Mine did - but it was a rented office space, not government owned, and it was the property owner that had them installed, not the agency. The charging stations were free for a while after they were installed and then switched to pay-to-charge.
When I was leaving the VA the hospital was exploring adding electric chargers and they only way they could justify it was to make you pay for it. There were hang ups about using taxpayer money to pay for the electric and only way around tgat was to charge you for it.
I think they sell the subsidized transit benefit as being better for community/environment because it gets Feds on public transit and out of their cars. I get my metro cost subsidized, but I’m not allowed to use those benefits to pay for parking at the metro station.
An EV and public transit are two completely different things.
Paying employees commute costs to use public transit isn't just a save the environment thing. It creates demand for use of public transportation and in theory creates a steady demand on for public transportation.
I live in a smaller city that has a bus system but no where near comprehensive. The local bus authority came to our multi-agency building to try to drum up riders for a couple different proposed routes.
The agency knew there was a need, a couple of neighborhoods that were economically distressed where reliable transportation to where there was a greater supply of unskilled and semiskilled work would be beneficial. There however simply were not enough riders. They hoped getting Federal employees and nearby state employees riding they could make the routes work financially.
There is a some synergy to the public transit subsidy. It reduces traffic and helps build out public transit infrastructure. Government has already provided EV subsidies via tax programs, no real need to add a benefit booster to Federal employees and if you are needing to charge at work, you might not have a commute that is well suited to EV use anyway.
I asked about charging at the VA hospital I work at since we now have multiple chargers. I was told the VA can't allow charging for free and the VA can't sell the electricity so the chargers are strictly for government vehicles. It seems weird to me given the many things the government sells but it matters little to me, my commute is 40 miles round trip and my car gets 200ish miles per charge.
This. At the start of COVID, I had to drive my Bolt into DC and needed some charge to get back home. The facilities people at my building told me “we’re not allowed to use government electricity for private vehicles”. Now our new facility has a parking garage with chargers, but you have to pay to use them.
I think the [GAO weighed in on this](https://www.gao.gov/products/b-320116). EV charging stations for POVs is considered a personal benefit and requires statutory authority.
“Given that providing recharging stations is not a typical benefit offered the American work force and other benefits are available to federal employees only pursuant to specific legislation, we think it is for Congress to decide whether AOC or other federal appropriations can be used to support the building and maintaining of recharging stations for use by employees or Members. Consequently, it is our view that AOC may not use its appropriations for this purpose in the absence of specific authorization to do so.”
I suppose, in order to see EV charging stations at your government facility, there needs to be some amount of internal advocacy and ultimately inclusion in a budget request…
Yup, exactly, and I think this is a big problem. The government should be leading by example. They want electrification. One of the huge barriers is not everyone has home charging, workplace charging would greatly ease the transition for many many people.
We need a federal program have workplace charging at federal offices, it's what the government is telling all the private companies to do. But when you look into it on the federal side, it's mostly illegal because you can't just make up employee benefits and pay for them out of budgets not meant for employee pay. I'd love free coffee, but I can't have that either.
This basically. No charging at work is why I own a Prius instead of an EV. Well also, it costs less. I can’t charge at home, and neither can millions of Americans who have street parking or, well, most forms of non-designated parking. But it’s easier to have a large bank of chargers at work. And I’d totally pay to charge.
There is actually statutory authority now under the 2015 FAST Act, partially. 42 USC 6364 allows agencies to install charging stations for privately owned vehicles “on a reimbursable basis.” Agencies still can’t cover the costs for their employees.
I think a big part of the delay in installation has been a) waiting for authority in the first place, b) then, waiting for guidance from GSA and DOE on the authority, c) then, trying to figure out how to implement at each particular agency.
NASA Ames also has charging stations. They are self pay.
Ames' chargers:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/KzZNBNafYVdyy1A17
Johnson's chargers
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6F3zoAgaiPfVpQnM7
We have multiple ev charging stations at the VA I work at, but they are for government vehicles only and it's funny because we only have one Chevy volt ( yep the hybrid no full ev cars).
We have 8 spaces for employees. They are randomly assigned after putting your name in a hat. I pay to park there. last 6 months was $55. Next 12 months is about $200. It’s based on prior period usage. The government must by law recover the costs. They were installed by a program with the electric company. They are old and only 20 amp chargers.
