Bruit America,Buy AmericasL.117-58 § 70911.  FHWA has had a longstanding public interest waiver for manufactured products under its Buy America rules, but the new EV charger rule removes EV chargers entirely from the manufactured products waiver.  Instead, the new FHWA rule implements a separate EV charger-specific waiver that adopts a phased approach to domestic content requirements. 

The EV charger waiver has two phases.  From March 23, 2023 through June 30, 2024, for all EV chargers where final assembly takes place in the United States, domestic content requirements are waived.  Starting on July 1, 2024, domestic content requirements are waived for all EV chargers where 1) final assembly takes place in the United States, and 2) the cost of components manufactured in the United States exceeds 55% of the total cost of all components.  The waiver remains in place until terminated, but is required to be revisited after 5 years. 

There are a few caveats to the waiver:  One important carve out is that all predominantly steel and iron EV charger housing components are excluded from the waiver and must meet the Buy America requirements.  Additionally, for the purposes of the waiver, "EV charger" is defined to mean the EV charger unit itself and the equipment contained inside it.  Unlike the proposed waiver, the final waiver definition does not include associated equipment external to the EV charger, adjacent parking areas, and vehicle lanes, meaning that those materials must comply with Buy America as appropriate.

The waiver notice is comprehensive and includes additional detail that is beyond the scope of this blog post.  We will continue to monitor developments in this space.