NAmEVI News #3: Walmart's Workplace Charging. DCFC Pricing Experiments. Politics Overshadows Activations.

Good day, fellow connoisseur of kilowatts 🔌⚡

Here’s the third edition of our weekly EVI update. Thank you to everyone who has sent feedback on early editions. I’m excited to integrate the suggestions to provide a valuable weekly digest that offers plenty of info while respecting your time. If you find this useful, share it with a colleague or another EV enthusiast to spread the word.

Now more than ever, this is the time to knuckle down and work on things that make the EV sector better. Here are some of the developments doing just that… ⤵️

Tesla’s Charger Updates Outpace Its Refreshed Models

News - Tesla refreshes the best-selling Model Y but appears unlikely to change its charging capabilities, which are falling behind some competitors. Meanwhile, more powerful Superchargers are already on the horizon.

Numbers - A brief peak of 250kW for Tesla models at Superchargers tells only one part of the story. Tesla’s aggressive power taper puts the 3/Y at half of that peak by the time you reach 33% state of charge, making gains after that early peak significantly lower.

Nuance - The first non-Tesla EV with a native NACS/J3400 port, Hyundai’s IONIQ 5, maintains 120-130kW for an extended period, while Teslas often dip below 100 kW before reaching 50% state of charge. End result? Several non-Tesla models will charge more quickly on the company’s charging network than its own vehicles, showing how far competitors and EV infrastructure have advanced in the past two years.

Next Up - Tesla’s next-generation charging locations will be true V4 stations, delivering up to 1,000 volts. This mainly benefits Cybertruck owners and non-Tesla models with 800V pack architecture, which will make the difference between charging times in the Model Y and vehicles like the IONIQ 5 even more stark. Full V4 sites entered permitting in 2024, so expect the first to be energized at some point this year.

Charging Vendor Spotlight: FLO

News - Based out of Canada and building into the United States, FLO is one of only a few charging vendors familiar to EV drivers across North America

Numbers - 861 DC ports across 576 charging stations in the US and Canada, at the most recent count, which represents around 8% of the network. Approaching 10,000 L2 ports across North America, with the success of a curbside charging pilot in New York City ready to expand that number to other US metro areas.

Nuance - A Canadian charging vendor with big plans for expansion into the US market. Roughly 89% of Flo’s DCFC presence is north of the border. New installations signal a growing presence in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, with Vermont and Washington state the first to deploy the latest Flo Ultra hardware. The unit is manufactured at a new production facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan to comply with BABA requirements.

Next Up - NEVI site wins in three states and another curbside pilot in Boston, MA will aid US expansion, while a new Canadian partnership brings Flo’s latest DCFC hardware to 130+ Metro, Super C, Food Basics & Marché Adonis grocery stores in Quebec + Ontario.

AC/DC: Walmart HQ All In on Workplace Charging

News: Walmart started the phased opening of its new headquarters in Bentonville, AR. For employees with electric vehicles and eBikes, they’re never far from a charge.

Numbers: 300 L2 ports will provide destination charging for employees with an EV, with 15 dual port Chargepoint CP6000 spread across 10 separate parking structures. At 6.6kW, the power level is low, but should easily replenish the average daily commute distance.

Nuance: Rentable bikes are also available across the campus, giving employees an easy way to move around the 350-acre site without unplugging their EV. The site will feature at least half of the campus offering green space, including 5,000 trees that have been planted. Buildings use LED lighting and will run on renewable energy, to which Walmart has committed significant investment via solar farms in five states.

Next Up: The phased opening will continue throughout 2025, with more of the parking structures and charging opening to employees and visitors. For those of you who want a closer look at the site as it sits today, the Arkansas eTraveler takes us on a video tour of the new HQ around the 7-minute mark here.

Can workplace charging catalyze EV adoption, especially for those who can’t charge at home? Hit reply if you have thoughts and we’ll include them in a future edition.

On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - DCFC deployment slowed a bit this week, as winter weather, a public holiday, and events in Washington DC perhaps playing a role in the ebb and flow of energized sites.

Numbers - 32 new fast charging stations opened across the United States and Canada since our last edition, slowing the pace over the previous week when nearly double that number were added. Expect a spike in activations again over the next few weeks, as weather improves and the EV world moves past politics and back to business.

Notable Locations Added to AFDC:

⚡Sticking with our spotlight vendor, Flo Charging, their first DC sites in the Southeast will be a sight for sore eyes in Alabama. Two 160kW Flo Ultra stations have been energized in Greenville and Thomasville, respectively, in partnership with Alabama Power.

🔴 Great to see Circle K back on the activation trail this week, with a new four-stall station in Lancaster, CA added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center. This location brings the brand’s DCFC count in California up to nine stations.

🟥 Tesla’s new 20-stall Supercharger at a Target in Brooklyn, NY will be appreciated by residents of Kings County, as the existing 12-stall location around Coney Island is a notoriously busy spot that often displays the dreaded clock symbol.

