TLDR
Pennsylvania's NEVI Community Charging Round 2 for the Western Region opens its eGrants proposal portal on September 8 for $25 million in federal charging funding, part of the state's four-round, $100 million buildout. California's Drivers Assistance Program, approved by the CPUC in July, opens applications this month with up to $20,300 toward a new zero-emission vehicle, $14,200 for a used one, and $1,170 a year toward charging costs for eligible rideshare drivers. ChargePoint's stock jumped as much as 70% on September 3 after second-quarter revenue of $116 million beat guidance with record gross margins, while EVgo posted $83 million in quarterly revenue and Blink Charging cut its full-year guidance by roughly $25 million after divesting its Envoy Technologies subsidiary. And Zum began deploying the first of 104 bidirectional electric school buses for San Francisco Unified School District on September 3, the largest vehicle-to-grid school bus fleet in the country.
Pennsylvania Opens Its Next $25 Million NEVI Round
PennDOT's eGrants online proposal platform opens September 8 for the NEVI Community Charging Funding Opportunity Round 2, Western Region, making $25 million in federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula funding available for community-focused charging projects. PennDOT released the round's funding notice back in June to give applicants lead time, but the portal itself doesn't accept submissions until this week, with proposals due November 20 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.
This is one round of four. Pennsylvania is investing $100 million of its NEVI formula allocation across four regional rounds through 2026, on top of the corridor-focused NEVI stations it has already delivered. The state currently leads the nation in NEVI-funded stations actually built.
What this means for property owners. If you're weighing a site in western Pennsylvania, this round is open for the next ten weeks. More broadly, Pennsylvania's rolling, region-by-region approach is a template other states are following: rather than one all-at-once RFP, funding opens in scheduled waves, so a site that misses one round has a real shot at the next one a few months later.
California Opens Applications for Up to $20,300 in Rideshare EV Incentives
California's Drivers Assistance Program, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission on July 2 as part of the state's Clean Miles Standard, opens applications this month for rideshare drivers. Eligible drivers can get up to $20,300 toward a new zero-emission vehicle, up to $14,200 toward a used one, and up to $1,170 a year to help offset charging costs. The Center for Sustainable Energy administers the program.
It targets high-volume, lower-income drivers specifically. Eligibility requires household income at or below 400% of the federal poverty level and at least 4,500 passenger trips across qualifying platforms, including Uber, Lyft, and HopSkipDrive, in the prior 12 months.
What this means for homeowners who drive for a rideshare platform. With the federal 30C and 30D credits both gone, this is one of the few incentive programs left that can meaningfully offset an EV purchase, and the charging-cost stipend is worth pairing with a home Level 2 charger if you have a driveway or garage to install one in.
ChargePoint's Stock Jumps 70%, While Blink Cuts Guidance
ChargePoint's stock climbed as much as 70% on September 3 after the company reported second-quarter fiscal 2027 revenue of $116 million, beating its own guidance of $100 million to $110 million, with record gross margins of 38% and what the CEO described as essentially zero cash burn. The company guided to $105 million to $115 million in revenue for the current quarter. EVgo reported $83 million in second-quarter revenue and continues rolling out its agreement to deploy Tesla V4 Superchargers, rated to 500 kW and 1,000 volts, under its own EVgo brand. Blink Charging cut its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $83 million to $90 million, down from $105 million to $115 million, after completing the sale of its Envoy Technologies shared-mobility subsidiary in June and shifting toward higher-margin service revenue over hardware sales.
The three companies are telling different stories with the same numbers. ChargePoint is emphasizing margin discipline after years of cash burn, EVgo is leaning on its Tesla partnership for growth, and Blink is deliberately shrinking its top line to chase profitability.
What this means for commercial property owners choosing a charging partner. A network's balance sheet matters as much as its hardware spec sheet: a vendor's financial stability affects whether it will still be servicing your equipment and honoring warranties in five years. Ask a prospective network partner about their cash position and revenue trend, not just their charger pricing.
Zum Begins Deploying the Nation's Largest Bidirectional School Bus Fleet
Zum announced September 3 that it has begun deploying electric school buses for San Francisco Unified School District, the first buses of a planned 104-bus fleet, all equipped with bidirectional vehicle-to-grid charging infrastructure. The company says the completed fleet could return roughly 3 gigawatt-hours of clean energy to the grid annually during peak hours, enough to power up to 1.2 million homes for three to four hours. Charging infrastructure is already in place, with additional buses phased in through the fall as the manufacturer delivers them. Zum and SFUSD plan to grow the fleet to 238 vehicle-to-grid buses by the 2027-2028 school year.
This is the largest deployment of its kind in the country, following the same distributed-charging and grid-service logic this newsletter has covered at smaller scale in Denver and elsewhere, but at nearly four times the fleet size.
What this means for school districts and fleet operators. A bidirectional fleet turns parked buses, which sit idle most afternoons and all summer, into a grid asset that can generate revenue or demand-response credits instead of just a cost center. If your district or fleet is planning an electrification project, ask your charging vendor whether the hardware you're specifying is V2G-capable now, since retrofitting later is far more expensive than building it in from the start.
By the Numbers
$25 million: Federal NEVI funding in Pennsylvania's Community Charging Round 2 for the Western Region, with its eGrants portal opening September 8, 2026.
$20,300: Maximum incentive toward a new zero-emission vehicle under California's Drivers Assistance Program for rideshare drivers, opening for applications this month.
70%: Peak single-day stock gain for ChargePoint on September 3, 2026, after second-quarter revenue beat the company's own guidance.
104: Electric school buses Zum began deploying for San Francisco Unified School District on September 3, 2026, all bidirectional vehicle-to-grid capable.
82,035: Public EV charging stations in the United States as of August 21, 2026, totaling 256,151 charging ports, per Alternative Fuels Data Center-sourced figures compiled by usevchargingstations.info.
Sources: PennDOT (NEVI Community Charging Round 2, Western Region funding notice and eGrants schedule, accessed September 2026), the Pennsylvania Municipal League, California Public Utilities Commission (Drivers Assistance Program decision, July 2, 2026), the Center for Sustainable Energy (California Clean Miles Standard Drivers Assistance Program), electrive.com, Sierra Wave, EVinfo.net, and CleanTechnica (Drivers Assistance Program coverage), ChargePoint Holdings (second-quarter fiscal 2027 earnings release and call, September 3, 2026), EVgo (second-quarter 2026 earnings), Blink Charging (second-quarter 2026 earnings release and Envoy Technologies divestiture, SEC filings), Investing.com, Seeking Alpha, 24/7 Wall St., and Yahoo Finance (earnings coverage), Zum and San Francisco Unified School District (electric school bus rollout announcement, September 3, 2026, via PR Newswire), The EV Report and EV Infrastructure News (Zum/SFUSD coverage), and usevchargingstations.info (US public charging infrastructure count, August 21, 2026). evcharginghelp.com is editorially independent and receives no compensation from any company mentioned.
Get every issue in your inbox
One email a week. Unsubscribe any time.
By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe any time.