Equitable Public Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Expansion—From the Tribal Community Perspective

Abstract

Transportation electrification addresses climate goals but may exacerbate inequities for disadvantaged communities. Tribal communities' specific EVCI needs remain unexplored despite unique governance, cultural, and geographic circumstances. Existing Indigenous planning research focuses on transportation, energy, and infrastructure separately, lacking integrated frameworks for EVCI. Significant gaps exist in Tribal-specific investigation, sovereignty-respecting collaborative models, and appropriate decision-support tools.This research develops a community-centric, data-driven scalable mapping tool (SMT) to support Tribes in planning EVCI expansion, conducted in partnership with the Tulalip Tribes. The study employs a mixed-methods approach integrating recognition justice and sociotechnical capacity assessment frameworks, utilizing technical questionnaire protocols for collecting geospatial infrastructure data and social survey protocols for gathering community-driven data on travel patterns and electric vehicle adoption preferences. The methodology implements a four-lens analytical framework (Can Go, Cannot Go, Should Go, and Type) that organizes data inputs into a decision support system considering both technical feasibility and community priorities. The research revealed that Tribal communities exist along a spectrum of EVCI readiness, from those with no existing charging infrastructure or limited electrical capacity to those already operating charging stations and pursuing federal grants for expansion. This spectrum presents critical challenges for funding mechanisms, which must be designed with sufficient flexibility to support communities regardless of their current infrastructural position. The analysis identified significant the need for educational programming to ensure Tribal members are aware of electric vehicle usage as well as infrastructure capacity building. These findings emphasize that effective EVCI implementation must recognize the diverse spectrum of tribal infrastructural capacity while simultaneously addressing educational needs and technical infrastructure gaps.