🔶 Rivian opened another publicly accessible Adventure Network station in Chipley, FL. The six-stall site offers up to 300kW and has the automaker’s gen. 1.5 dispensers, which are taller and have longer cables than gen 1 dispensers to better serve non-Rivian models. To see how well that works, watch our first IONIQ 5 session in upstate NY via video below.

🟢 New NEVI-funded sites in Pulaski, NY (EVolve NY) and Longmont, CO (Tesla Supercharger) brought the program’s total station count up to 52. Despite looming challenges to federal funding for EV charging, new NEVI locations are under construction in at least 13 states, at the time of writing.

For a neat weekly digest of new fast-charging locations added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), subscribe to The Network Architect Channel on YouTube for DCFC updates like this one.

Pricing

Charging prices remained stable again this week, maintaining $0.53 per kWh nationwide, in our index* of 300+ locations across the United States. Average price in the Northeast fell by one cent, leaving the West Coast as the only region averaging $0.55/kWh.

*Note: An index for Canadian stations is in development and expansion of the U.S. pricing index to accommodate new vendors/add more regional nuance is underway. Look for those to debut in February.

New charging vendor IONNA, backed by eight global automakers, continued its experimental approach to DC fast charging with “doorbuster prices” at select locations in three states.

The $0.20 per kWh price point only applied to certain dispensers from January 23rd to 25th, with the goal to have customers focus heavy charging activity on those units and report back on their experience. It’s a limited but disruptive approach to rate setting that shows how pricing can be used to influence behavior and, possibly, pave the way to wider tests of dynamic pricing as the network grows.

Last week, we asked how pricing influences utilization of charging stations and you did not disappoint! Some excellent examples of pricing influence came in, which we will continue to share in future editions.

One interesting scenario takes us to Owatonna, MN, where Spark Plug Chargers operates a DCFC station for Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric…

Ethan Cords, Spark Plug’s CEO, shares that this location frequently punches above its power weight due to complimentary charging from the co-op. Though a small fee per kWh is planned in future to cover energy and maintenance costs, Steele-Waseca sees the role of its station as promoting EVs and affordable charging.

Customers appear to agree. Despite competition from a Tesla Supercharger, convenient downtown DCFC, and a 120kW option at a dealership north of Owatonna, the 40kW station managed by Spark Plug on the Red-E network sees consistent use. Importantly, Ethan notes that the site has virtually no amenities, meaning that drivers are actively seeking out this location to keep their charging costs down.

For Tesla drivers, this location represents savings of $0.35 per kWh compared to Owatonna’s nearby V3 Supercharger. For drivers of CCS1-equipped EVs, the cost of non-Tesla options rises to $0.55/kWh for the high-powered dealership charger. Peak utilization of 16 sessions per day for the Steele-Waseca site makes it the town’s busiest CCS1 station.

How will adding a nominal fee change that utilization moving forward? We’ll keep in touch with Ethan to bring you an update in a future edition.

Fleet Focus: Forum Mobility Celebrates FM Harbor Opening

News - HDEV charging infrastructure provider Forum Mobility officially cut the ribbon at its new FM Harbor station, located at the Port of Long Beach in California.

Numbers - Nine megawatts (MW) of power spread across 44 DC fast-charging dispensers, capable of serving up to 200 electric drayage vehicles every day.

Nuance - Although new electric truck charging depots are opening up every month or two on the West Coast, a change in administration is forcing advocates to rethink their approach. The Advanced Clean Fleets regulation that would impose stricter emissions requirements on the transportation sector has been paused by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), as it seeks new routes to cleaner trucking. Nonetheless, continued momentum from Advanced Clean Trucking (ACT) initiatives has made more sites like FM Harbor inevitable.

Next Up -.Forum Mobility has eight more HDEV charging stations across California in the works. Compton, Inland Empire, Oakland, and Stockton are some of the locations on the schedule for deployment through 2027. For a nuanced view on how the latest political shifts impact clean trucking initiatives, check out the analysis below from CCJ.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Every week, we’ll recommend one of the best listens out there on electrification, energy, or something similarly EV-related. This week’s suggestion comes from The Current Review, a podcast featuring two sharp EV analysts, Andrew Lambrecht and David Tse:

🎧 The Current Review - EV Engineering Innovations w/ Prof. John Kelly 🔋

The podcast is always an engaging listen but this week’s episode is especially relevant, as the guest is our first pick for Essential EV Follow, Professor John Kelly of Weber State University. As with his YouTube channel at Weber Auto, Prof. Kelly takes us through the engineering intricacies of early electrified vehicles like the Toyota Camry and Prius, through plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt, and through to full battery electric models.

That’s a wrap for another week. The digest will continue to evolve thanks to feedback from our growing community of readers. Just hit reply to send suggestions our way. 

And remember, it’s not range anxiety if the final few miles to the charger are downhill 🌄

Cheers,

Steve

Essential EV Follow - Alex Canning-Choi