Milwaukee to use $15M federal grant to place more EV charging stations across city

The city of Milwaukee will build more than 50 electric vehicle charging stations after receiving a nearly $15 million federal grant.

The $14.96 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program will bring over 200 electric vehicle charging ports to the city in the coming years.

Milwaukee received that grant in early 2024, but officials will start planning where to place the stations soon. The Milwaukee Common Council voted to accept the funding on Dec. 17.

The push to get more electric vehicle charging stations comes as Milwaukee passed its “Climate and Equity Plan” last year. That plan has lofty goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent in the next six years and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. 

“I want our city to be on the cutting edge of the cities of the future, and this is one of the many things that we can do,” Milwaukee Alder Marina Dimitrijevic said about the grant.

Erick Shambarger, the director of the city’s environmental collaboration office, said the federal funding is for 53 electric vehicle stations. Each station will have four ports available for vehicles.

The goal is also to have at least 40 percent of the stations in “disadvantaged neighborhood’s across Milwaukee,” according to the city legislation.

Shambarger said they’ll gather public input on where to place the charging stations in 2025. Construction could start in 2026.

“This will be a project that will keep us busy for the next several years,” Shambarger said.

Part of the city’s climate and equity plan includes a push to get more electric vehicle charging stations across the city. The plan says barriers to more people getting electric vehicles include “price, range, charging availability/infrastructure, and consumer awareness/perceptions.” 

Nationally, Black and Latino drivers make up just 12 percent of the purchases for electric vehicles, according to the plan.

“Part of the disparity could be attributed to limited access to reliable charging infrastructure, a barrier to EV adoption by those who are not homeowners,” the plan says. “Renters in multi-family units often do not have access to a charging station on-site and cannot reliably or conveniently charge overnight.”

Last year, the Milwaukee Common Council passed an ordinance that requires the majority of purchases of new city-owned vehicles to be low or zero-emissions.

“We have been doing a lot to try to move away from fossil fuel powered vehicles, both in the municipal fleet for city operations, but we also want to help the broader community adopt electric vehicles,” Shambarger said.

“Having more charging should hopefully help consumers have an easier time deciding to go electric,” he added. 

Wisconsin currently has just over 700 charging stations with 1,696 ports for the public across the state.

In Milwaukee, there are around 100 charging stations, according to ChargeHub.

Dimitrijevic recently bought an electric vehicle, but she still has issues finding places to charge it in the city. 

“There’s a bunch of private companies out there, but it’s still kind of sporadic,” Dimitrijevic said. 

The legislation said Milwaukee Public Library locations will be prioritized to get the charging stations.

“These library sites are very exciting because for us in the city of Milwaukee, we have such a wonderful library system, and it’s strategically and kind of equitably located,” Dimitrijevic said. “So this is a way for us to get into all parts of the city and build these EV locations.” 

Dimitrijevic said she believes there are many benefits to choosing libraries for the sites.

“You can enjoy the library, take care of stuff, do work, get some books and charge your car at the same time,” she said.

A private company will build and operate the stations, according to Shambarger.