NAmEVI News #5: Construction Amid Chaos. L2 Outlets for All? iONNA Open.

Good day, fellow collector of charging apps 📲

Against the background noise of political jostling, it’s worth remembering what’s actually happening on the ground. Major networks gearing up for growth. Agile charging startups challenging existing players to up their game. And new charging stations are deployed every day across North America. As threats to EVI persist, note that the sector’s most common response is a typically productive one: “We keep building.”

On that note, it’s another noteworthy week for EV infrastructure so let’s unpack it… ⤵️

iONNA Makes It Official

News - After six weeks in what they called “public beta” mode, the new OEM-backed charging provider iONNA confirmed full opening with a ribbon-cutting event in Apex, NC.

Numbers - 17 stations are now on the map across seven states, with six stations now open across, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kansas, Texas, and iONNA’s home state of North Carolina. Of the 30,000 stalls planned by the end of 2030, around 1,000 are projected for this year, which equates to approximately 80-100 stations open in 2025.

Nuance - A nod to iONNA partnering with Amazon for grab and go items is especially interesting, in light of a new Rechargery permitted for Portsmouth, NH. This one will be hosted by a Whole Foods grocery store, which is owned by… Amazon. More than 500 Whole Foods locations across the US and Canada could open up a new route for Rechargeries to serve EV drivers in metro areas

Next Up - New stations in Kansas and Texas add two new states to iONNA’s map, with Arizona, New Hampshire, and Colorado all in play with planned locations. Expect to see a steady drumbeat of new partnership announcements and station tweaks as iONNA continues to show a refreshing instinct to experiment with new formats and pricing.

Charging Vendor Spotlight: Applegreen Electric

News - Applegreen is becoming a familiar name to EV drivers in the Northeast, with the prominent presence of its DC fast chargers at travel plazas across Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York state.

Numbers - 35 stations listed across three states, with sites ranging from two to eight stalls. Pricing is currently set at a uniform $0.59 per kWh across all locations.

Nuance - Applegreen’s gradual expansion along the New York Thruway has followed a wider renovation of the busy corridor’s aging service plaza facilities. Many of these locations were completely rebuilt, with previous generation 350kW Signet dispensers the hardware of choice. These have two handles but do not share power. Conversely, in New Jersey, Applegreen has reworked existing space but deployed newer 400kW Signet hardware capable of power sharing across both handles, making better use of space.

Next Up - Travel corridors and service plazas in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are next on Applegreen’s Northeast deployment roadmap. The company has nine PA turnpike stations conditionally awarded under the NEVI program, while Massachusetts has selected Applegreen as one of three vendors to build DCFC sites across the Commonwealth.

AC/DC: Parking + L2 Charging = EV Adoption

News: Smart outlet-based charging provider Pando Electric has partnered with Parking Boss to bring its cost-effective L2 solution to more multi-family communities

Numbers: Pando Electric’s streamlined outlet solution reduces installation costs by 50-70%. For example, upfront cost savings of 50% were achieved at this deployment in DUMBO, Brooklyn, where 99.98% uptime across 30 outlets is reported.

Nuance: The solution differs from most L2 deployments by simultaneously removing cables and minimizing installation footprint. The outlet simply electrifies parking spots with daisy chained NEMA 14-50 outlets, which can be used with the kind of portable charging cables that many EV owners already carry for travel charging.

Next Up: Expect Pando to ramp up mutually beneficial partnerships with parking providers, hospitality brands, and real estate partners. As electric vehicles sell to younger customer segments, cracking the home charging conundrum at scale for apartment dwellers and MFDs makes cost-focused solutions like this compelling.

On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - Activations continued at a steady clip this week, with 57 new listings in the Unied States and 14 in Canada. The US additions were spread across fewer states but two new Canadian provinces, Nova Scotia and Northwest Territories, showed up with new DCFC.

Numbers - 71 new fast charging stations across the United States and Canada were added to AFDC listings this week. The North American station count is 14,375 at the end of the week, with DCFC making up 17.2% of the total AFDC listings.

Notable Locations Added to AFDC:

✅ Pilot-Flying J activated its 17th NEVI-funded station (of 133 across the growing network). In doing so, it also added Virginia to the NEVI map with the location in Skippers, VA. The low percentage of sites receiving dollars from NEVI emphasizes the relatively small yet important, gap-filling role of federal dollars in building out DCFC nationwide.

🍏 Our spotlight vendor for this week has been busy in New Jersey, adding five new stations at service plazas up and down the Garden State. The sites signal Applegreen Electric’s intent to use the latest hardware from SK Signet, which is also favored by the likes of Francis Energy, Kwik Trip, and Electric Era.

⚡ Francis Energy celebrated its fifth NEVI opening and a first station in Pennsylvania, with the opening of a four-stall site in Chambersburg, PA. The site marks the easternmost location that Francis has deployed to date, though eight more are planned across PA.

 🔵 BC Hydro added celebrated new stations at the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), with new 180kW hardware from ABB serving EV drivers in Surrey now, with stations in Abbotsford and Courtenay also planned for later this year.

