast as they are arriving at our dealerships — even with deep price cuts, manufacturer incentives, and generous government incentives,” the letter says.

The government interventions to promote EV manufacturing are, in a sense, working too well. The ones to promote EV purchases aren’t working well enough. And Biden’s “successful industrial strategy” has produced zero EV chargers in two years.

I guess it doesn’t matter if there’s nowhere to charge all these EVs if they’re just going to sit on dealership lots anyway.