Electrify America confirmed that they completed the installation of their first 400 EV charging stations only 20 months after starting the deployment. Their rollout is about twice as fast as Tesla’s Supercharger network.
The EV charging infrastructure company, which was started by Volkswagen as part of its settlement with the US over the Dieselgate scandal, plans to deploy one of the most extensive electric car charging networks in the US.
They started deployment less than two years ago, and today, they confirmed that they have already achieved their initial goal of deploying 400 stations, including over 1,700 charge points.
Brendan Jones, COO of Electrify America, confirmed the news to Electrek, but he clarified that while all the stations are deployed, some of them still need to be activated and are awaiting approval from the local electric utility.
The deployment is impressive.
For comparison, Tesla’s Supercharger network, which is arguably the world’s best EV fast-charging network, had only 225 Supercharging stations two years into the start of the deployment.
Giovanni Palazzo, president and CEO of Electrify America, commented on the announcement:
We are laser-focused on providing our customers with a high-quality charging experience. Today’s drivers need assurances that they will have access to fast and reliable charging services, and that’s what we’re working to deliver. We are incredibly proud of our progress to this date, and we’ll continue to build out our brand-neutral network to be able to serve even more EV drivers where they live, work, and travel.
It’s only the start of Electrify America.
Jones told Electrek that there are currently more than 100 stations permitted and another 150 in various phases of design and engineering.
All of the company’s highway fast-charging stations are equipped to charge vehicles at up to 350 kW, even though most electric cars on the road today can’t receive that much power.
The company says that they are planning for the future EV fleet as much as five years ahead.
They also have 150 kW in urban areas for city charging.
As we previously reported, Electrify America has many partnerships with companies to deploy charging stations, like Walmart and Target.
On the auto industry side, the company is partnered with several automakers, like Lucid Motors, Porsche, Audi, Ford, and more.
They are also working with Tesla to deploy Powerpacks at over 100 charging stations in order to reduce their demand charges, which is an important part of their operating cost.
Electrek’s Take
Electrify America had a lot of growing pains.
We reported on the less-than-ideal experience at the station for the users at first, but the company has been working on those issues, and we are getting better reports from EV owners now.
With the speed of deployment, it’s now becoming clear that the settlement with the EPA was the right move.
I think this $2 billion is being much better spent by Electrify America than what the government could have done with it.
However, we are going to have to keep an eye on the price going forward since it has been an issue with other networks in the past.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Comments