Biden's electric road to nowhere: Two years after he vowed to spend $7.5 billion building 500,000 charging stations only SEVEN have been plugged in

More than two years after President Joe Biden pledged to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the United States only seven are operational across four states. 

The Washington Post reported Friday on the sluggish pace the allocated $7.5 billion in infrastructure funds have been put to use.  

The bulk of the funds, $5 billion, are to go toward building fast chargers along major interstates - what's being called the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure or NEVI program. 

To satisfy the federal program's requirements, chargers must be built at least every 50 miles over major highway routes and be operational 97 percent of the time.

They also must take credit card payments and certain components must be made domestically.

More than two years after President Joe Biden pledged to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the U.S. only seven are operational across four states. The president is photographed arriving in Hagerstown Friday for a weekend away at Camp David

Liam Sawyer, of Indianapolis, charges his 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E earlier this month at one of the operational charging stations built through infrastructure bill dollars. This one is located in London, Ohio 

Additionally, states must submit proposals to the Biden administration for approval, solicit bids for construction and then can award the funds. 

So after the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed in November 2021, only seven charging stations are operational. 

They are in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Hawaii and New York and offer 38 spots for cars to charge. 

Twelve additional states have been awarded contracts for construction to begin, while another 17 states haven't even submitted proposals.  

'I think a lot of people who are watching this are getting concerned about the timeline,' Alexander Laska, deputy director for transportation and innovation at the center-left think tank Third Way told The Post.   

Nick Nigro, founder of Atlas Public Policy, told the newspape that some of the delays are to be expected.

'State transportation agencies are the recipients of the money,' he told The Post. 'Nearly all of them had no experience deploying electric vehicle charging stations before the law was enacted.' 

'I expect it to go much faster in 2024,' Nigro added. 

If Republicans take back full control of Congress and also the White House - some of these programs could see a backslide.  

Biden's challenger, former President Donald Trump, has been openly antagonistic toward the Democrat's green agenda. 

In mid-February at a campaign stop in the battleground state of Michigan, Trump said that Biden 'ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing' with mandates to move the American car industry away from gas guzzlers toward EVs. 

And GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill also haven't been impresssed. 

'We have significant concerns that under your efforts American taxpayer dollars are being woefully mismanaged,' read a letter sent to the Biden administration from a group of Republican representatives in February. 

'The problems with these programs continue to grow — delays in the delivery of chargers, concerns from States about labor contracting requirements and minimum operating standards for chargers,' said the letter, which was signed by GOP Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Jeff Duncan and Morgan Griffith.