NAmEVI News #6: Tesla Tackles Cable Theft. NY State Steps Up. Toronto Parking Goes Green.

Good day, fellow fan of remotely activated seat heaters 🍑🔥

Edition six comes to you a day delayed, following a wintery assault of snow, frigid winds, and a predictable shortage of ice melt here in New England. After digging out and getting vehicles back on the road, tackling the week’s EVI news provides welcome relief!

Knuckles cracked and backs aching, let’s dive into this week’s digest… ⤵️

Tesla Tests Cable Theft Suppression in Seattle

News - Tesla is debuting a new form of cable with cut-resistant materials and theft suppression features at a test site in Seattle, WA. The Supercharger in the Ballard neighborhood had cables cut even before it was energized last year.

Numbers -12 V4 Supercharger dispensers were due to be activated in August 2024 but all had cables cut shortly after the units went into the lot at a Fred Meyer store in Seattle. Opening was delayed by at least five months as Tesla worked on a solution to prevent the same thing happening again, as seen at other nearby EVgo and Electrify America sites.

Nuance - Locals report that Tesla hired 24/7 security to guard the site during its second attempt at construction, post-theft. The industry has been grappling with cable cutters and broader vandalism in certain cities, with EA creating a dedicated outage page for incidents and ChargePoint recently announcing extra security features and new cut-resistant cables to address the issue.

Next Up - The new Tesla cables are a pilot, blending resistance to theft (tougher materials) and consequences for those who proceed (DyeDefender liquid release, more commonly used to deter catalytic converter theft, and custom engraving on the copper wire). Expect to see a variety of solutions ranging from prevention to cure as the industry searches for an effective anti-theft solution.

Charging Vendor Spotlight: Petro Canada

News - Petro Canada was a relatively early mover in the EV fast charging space, starting its nationwide build out in 2019. The network has grown to cover much of the coast-to-coast Trans-Canada Highway route.

Numbers - 50 stations listed across eight provinces, with sites usually limited to two active stalls (dual CCS /CHAdeMO dispenser but only one active session). L2 also available at select sites. Pricing is currently set at $0.50 (CAD) per minute.

Nuance - After five years running as an owner-operated network with a dedicated app, Petro Canada announced network updates and retired the app in 2024. Reports from the first stations to be upgraded, in Kingston, ON and Halifax, NS, show ChargePoint Express Plus hardware on site under canopies where the original hardware was housed.

Next Up - Only a handful of Petro Canada locations have started the upgrade process. If the intention is to migrate to ChargePoint hardware and management, expect much of the project to occur during the warmer months, ready for the 2025/26 winter season.

AC/DC: Toronto Turns Parking Green

News: Toronto Parking Authority (TPA) added new L2 stalls to five parking locations across the city, under its ongoing “Green P” EV charging initiative.

Numbers: 461 parking bays have now been electrified under the Green P project, with a mix of mainly L2 and some DC fast charging, where appropriate. In the latest round of additions, 47 new L2 stations were installed, making up 87% of new deployments.

Nuance: The Green P program also aligns with Toronto’s bike share network, directing visitors to nearby bicycle rental stations close to their EV charging station location. For densely populated metro areas, integration with multi-modal transport solutions hs the potential to extend how long owners can leave their EV parked and charging.

Next Up: The Green P initiative is gearing up to accommodate EV adoption at around 30% by 2030, in alignment with Toronto’s goals for new EV registrations.

On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - Activations dipped this week, with 40 new listings in the United States and just four new locations in Canada. Adverse weather conditions across the continent may have hindered openings, as well as reports from several states of sites awaiting transformers.

Numbers - 44 new fast charging stations across the United States and Canada were added to AFDC listings this week. The North American station count hit 14,421 at the end of the week, with DCFC making up 17.2% of total AFDC listings.

Notable Locations Added to AFDC:

🟠 A Petro Canada station in Halifax, NS marks an upgrade, rather than a brand new location, with the site that was previously managed in-house now operating under the ChargePoint umbrella. This follows similar changes earlier this year in Ontario.

🟦 BP Pulse briefly shifts gears from Gigahubs to gas stations, with a new four stall activation using Tritium hardware at its Thornton’s brand in Clearwater, FL.

📍The Pride convenience store chain continued its DCFC expansion in central Massachusetts, adding a second location in Chicopee, MA to complement recent activations in nearby Holyoke and Springfield, where the company is based. Hardware is a mix of Chargepoint units at various power levels, depending on location requirements

🔵 Hot on the heels of getting its first NEVI site, the state of New Mexico is also awaiting its second, with the Lordsburg Supercharger almost ready to energize. In the meantime, six new stalls from Electrify America in Albuquerque, NM are a welcome addition. Friend of EV drivers nationwide, Simon Properties, hosts this one at its ABQ Uptown property. A public Rivian Adventure Network station is also expected here soon.