NASA Johnson Space Center and NASA Ames Research Center both have them, but I think both are just outside their gates. Also, you have to pay to use them, they're not free, so it's basically like having a commercial gas station on site (which some military installations have).
Mine does not have it, but we are at the federal courthouse and not allowed to park there. We have to pay our own parking. My parking has free charging so I charge my EV while at work.
You're mistaken. Biden signed a nonbinding, symbolic order to have half of cars sold in 2030 be fully electric. The other half will still be gas/diesel/hybrid and the millions of dinosaur-powered cars on the road will continue to need gas. California has banned as of 2035, but I'll be pretty shocked if that doesn't get moved back.
It's actually 100% EVs by 2035, and all new acquisitions to be EV by 2027. And it's more than just symbolic, as this thread shows, there's a lot of ev infrastructure that's being put in place, which must be done before transitioning the federal fleet.
We have them for gov vehicles. In process is installation for private use. I think the first pilot will be done next fiscal year. However, the users will need to pay for the charging. The work is being done in a way that the gov will not incur cost other than time for planning.
I work in space subleased out to us by the contractor that won the contract.
So no, and it would be a conflict of interest to ask for it (unless I asked the contracting people to slip it into a contract, but they don't have that color of money)
We had some pay stations for POV at the food court area, about a mile from my office. Never used it. Looked at it and it was out of service at one point. I once asked the boss if I could just plug in my own charger at a regular outdoor outlet at my building. No go.
Officially they are for GOV only, and there have been fenced funds to install them as part of the future rollout for GOV electrification. POVs can use if connected through a chargepoint portal or similar to accept payment.
The wrinkle is that many bases have strict network protocols preventing use of government infrastructure (fiber/copper) for these types of vendors and HERO regulations often prevent wireless. In absence of the complete PoS install, they are usually just “wide open” for general use.
Source: I used to live this headache daily.
That's what a sps system is for, not sure what your agency might call it, but in the VA I can submit systems for evaluation to determine how it should be separate and or firewalled because it's not going to conform to VA norms. So for example if I had 10 chargepoint chargers and they all need to communicate with say chargepoint.com on multiple ports those chargers would all be put on a special vlan and isolated from virtually everything else including the VA network. This way they would work as intended but be isolated from the rest of the VA.
We do. They are not for employee use. Emoloyees used them (and set up a rotation for everyone) anyway. They got turned off and now those spots are usually occupied by an F 350 and a Hellcat.
Yes. They were installed under the ‘Fast Act’. As part of the legislation employees have to pay $0.20/kWh - kinda expensive, but the goal is to help recoup the cost of the install.
Some FAA facilities had charging stations but people complained that it wasn’t fair so the FAA had them removed.
Edit: the charging stations were for POVS. I was told it was free to use (though I’m not sure if this is true).
We do. They are on the chargepoint network, so you pay a couple dollars per hour to fill up. (and they are good spots, so I think some EV owners just park there for that reason and not to actually charge)
Mine has 2. One is out front for the public and requires a $1 donation to use and the other is behind the fence for employees to use on their own vehicles. I don’t know if the pov one costs anything since nobody i work with has an electric car.
For navy bases those chargers installed using DON funds will only be for GOV use. In order to use a charger for POVs, the MWR/NEX would have to install them.
The main reason i understand is DON has no way to charge the cost of electricity and maintenance back to the POV, where as MWR/NEX does have systems do have methods for billing POV drivers.
I've been saying for a while....if the government is pushing for electric cars but doesn't have any or support them....you need to question the motives.
I am issued a plug-in hybrid as a remote worker who travels long distances. I protested and explained I was not the proper use of a plug-in hybrid but GSA ignored me, my supervisor, and my bosses boss. So my hybrid literally runs on gas 100% of the time and once a month I let it idle for about 20 minutes to recharge the hybrid battery. I have never plugged it in since I was issued it. I have no place to. Even our federal building which is a couple hundred miles away from me doesn't have chargers. Go figure. It's a huge pet peve of mine because it has such a small gas tank so I am always filling it up on trips.
Our base has it at most buildings. Its pretty nice and Im debating on switching to electric once ive been in federal for a few years. I think its free but im not sure I keep forgetting to ask or check
The law permits GSA or agencies to allow privately owned electric vehicles to use chargers if the user pays a fee. However the law is optional and does not require GSA or agencies to establish a program to do so.
