CDOT staff and partners told the Transportation Commission on Friday that the state has made rapid progress building electric-vehicle charging infrastructure, combining state grant programs with federal NEVI funding.

Mike King, assistant director of electrification and energy (online), said Colorado now has roughly 210,000 EVs registered and led the nation in the share of new-vehicle registrations that were EVs in a recent quarter. CDOT described several state grant programs that support charging: Charge Ahead Colorado (longstanding level-2 and some DC fast charging), Fleet 0 (fleet-focused charging) and the DCFC Plazas program, which has been used to deploy both state and NEVI funds.

King said 12 NEVI-funded plazas have opened, 20 are under active development and a further 15 are awarded but not yet contracted. Using a 30-mile travel buffer around the state highway network as a metric of usable coverage, staff said Colorado has increased highway coverage from about 40% in 2020 to roughly 84% today. The state's NEVI allocation (roughly $56.5M over five years) and state funds are being coordinated through a joint-plazas approach intended to give applicants a consistent process across funding streams.

CDOT staff also described a scenic-byways effort to make all 26 Colorado byways "EV friendly"; 20 are already designated. Commission members and staff discussed grant cycles, opportunities for federal matching, and the economic-development potential for rural communities that host fast charging.

CDOT said program timing and awards have been affected by federal NEVI guidance updates and litigation in 2025, but the state submitted an updated plan and was authorized to proceed under new guidance.