A new grant from the New Mexico government will add much-needed electric vehicle charging stations to help the public become more eco-friendly, according to a KRQE report.

DC Fast EV charging program applicants must show they can eventually absorb the cost of building and operating the charging station. The program targets rural and low- to moderate-income areas and hopes to increase the number of EV charging stations in those areas, KRQE reported.

Jerry Valdez, executive director of the New Mexico Department of Transportation, said the grant will be used to employ the level-three DC fast-charging system.

“What that does is it allows people to charge their vehicles within 30 minutes to 45 minutes,” Valez told KRQE. “So with the DC fast chargers, you can get approximately anywhere 100 to 150 miles per half hour of charge.”

New Mexico currently uses the level-one and level-two charging and has 175 electric vehicle charging stations statewide. Level one offers about 4 miles of driving range per hour of charge, and level two gives an average of 32 miles per hour of charge.  A level-three charging station is more conducive to the long stretches between charging stations in New Mexico.

The deadline to submit grant proposals is Aug. 30, and recipients will be announced on Sept. 6. There were 4,235 newly registered electric vehicles in the state as of April, according to KRQE citing the Tax and Revenue Department.