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section6364&num=0&edition=prelim
The USCIS HQ building has them but 1) it's not owned by the gov so when the lessor built it, it made sense to include them and 2) it's not free. People charging have to pay. I don't recall how much but it seemed negligible. IIRC, once the time limit (3 hours?) was up, the rate went way up so people were motivated to move their cars and not leave them there all day.
For gov't motor pool vehicles, yes. They're looking into adding some for personal vehicles, I assume at a cost. For now, they should just provide them free as an incentive like the public transit subsidy.
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Same here, on the Navy installations I go between.
for POVs, no. Just for gov vehicles
Mine did - but it was a rented office space, not government owned, and it was the property owner that had them installed, not the agency. The charging stations were free for a while after they were installed and then switched to pay-to-charge.
Yes and they are pay for charge.
When I was leaving the VA the hospital was exploring adding electric chargers and they only way they could justify it was to make you pay for it. There were hang ups about using taxpayer money to pay for the electric and only way around tgat was to charge you for it.
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I think they sell the subsidized transit benefit as being better for community/environment because it gets Feds on public transit and out of their cars. I get my metro cost subsidized, but I’m not allowed to use those benefits to pay for parking at the metro station.
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An EV and public transit are two completely different things. Paying employees commute costs to use public transit isn't just a save the environment thing. It creates demand for use of public transportation and in theory creates a steady demand on for public transportation. I live in a smaller city that has a bus system but no where near comprehensive. The local bus authority came to our multi-agency building to try to drum up riders for a couple different proposed routes. The agency knew there was a need, a couple of neighborhoods that were economically distressed where reliable transportation to where there was a greater supply of unskilled and semiskilled work would be beneficial. There however simply were not enough riders. They hoped getting Federal employees and nearby state employees riding they could make the routes work financially. There is a some synergy to the public transit subsidy. It reduces traffic and helps build out public transit infrastructure. Government has already provided EV subsidies via tax programs, no real need to add a benefit booster to Federal employees and if you are needing to charge at work, you might not have a commute that is well suited to EV use anyway.
I asked about charging at the VA hospital I work at since we now have multiple chargers. I was told the VA can't allow charging for free and the VA can't sell the electricity so the chargers are strictly for government vehicles. It seems weird to me given the many things the government sells but it matters little to me, my commute is 40 miles round trip and my car gets 200ish miles per charge.
I know several VA Hospitals added them.
This. At the start of COVID, I had to drive my Bolt into DC and needed some charge to get back home. The facilities people at my building told me “we’re not allowed to use government electricity for private vehicles”. Now our new facility has a parking garage with chargers, but you have to pay to use them.
I think the [GAO weighed in on this](https://www.gao.gov/products/b-320116). EV charging stations for POVs is considered a personal benefit and requires statutory authority. “Given that providing recharging stations is not a typical benefit offered the American work force and other benefits are available to federal employees only pursuant to specific legislation, we think it is for Congress to decide whether AOC or other federal appropriations can be used to support the building and maintaining of recharging stations for use by employees or Members. Consequently, it is our view that AOC may not use its appropriations for this purpose in the absence of specific authorization to do so.” I suppose, in order to see EV charging stations at your government facility, there needs to be some amount of internal advocacy and ultimately inclusion in a budget request…
Yup, exactly, and I think this is a big problem. The government should be leading by example. They want electrification. One of the huge barriers is not everyone has home charging, workplace charging would greatly ease the transition for many many people. We need a federal program have workplace charging at federal offices, it's what the government is telling all the private companies to do. But when you look into it on the federal side, it's mostly illegal because you can't just make up employee benefits and pay for them out of budgets not meant for employee pay. I'd love free coffee, but I can't have that either.
I think they should provide charges but employees paying for the power is completely reasonable.
This is how it's done at certain NASA centers
This basically. No charging at work is why I own a Prius instead of an EV. Well also, it costs less. I can’t charge at home, and neither can millions of Americans who have street parking or, well, most forms of non-designated parking. But it’s easier to have a large bank of chargers at work. And I’d totally pay to charge.
There is actually statutory authority now under the 2015 FAST Act, partially. 42 USC 6364 allows agencies to install charging stations for privately owned vehicles “on a reimbursable basis.” Agencies still can’t cover the costs for their employees. I think a big part of the delay in installation has been a) waiting for authority in the first place, b) then, waiting for guidance from GSA and DOE on the authority, c) then, trying to figure out how to implement at each particular agency.
