The Maryland Department of Transportation is looking to add 29 new sites for electric vehicle chargers along major interstates and highways, a move officials hope will speed up Marylander’s transition away from the gas-powered cars and trucks that play an outsized role in climate-warming emissions.

State officials are leveraging $30 million from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, or NEVI, to cover 80% of the cost. A request for proposals, released Tuesday, seeks private companies to submit plans for building out the sites and provide the remaining 20% of construction costs.

The “target areas,” shown here, include the Interstate 83 corridor inside Baltimore City, the eastern half of Interstate 695 in Baltimore County, and nearly the entire stretch of US-100 across Howard and Anne Arundel counties. Officials said that specific locations for the charging sites would be developed through the proposal process, but they must be located within one mile of an eligible highway exit.

Each site will contain at least four fast charging ports that can work simultaneously, said Amanda Hinh, the state’s NEVI program manager. That means this new push would add at least 116 chargers to a statewide portfolio of just over 1,700 publicly available charging ports, a map of which can be found online.

Maryland has been efficient in getting federal money for EV chargers out the door as more residents make the switch to electric vehicles, which are a linchpin to the state’s ambitious climate agenda of net zero emissions by 2045. Part of that will be phasing out the sale of gas-powered cars in the state by roughly 10 years from now, a move backed by Gov. Wes Moore.

But there are signs that transition could be slow for the vast majority of Marylanders who still fuel up at gas pumps as some auto manufacturers scale back production of electric models amid tepid demand. And consumer desire for such vehicles could be further dulled should the administration of incoming President Donald J. Trump do away with federal funding and incentives for electric vehicles.

Recent federal funding, however, is trying to turn the nation’s clustered EV charging sites into more of a useful network. The NEVI program is slated to spend $5 billion through 2026 to help install chargers along major highways, with a goal of setting up charging sites at least every 50 miles for major corridors like Interstate 95. Other programs take more of a community-based approach for installing chargers in towns and cities.

“We’re not interested in slowing down. We want to keep moving ahead, making sure that we get out this infrastructure as quickly as possible,” Hinh said.

She added that Maryland already has about 80% of its allocated NEVI funds ready for use. In July, her team announced 23 other sites that NEVI would help build that should be operational by the end of 2025.

Surface transportation — the cars and trucks that people drive every day — is the single largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. The same is true for Maryland.

“The biggest single step we can take to tackle climate pollution in Maryland is to electrify our car and truck fleet,” said Deron Lovaas, chief of environment and sustainable transportation for the Maryland Department of Transportation.

That’s been easier in recent years thanks to generous federal and state tax incentives. Most Marylanders could receive a state tax credit of up to $3,000 and a federal tax credit of up to $7,000 available through the Inflation Reduction Act, championed by outgoing President Joe Biden.

There’s concern the federal credit could go away under Trump, who scoffed at electric vehicles on the campaign trail and said “Drill baby, drill” as an expression of support for the fossil fuel industry. But since then, he’s courted the help of perhaps the most famous EV producer in the world, Tesla’s Elon Musk, who will head a new Department of Government Efficiency.

Tesla is by far the most popular brand of EV registered in the state of Maryland, Lovaas said.

More than 123,000 EVs are now registered in the state. Montgomery County leads all localities with more than 38,000 of them. Though Baltimore City lags other counties with fewer than 6,000 registered EVs, it trails only Montgomery County in number of chargers.

Hinh said that Maryland is seeing “incredible growth rates” with the number of EVs that residents are registering. But it comes at a time when some auto manufacturers are scaling back production of their electric models citing decreasing consumer demand. Even with the tax credits, gas-powered vehicles tend to be cheaper up front. And some choose not to go electric over “range anxiety” — the fear of not having anywhere to charge a battery when out and about.

EV infrastructure has a long way to go before it is as ubiquitous as gas stations are, but consumers tend to see it more once they make the switch and have to look for it, said Stuart Gardner, director of the nonprofit Generation 180, which advocates for a faster transition to sustainable fuel sources.

“The more you drive an EV, you quickly realize how charging fits into your daily life,” Gardner said.

Newer EV models actually track and direct drivers to where compatible charging stations are, he added.

But not everyone has a garage where they can plug a car in overnight — dense, urban areas like Baltimore face unique EV challenges. Hinh said there are other state and federal programs to help get chargers into multifamily apartment communities and other spaces.

Meanwhile, Lovaas remains confident that Maryland can deliver.

“We’re in the business of delivering range confidence to Marylanders so they can trade up to EVs as to help us meet our climate goals as a state,” Lovaas said.