🔶 Rivian is also back on the activation trail this week, with a new eight stall, 300kW site in Springfield, IL. This site deploys gen. 1.5 hardware, making it accessible to all CCS1 EVs.

❌ No new NEVI-funded sites were energized this week, although multiple sites in New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and New York state appear close, with dispensers in the ground.

⚡And in case you missed it last week, the first NEVI-funded station in the state of Virginia opened, with Pilot-Flying J adding Skippers, VA on the border with North Carolina to its list of 17 NEVI sites so far.

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 fees have seen very little volatility in recent weeks, with only 5% of the sites in our DCFC pricing posting changes.

However, in conjunction with some pricing experimentation from new players, those changes seem to have been impactful. The average price per kWh across all sites in our index dropped to $0.52, down one cent over January pricing.

Those new players are iONNA and ROVE Charging, both of which dropped prices in their own way during the opening weeks of February.

iONNA continues to play with pricing, this time with peak and off-peak rates at its recently opened station in partnership with Sheetz in Willoughby, OH.

Day rates remain close to the national average, while off-peak rates drop by 40% to a very appealing $0.30 per kWh. Only FPL Evolution in Florida can match that rate, albeit at any time of day and any location.

The ambitious network’s doorbuster pricing at new Rechargeries also puts downward pressure on pricing, with a $0.34 per kWh price tag at its opening in Houston, for example.

Meanwhile, over in California, charging hub newcomer ROVE dropped its prices by a full 10 cents to $0.48 per kWh.

On the topic of charging hubs, some industry observers have suggested that the EV industry is too closely replicating the gas station refueling model.

That is, a specific destination for juicing up, rather than simply adding stations at familiar locations like towns and malls, then charging where you park. Do you agree with this take?

Tap reply to weigh in on your ideal charging location and we’ll feature responses in a future edition

*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: Revel Hub Funding Shows Focus Shift to States

News - New York state governor Kathy Hochul announced a $60 million funding loan to NYC-based rideshare company Revel, provided by the New York Green Bank.

Numbers - 267 new fast charging stalls across nine sites in New York City. Revel will complete construction of five new sites within 12 months, while the remainder are expected to be energized by 2027.

Nuance - The funding continues a long stretch of New York investing in electrification and new transportation technology, but comes at a time when support at the federal level is being withdrawn. States with a vision for cleaner transportation will once again become the focus of companies starting to find their footing in the sector, as policy shifts to more regional deployment.

Next Up - Falling back on funding closer to home is a valuable safety net for some states, while others will find similar resistance to progressive investment as what we’re seeing at the federal level. This sets up a patchwork effect in the near-term, where states embracing the future of transportation put in place the infrastructure and workforce needed to build it, while others fall behind and fail to attract investment as more and more corners of the transport sector electrify.

Fleet Focus:

News - The CEO of Greenlane Infrastructure, Patrick Macdonald-King, spoke with John O'Leary, CEO of Daimler Truck North America to discuss the future of fleet infrastructure and ZEV transportation. The pair spoke as part of the Manifest 2025 logistics event.

Numbers - More than $30 billion in investments are currently rolling out to support the electrification of North American freight movement. However, BEV made up only 1% of HDEV sales in 2024, meaning other alt fuels still have room to support cleaner fleets.

Nuance - Varied models will be required for HDEV charging, from depot deployments to public stations. No single company or solution is currently sufficient to support the evolution of electric fleets while maintaining existing business. With technology developing so quickly, there is also a timing risk with hardware/software selection.

Next Up - As the trucking sector has long advised, two primary sticking points to HDEV electrification remain: the upfront cost of electric vehicles and the limited charging infrastructure to get them back on the road. The speakers see the potential for a cost tipping point by 2027, subject to falling battery prices and state support for EVI projects.

For Your Listening Pleasure

Every week, we recommend one of the best listens on electrification, energy, or something similarly EV-related. This one comes from The Urban EV podcast, with industry veteran Matt Teske of Chargeway weighing in on driver education.

🎧Chargeway’s Matt Teske on removing charging anxiety from EV road trips 🛣️

Matt has long believed that rethinking how we communicate the new habits needed for “electric fuel” are key to unlocking mainstream EV adoption. Hear him explain the underlying concept and how his company aims to bridge those knowledge gaps.

That’s your EVI update for another week. How are we doing so far? What else would you like to see reported each week? Hit reply to send your suggestions this way.

And remember, it’s not range anxiety if the temperature will get warmer as you approach your destination 🥶➡️🌞

Cheers,

Steve

Essential EV Follow - Kameale C. Terry