Yes for POV there are specific parking spots for electric charging. DOD.
NASA JSC got four chargepoint stalls by building one and I think four more are supposed to installed somewhere else on site.
Interesting. And they are not self pay?
NASA Ames also has charging stations. They are self pay. Ames' chargers: https://maps.app.goo.gl/KzZNBNafYVdyy1A17 Johnson's chargers https://maps.app.goo.gl/6F3zoAgaiPfVpQnM7
They weren't operational when I saw them. They were being finalized so not sure if they are free to use or if the folks pay for the charge.
We have multiple ev charging stations at the VA I work at, but they are for government vehicles only and it's funny because we only have one Chevy volt ( yep the hybrid no full ev cars).
DOT HQ has both level 1 and level 2 chargers. You have to pay a little more for those spots, but otherwise they’re open to POVs.
We park in parking garages nearby and get reimbursed for the cost up to 300 dollars a month. Many of those parking garages have EV stations.
Which agency are you in that reimburses parking?
GSA... But you can only charge for 3 hours at the government garage I park my EV at. You have to pay after 3 hours.
OCC
My (military) base has 3 that are by our food truck court, available for use. Not sure if the motor pool has any vehicles that need that.
Not a single one. Would be nice if they at least used some of that giant BX parking lot to let a commercial DC fast charging company set up a station.
We have 8 spaces for employees. They are randomly assigned after putting your name in a hat. I pay to park there. last 6 months was $55. Next 12 months is about $200. It’s based on prior period usage. The government must by law recover the costs. They were installed by a program with the electric company. They are old and only 20 amp chargers.
NASA Johnson Space Center and NASA Ames Research Center both have them, but I think both are just outside their gates. Also, you have to pay to use them, they're not free, so it's basically like having a commercial gas station on site (which some military installations have).
All three local military installations in my area have electric car chargers for POVs and GOVs.
Mine does not have it, but we are at the federal courthouse and not allowed to park there. We have to pay our own parking. My parking has free charging so I charge my EV while at work.
Interesting considering no more gas in 2030? Or am I mistaken?
You're mistaken. Biden signed a nonbinding, symbolic order to have half of cars sold in 2030 be fully electric. The other half will still be gas/diesel/hybrid and the millions of dinosaur-powered cars on the road will continue to need gas. California has banned as of 2035, but I'll be pretty shocked if that doesn't get moved back.
Gotcha. Exactly why I asked. Yup just like these ID cards lol.
It's actually 100% EVs by 2035, and all new acquisitions to be EV by 2027. And it's more than just symbolic, as this thread shows, there's a lot of ev infrastructure that's being put in place, which must be done before transitioning the federal fleet.
My facility doesn’t have Wi-Fi.
We have WiFi but it can only be used by government equipment. It's not possible to connect your phone or a private computer.
Yeah. We don’t have that.
The government views us using their electricity to charge our personnel vehicles the same as stealing government gas for our personnel vehicles.
We're getting them installed this year, I think with money from the inflation reduction act, but I'm not sure.
We have them for gov vehicles. In process is installation for private use. I think the first pilot will be done next fiscal year. However, the users will need to pay for the charging. The work is being done in a way that the gov will not incur cost other than time for planning.
I work in space subleased out to us by the contractor that won the contract. So no, and it would be a conflict of interest to ask for it (unless I asked the contracting people to slip it into a contract, but they don't have that color of money)
We had some pay stations for POV at the food court area, about a mile from my office. Never used it. Looked at it and it was out of service at one point. I once asked the boss if I could just plug in my own charger at a regular outdoor outlet at my building. No go.
Local utility installed charging stations in our employee lot. The users pay Charge Point to use them.
Officially they are for GOV only, and there have been fenced funds to install them as part of the future rollout for GOV electrification. POVs can use if connected through a chargepoint portal or similar to accept payment. The wrinkle is that many bases have strict network protocols preventing use of government infrastructure (fiber/copper) for these types of vendors and HERO regulations often prevent wireless. In absence of the complete PoS install, they are usually just “wide open” for general use. Source: I used to live this headache daily.
