“The majority of Americans will read this and pick up that ‘Trump has killed EV charging,’” said Loren McDonald, a principal at the EV-charging data firm Paren. “For people that are on the fence on getting an EV, this means ‘I shouldn’t get one because I won’t be able to take that road trip.’”

The new administration is challenging the industry—but a scrappy startup is finding ways to survive. A year ago, a small California-based EV charging startup was quickly expanding to other states. The company,