NH announces $1M program to boost spotty EV charger network

About $1 million in grant funding for electric vehicle charging stations is up for grabs in a program the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and Department of Business and Economic Affairs said is intended to boost the state’s economy and air quality.

Locations with significance for New Hampshire’s tourism industry will be the focus of the program, according to a press release issued by the two departments on Tuesday afternoon.

“Installing public charging infrastructure at travel- and tourism-oriented locations will support the local economies of New Hampshire communities and enable EV-driving residents and visitors to feel confident in exploring all that New Hampshire has to offer,” Business and Economic Affairs Commissioner Lucy Lange said in the release.

Compared to its New England neighbors, New Hampshire has relatively few electric vehicle charging stations available to drivers. A February 2025 report from Clean Energy New Hampshire and SKI NH found that the state had the lowest total number of charging ports in the region at 597. That was about 5% of the total electric vehicle charging infrastructure in New England at the time, according to the report, which said the dearth was costing New Hampshire millions in tourism dollars.

The program will cover up to 80% of costs, up to a maximum of $10,000 per charging port, for projects to install level two, or L2, EV chargers.

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The departments have also set a cap of $100,000 for projects within any one municipality, and designated a minimum of $40,000 for each of New Hampshire’s nine Regional Planning Commission zones, which together cover the whole state. That requirement is intended to ensure that the chargers funded by the program are spread across the state, according to the release.

Projects undertaken by public, private and nonprofit entities are all eligible to be funded through the program, according to the release.

Funds for what the departments have named the “Recharge the Adventure New Hampshire Grant Program” will come from the New Hampshire Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust, which holds settlement funds from a Clean Air Act lawsuit against Volkswagen AG and affiliates. (New Hampshire is currently facing its own Clean Air Act lawsuit over the Legislature’s 2025 move to end vehicle inspections and emissions testing.) 

A portion of the Volkswagen funds are designated for electric vehicle infrastructure, and this is not the first grant cycle using Volkswagen trust dollars: Another program in 2021 funded about $4 million in EV charging projects on state- and local-government-owned property, according to the Clean Energy New Hampshire and SKI NH report.

“Investing in the buildout of public charging infrastructure in the Granite State not only benefits our EV-driving residents and visitors but also results in positive impacts to both New Hampshire’s economy and air quality,” Department of Environmental Services Commissioner Robert Scott said in the release.