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A daily look at the most significant and interesting stories affecting Dallas. Written by Tasha Tsiaperas and Naheed Rajwani-Dharsi.

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Whats Next

Axios What's Next

Data: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Census, Axios research; Chart: Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

Dallas can serve as an example for cities planning to up their electric vehicle charging game.

Driving the news: In a first-of-its-kind study, University of Michigan researchers warn that the lowest-income U.S. households would keep experiencing the highest transportation energy costs even if all gas-powered cars were replaced with EVs.

The big picture: The "charging gap" is a nationwide phenomenon, and EV adoption is likely to stall if the benefits of cleaner transportation — better air quality, less noise, lower energy costs — don't flow equitably to all Americans.

State of play: Texas is a top state for EVs but given their luxury-car price tag, early adopters have typically been wealthy people who live in single-family homes where it's relatively easy to install a home charger.

As more affordable electric cars hit the market in the coming years, access to public charging will become increasingly important — especially for anyone who doesn't have a private garage or driveway.

Zoom in: A new Axios map shows that Dallas' majority-white tracts have nearly equal EV charger distribution compared to other areas.

That isn't the case in Philadelphia, where majority-white tracts are nearly four times as likely to have chargers compared to other areas.

Yes, but: Tesla's Superchargers, which speed up the charge time, tend to be in more affluent locales like the NorthPark area, Addison, Southlake and Frisco.

What's next: The Texas Department of Transportation plans to expand the state's EV charging network by adding dozens of fast chargers over the next five years.

Dallas is an EV charger model for other cities

The "charging gap" is a nationwide phenomenon.

Dallas can serve as an example for cities planning to up their electric vehicle charging game.Driving the news: In a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="first-of-its-kind study" data-vars-click-url="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aca4e6" data-vars-content-id="60bd4e29-87df-4ee9-87a5-7b264e1f9572" data-vars-headline="Dallas is an EV charger model for other cities" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aca4e6" target="_blank">first-of-its-kind study</a>, University of Michigan researchers warn that the lowest-income U.S. households would keep experiencing the highest transportation energy costs even if all gas-powered cars were replaced with EVs.

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Austin

Axios Austin

Data: U.S. Joint Office of Energy and Transportation; Map: Alex Fitzpatrick/Axios

The number of public electric vehicle charging stations in Texas has more than doubled in the past four years, per federal data.

Why it matters: Federal funds approved during the Obama and Biden eras paid for many of those stations, but the new Trump administration is slamming the brakes on unspent government money for charging stations from a $5 billion fund.

People won't buy an electric car unless they're confident they have somewhere to charge it. And companies won't invest in charging infrastructure without enough EV owners to plug in.

The latest: Spurring a switch from gasoline-powered to battery-electric vehicles was a key part of former President Biden's climate agenda.

But President Trump last week ordered federal agencies to immediately halt disbursements related to that switch. The move is part of a larger push to curb federal spending nationwide.

Friction point: Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas has joined 153 other House Democrats in signing a letter to the Trump administration asking for clarity on his executive order to pause disbursement of funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The letter asks that the administration release a full list of the frozen initiatives.

What they're saying: "Work is already underway on tens of thousands of projects in both the public and private sector, but their completion depends on these funds, which were already approved by Congress and enacted into law," the letter says.

Zoom in: Texas was awarded $100 million in federal grants last year to install EV charging stations.

North Texas was set to receive $15 million to install up to 100 accessible charging ports in the region. It's unclear how this will be affected under Trump's directive.

By the numbers: There are now about 4,000 electric vehicle charging stations offering more than 11,000 charging ports in Texas, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Energy.

That's up from roughly 1,470 public charging stations with about 4,500 ports in January 2021.

Zoom out: Nationwide, there are more than 75,000 public electric vehicle charging stations, offering more than 200,000 hookups, per federal data.

Reality check: Electric vehicle sales are growing, but far off the expected pace.

Only 8.1% of new car sales in 2024 were EVs, according to Cox Automotive. Still, that's a record 1.3 million EVs sold.

Trump's EV charging impact

Obama and Biden policies drove growth in EV charging stations.

The number of public <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="electric vehicle" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate/electric-vehicles" data-vars-content-id="edda30a2-0c91-4b30-9969-8bda5b8931dd" data-vars-headline="Trump&#x27;s EV charging impact" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate/electric-vehicles" target="_self">electric vehicle</a> charging stations in Texas has more than doubled in the past four years, per federal data.Why it matters: Federal funds approved during the Obama and Biden eras paid for many of those stations, but the new Trump administration is slamming the brakes on unspent government money for charging stations from a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="$5 billion fund" data-vars-click-url="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-revokes-biden-order-that-set-50-ev-target-2030-2025-01-21/" data-vars-content-id="edda30a2-0c91-4b30-9969-8bda5b8931dd" data-vars-headline="Trump&#x27;s EV charging impact" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trump-revokes-biden-order-that-set-50-ev-target-2030-2025-01-21/" target="_blank">$5 billion fund</a>.

Joann Muller

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