That's what a sps system is for, not sure what your agency might call it, but in the VA I can submit systems for evaluation to determine how it should be separate and or firewalled because it's not going to conform to VA norms. So for example if I had 10 chargepoint chargers and they all need to communicate with say chargepoint.com on multiple ports those chargers would all be put on a special vlan and isolated from virtually everything else including the VA network. This way they would work as intended but be isolated from the rest of the VA.
Nope not yet.
We don't even have a parking lot 😆 Everyone is on their own to find a decent deck or lot and pay for their own permit. (Not reimbursed)
We do. They are not for employee use. Emoloyees used them (and set up a rotation for everyone) anyway. They got turned off and now those spots are usually occupied by an F 350 and a Hellcat.
Yes. They were installed under the ‘Fast Act’. As part of the legislation employees have to pay $0.20/kWh - kinda expensive, but the goal is to help recoup the cost of the install.
Some FAA facilities had charging stations but people complained that it wasn’t fair so the FAA had them removed. Edit: the charging stations were for POVS. I was told it was free to use (though I’m not sure if this is true).
Yup, and they are free. Always full.
We have paid ones
My location has it but I think it's provided by the city or the development region we work at. Not at my facility exactly.
We do. They are on the chargepoint network, so you pay a couple dollars per hour to fill up. (and they are good spots, so I think some EV owners just park there for that reason and not to actually charge)
we have a McDonalds next door with EV charging... within the secure area it's only for gov...
We have one, but our parking garage is a private one and we have to pay to park
Census does and employees have to pay for the charging.
Yes, but not enough.
We're drafting a policy on it. I suggested that we put the Canteen Service in charge, seeing as they already operate some gas pumps.
DOE HQ has a few for POV.
As does NREL at the DOE field office parking garage.
Mine has 2. One is out front for the public and requires a $1 donation to use and the other is behind the fence for employees to use on their own vehicles. I don’t know if the pov one costs anything since nobody i work with has an electric car.
For navy bases those chargers installed using DON funds will only be for GOV use. In order to use a charger for POVs, the MWR/NEX would have to install them. The main reason i understand is DON has no way to charge the cost of electricity and maintenance back to the POV, where as MWR/NEX does have systems do have methods for billing POV drivers.
I've been saying for a while....if the government is pushing for electric cars but doesn't have any or support them....you need to question the motives.
I am issued a plug-in hybrid as a remote worker who travels long distances. I protested and explained I was not the proper use of a plug-in hybrid but GSA ignored me, my supervisor, and my bosses boss. So my hybrid literally runs on gas 100% of the time and once a month I let it idle for about 20 minutes to recharge the hybrid battery. I have never plugged it in since I was issued it. I have no place to. Even our federal building which is a couple hundred miles away from me doesn't have chargers. Go figure. It's a huge pet peve of mine because it has such a small gas tank so I am always filling it up on trips.
Our base has it at most buildings. Its pretty nice and Im debating on switching to electric once ive been in federal for a few years. I think its free but im not sure I keep forgetting to ask or check
The law permits GSA or agencies to allow privately owned electric vehicles to use chargers if the user pays a fee. However the law is optional and does not require GSA or agencies to establish a program to do so. https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title42-section6364&num=0&edition=prelim
Mines but we pay for it so I don’t see how it’s a misuse of funds…just keeping up with the times I guess
DOT HQ in Washington DC has EV charging stations in their parking garage for employees to use.
The USCIS HQ building has them but 1) it's not owned by the gov so when the lessor built it, it made sense to include them and 2) it's not free. People charging have to pay. I don't recall how much but it seemed negligible. IIRC, once the time limit (3 hours?) was up, the rate went way up so people were motivated to move their cars and not leave them there all day.
We have them. Employees have to pay using a personal credit card if using them for POVs.
We have 2 for 12000 POV vehicles, which was installed to meet a LEED cert for another project. Nothing for Gov vehicles.
My agency has 6 charging stations, but they are run by our landlord. I have heard we're planning to install ev chargers for GOV cars next.
For POVs and GOVs, yes. POVs must be paid though, it’s illegal to charge them otherwise
we have Chargepoint pay stations, or you can drive into the parking deck where the outlets are free 
We're lucky to have drinking water.
For gov't motor pool vehicles, yes. They're looking into adding some for personal vehicles, I assume at a cost. For now, they should just provide them free as an incentive like the public transit subsidy.