A coalition of states led by Washington, Colorado and California sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, charging that it was unlawfully withholding billions of dollars allocated by Congress for electric-vehicle charging stations across the United States.
The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law provided $5 billion to states to build stations around the country. So far, 71 stations have been built, with many more in development, according to the research firm Atlas Public Policy.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle, states that federal agencies have unlawfully frozen those funds and halted approvals for new stations, depriving states of critical resources and damaging the growing electric-vehicle industry.
The White House budget proposal released last week said that it was canceling funding for “failed electric-vehicle-charger grant programs.” President Trump had already taken aim at the program in a January executive order, and the Transportation Department followed with a similar memo the next month. But cutting the funding entirely would require approval from Congress, the lawsuit argued.
“The president continues his unconstitutional attempts to withhold funding that Congress appropriated to programs he dislikes,” said Rob Bonta, the California attorney general. “This time he’s illegally stripping away billions of dollars for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, all to line the pockets of his Big Oil friends.”
Nearly two million “zero-emission vehicles” have been sold in California, one-third of the nationwide total and part of a longstanding effort in the famously car-centric state to reduce air pollution. California had been relying on $384 million from the federal program for charging stations, according to Mr. Bonta’s office.
The state has also invested heavily in charging infrastructure from its own general fund and from the proceeds of carbon credits sold to polluters, to the point that public and shared private chargers in California now outnumber nozzles on gas pumps. Across state lines, however, charging is spottier.
The federal program, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or NEVI program, started by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., had aimed to build charging networks beyond urban areas and states like California as part of its effort to combat climate change by accelerating the nation’s transition to electric vehicles.
California officials noted on Wednesday that one of the biggest beneficiaries of a stalled domestic E.V. program would be China, which has a substantial lead in E.V. manufacturing and sales abroad. The biggest losers would be rural states that had expected the federal dollars and Tesla, the E.V. company whose billionaire chief executive, Elon Musk, is a supporter of Mr. Trump. Tesla has the biggest market share of electric vehicles in the United States, although sales were down in the first quarter of 2025.
“When America retreats, China wins,” Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said, calling the withholding of federal funds “yet another Trump gift to China.”
“Instead of hawking Teslas on the White House lawn, President Trump could actually help Elon — and the nation — by following the law and releasing this bipartisan funding,” Mr. Newsom said.
Joining the complaint were the attorneys general of Arizona, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Vermont and the District of Columbia, all of whom are Democrats.
The memo from the Transportation Department to state officials in February said the administration was reviewing the NEVI program and suspending approvals of state plans. The lawsuit asks the court to declare that memo unlawful and to order the administration to release the funds.
A website tracking NEVI funding run by Atlas Public Policy shows that at least $521 million of the money has been awarded, and some $44 million has been spent. Many of the stations already opened are clustered in Ohio and Pennsylvania, the data shows.
Loren McDonald, the chief analyst at Paren, an E.V. analytics company, said the federal government had been a minor player in the E.V. charging space, with most stations built by private companies. Mr. McDonald said it took many states a long time to decide where to build stations and find companies to bid on the contracts, resulting in a lag time in construction. States that already had experience in building charging stations, like Ohio and Pennsylvania, were able to move faster, he said.
Nonetheless, the plaintiffs said, the president’s order has been disruptive.
Attorney General Phil Weiser of Colorado said in a statement that his state stood to lose tens of millions of dollars in funding after making “significant progress,” in laying the foundation for widespread E.V. adoption. Officials had planned to use the federal support to fill gaps in rural Colorado and underserved communities, he said.
“Congress had the foresight to authorize funding to build this important infrastructure,” Mr. Weiser added, “and it must be restored immediately.”
In Washington State, the lawsuit contends, the president’s order has held up $55 million in approved congressional funding for E.V. charging, stalling 40 proposed projects.
The White House and the Transportation Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.