Electrify America has reached an important new milestone: it has opened its 500th electric car fast-charging station in the US.
More are coming.
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VW announced today that it reached a deal with Electrify America to provide “three years of unlimited charging” on the latter’s charging network included in the price of the ID.4 electric SUV.
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Tesla has deployed Powerpack battery systems at around 60 Electrify America charging stations, and more are coming by the end of the year.
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Electrify America has announced a significant update to its pricing structure resulting in lower prices — mainly through the introduction of kWh-based pricing.
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EVPassport is an upcoming app that promises $39/mo unlimited charging on major EV charge networks. The included networks are Electrify America, EVgo, Chargepoint, Hubject and Greenlots, along with some smaller regional networks on the US West Coast. The app plans to launch in “a few weeks” but is taking wait list signups now.
The app will start with support for iPhone and DC fast charging in the US at first, with initial support for 2,500 DC chargers. It will expand to Android later this year, along with European support (including IONITY). If all goes well, it plans to add Level 2 AC charging support next year.
The long-term plan for the EV community is ubiquitous, go-anywhere charging from coast to coast. Cross-country routes have been available for Tesla drives via the Supercharger network since about 2014. It’s now possible for other EV drivers – as Electrify America today announced that its open charging network features the first of two planned fast-charge, cross-country paths.
Electrify America and Hyundai-Kia have a two-fold problem with their fees for fast-charging. First, where it is allowable, the fees are based on time and charged by the minute. The second part of the problem is that those fees are tiered, based on the maximum possible kW charging rate – not the rate that your car actually charges. Today, Electrify America announced a temporary fix for the Kia Niro EV by ditching the tiers and charging a flat rate of $0.35 per minute.
Hyundai Kona and Hyundai Ioniq EV drivers can get some relief from the pain of Electrify America’s opaque billing practices, at least until the end of the year. But you have to sign up with a promo code through the app. And only in the US, not Canada. And your rate will almost double at the end of the year, from $0.35 to $0.69 per minute.
Electrify America, the Volkswagen subsidiary, announced today that it’s investing $2 million in solar-powered EV charging stations in rural California. The investment in charging stations that are not tied to the electrical grid will expand access to EV charging opportunities for drivers in rural areas.
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.
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On December 16, 2019, California’s Office of Administrative Law approved amendments to its Electric Vehicle Fueling Systems Specifications. These rules ban operators of electric vehicle charging stations from billing by the minute at new 240Vac stations in 2021 onwards, and new DCFC stations 2023 onwards.
This is a huge blow to Electrify America and EVgo. Both firms bill by the minute for EV charging, leaving drivers with sticker shock and feeling ripped off by the end of the session. Chargepoint will also be negatively affected, as many of their site-host partners choose to bill per minute. And while Tesla already bills by the kilowatt-hour, California will also be requiring charging stations to physically display “on their face” important information about electricity cost and delivery, a move that will put the most burden on Tesla’s Supercharger stations.
Curse Electrify America (EA) if you want. Giovanni Palazzo, the CEO of the nationwide charging network, invites criticism if you have a terrible experience at an EA location. We spent a full hour last week with Palazzo, and COO Brendan Jones, discussing the challenges of creating an open nationwide network of ultra-fast EV chargers. Electrify America has made a lot of progress, but its leaders admit it has a long way to go to serve the next generation of EV drivers.
Electrify America, VW’s company mainly known for building an electric car fast-charging network in the US, is expanding to home charging with the launch of a new $500 electric car home charger.
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North Carolina is now the 30th state to allow public EV charging companies to offer pricing by the kilowatt-hour (kWh), instead of charging per minute. The change was thanks to bipartisan legislation — House Bill 329, Renewable Energy Amendments — passed by the legislature and signed by Gov. Roy Cooper.
The vast majority of Americans now live and drive in places where private companies are free to set up EV charging stations and offer pricing for actual kWh delivered to the vehicle. Tesla calls billing by the kWh “the most fair and simple method.” Any EV driver would agree, as all sorts of factors including the weather affect the speed an EV will charge at, making per-minute pricing something of a crapshoot as opposed to how many kWh (like ‘gallons of gas’) was actually delivered.
Electrify America announced that it is deploying what will likely be the first autonomous fast-charging station for electric vehicles and it has robot arms.
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Harley Davidson and Electrify America have announced a partnership to offer a fast-charging plan to the owners of HD’s upcoming LiveWire electric motorcycle.
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ChargePoint and Electrify America announced a roaming partnership today that will make it easier for EV owners to charge on both networks, using just one account.
Electrify America and Walmart announced there are now more than 120 ultra-fast EV charging stations at US Walmart stores, with more planned to follow.
Electrify America has announced a new mobile app to manage EV charging sessions, in addition to two new membership plans, and a change to its pricing structure, based on three charging power levels.
Electrify America is collaborating with a number of companies to bring more than 30 new DC ultra-fast charging stations to various retail and office locations in seven states.
Electrify America, the electric vehicle charging network born out of the VW Dieselgate settlement, announced it has topped 100 charging sites with 465 chargers.
Tesla and Electrify America, VW’s electric vehicle charging network, announced that they reached a deal for the former to deploy Powerpacks at over 100 charging stations operated by the latter.
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HUBER+SUHNER, a cable supplier, has prompted a shut down of virtually all high-powered EV charging stations in many networks, like Electrify America’s, Fastned’s, and Ionity.
Now, the company says it’s back to normal and those stations should be OK.
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Late Friday evening, Electrify America announced that it is shutting down “the majority of its high-powered chargers (150 kW – 350kW)” in due to “a potential safety issue with its liquid-cooled cables” supplied by ‘HUBER+SUHNERS’.
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