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Tesla (TSLA) recently missed out on a significant opportunity to expand its electric vehicle (EV) charging network in Oklahoma. In April 2024, the state offered over $8 million in federal funding to support the construction of EV chargers across its interstate highways, selecting Tesla, Francis Energy, and Love's Travel Stops to participate. The companies pledged an additional $7 million in private funding.

Tesla was tasked with building Superchargers in Catoosa, Henryetta, and Oklahoma City as part of the project’s first phase. However, local news outlets confirmed that Tesla failed to meet the necessary program requirements, leading state commissioners to replace the company with smaller competitor EVgo (EVGO). This move is notable as EVgo is far smaller than Tesla, which is known for its industry leadership.

While the exact reason for Tesla’s failure to comply has not been fully disclosed, reports suggest that the chargers needed to support Combined Charging System (CCS) technology to qualify for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) funding. Tesla’s Superchargers do not include this adapter, potentially explaining the switch to EVgo.

Despite being smaller in scale, EVgo has a growing network of over 1,000 DC fast chargers across 40 states. Additionally, EVgo was able to lower the overall project cost by nearly $318,000 after receiving a federal share of $519,740, bringing the final total to $801,780.

Paraphrasing text from "The Street" all rights reserved by the original author.