🔴 Tesla remains less active than we’re used to seeing but a V4 Supercharger in Tennessee certainly saw some action this week. The 12-stall site in Wildersville, TN was energized with Magic Docks but also had a dispenser knocked out by a wayward vehicle shortly after. Kudos to the Tesla team for getting it back up and running within days.

🦫 Mercedes-Benz added a new pin to its HPC network map with another location at Buc-ee’s in Ennis, TX. Five 400kW Alpitronic Hyperchargers serving 10 stalls add to the existing 24 x V3 Tesla Superchargers at the same location.

🟢 The New York Power Authority team behind EVolve NY maintained its weekly opening streak, with a new station energized in Hamilton. The station serves smaller communities away from travel corridors, emphasizing NYPA’s commitment to state residents with EVs.

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 last week, with no notable changes observed across the major US providers.

Average price at NEVI-funded stations ticked up by one cent to $0.51 per kWh, after recent price hikes at EVolve NY stations and a new Francis Energy NEVI site in Chambersburg, PA opened at a rate of $0.62 per kWh, which is 27% higher than the price at the network’s Ohio NEVI sites.

With iONNA entering national release, expect to see some interesting price experiment over the weeks and months ahead. Within hours of officially cutting the ribbon at its flagship site in Apex, NC, iONNA opened the Houston Rechargery (pictured below) with “doorbuster” pricing of $0.34 per kWh. We’ll monitor utilization during this introductory pricing phase and identify any notable trends in a future edition.

In case you missed it in our January pricing index summary, which charging vendors active in multiple states represent the best/worst deals? 

This gets complicated by membership plans and time of use (TOU) pricing, but in terms of non-membership, “pull up and pay” public pricing, EVgo averages out as the most expensive, at $0.60 per kWh. Circle K maintains its most affordable vendor status with an average of $0.45 per kWh.

FPL Evolution also deserves a mention for the lowest network-wide DCFC pricing of $0.30 per kWh, but this only applies to EV driving in Florida, of course.

*Note: An index for Canadian stations is nearing completion and expansion of the U.S. pricing index is underway. Look for those to debut in a digest later this month.

Policy: NEVI is Confusing, But Not Canceled

News - A memo from the Federal Highway Authority caused consternation in the EVI sector late last week, rescinding approval for all state plans under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program.

Numbers - 58 NEVI sites have been activated to date, across 15 states, with a similar number actively under construction. Around $500M of NEVI funding has been awarded across 37 states. All 50 states, as well as the Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, have detailed NEVI plans in place that were previously approved by FHWA.

Nuance - As with so many funding announcements over the past three weeks, confusion reigns. While the blanket suspension of all state plans hit the headlines as “NEVI canceled”, keener eyes highlighted that the memo also states “Until new guidance is issued, reimbursement of existing obligations will be allowed in order to not disrupt current financial commitments.”

Furthermore, funding for four of five financial years has already been apportioned to the states, who have differing views on how to proceed. “There’s no legal basis” for stopping plans that have already been approved and funded,” according to Andrew Wishnia (this week’s Essential EV Follow, see details below).

Next Up - See you in court. For many state DOTs, the prudent course of action is to pause existing NEVI work, at least on the administrative side. Those with sites under contract/construction show no sign of halting that work, given the memo’s lighter tone on existing obligations. Clarification on everything from where those obligations end to whether or not previously approved funds/plans can be rescinded are likely to be decided by legal challenges.

Fleet Focus:

News - Voltera confirmed it will build a major portion of a $44 million charging depot for medium- and heavy-duty trucks in Utah. The facility will form part of the critical inland port infrastructure for electric trucking on routes to the Salt Lake Valley region.

Numbers - Once complete, the project plans to offer 12 MW of charging hardware capable of up to 9 MW power delivery, at its peak. That power is split evenly across grid connection and on-site battery storage, each with 4.5 MW capability.

Nuance - The new facility is part of a wider initiative called SUPERCHARGE and builds on a 1 MW wireless charging system, which has been developed in Logan by Utah State University’s ASPIRE center.

Next Up - The $44 million project led by ASPIRE center has secured federal, industry, and state funding, which will be leveraged to build the facility. Once complete, it will be Utah's first dedicated charging station for medium and heavy-duty trucks.

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 our own Coast-to-Coast EVs show and touches on the next era of North American charging technology:

🎧Electric Era’s Quincy Lee & Lang Reynolds Talk DC Site Design/Reliability🔋

Quincy and Lang unpack an array of topics, ranging from design challenges and site turnaround time to the nuances of DCFC reliability and how their tech stack addresses many maintenance issues. Start at the 10-minute mark to hear from them.

That’s the long and short of this week’s EVI update. Are you not enthused?! If ever the policy side of things becomes overwhelming, take a look at the “coming soon” view on a charging app… it’s a window into our EV charging future and always good for a reboot.

And remember, it’s not range anxiety if you can do the final few miles on a side road and squeeze more out of a kilowatt hour ♻️

Cheers,

Steve

Essential EV Follow - Andrew Wishnia