Good day, fellow winter weather watcher ❄️👀

Hopefully you’re reading this somewhere warm with a cuppa in hand, as Arctic temperatures grip much of North America and ice/snow batter areas that don’t commonly see the white stuff.

Charging operators have been quick to offer advice to EV owners juicing up in cold weather, with Tesla offering model-specific tips, and this week’s spotlight vendor, Electrify America, added an “extreme cold” warning to its notification page, with accompanying tips. Elsewhere, IONNA is offering “storm pricing” at a handful of locations, as you’ll see in the pricing section.

Thus preconditioned, here’s our digest of this week’s EVI developments ⤵️

News - A federal judge in Seattle confirmed a final ruling in favor of 20 states and the District of Columbia, which sued last year to reverse the new administration’s attempt to withhold NEVI funding.

Numbers - As reported last week, more than 150 NEVI sites are already open, despite the elongated pause for FHWA review during much of 2025. For the legal ruling, however, it’s the 1,000+ site awards that are yet to be built, plus those expected from future solicitations, that are a step closer to construction as a result of this ruling.

Nuance - Despite the legislation that created the NEVI initiative (and many more infrastructure projects) dating back to 2021, program complexity, varying degrees of state commitment, and subsequent opposition last year have all combined to limit progress. States like Pennsylvania (30 NEVI sites open) and Ohio (22 NEVI sites open) have demonstrated how valuable the program can be to bridge charging gaps, but still only 2% of the program’s $5 billion has been spent. With funding increasingly bolstered by court action, even states with limited progress to date are starting to move forward.

Next Up - Absent any appeal or unexpected political hurdles, all indicators point to NEVI funds being secure and available for states that wish to proceed with critical infrastructure development. Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grants face a less certain future due to how they are structured, but states are also fighting for CFI in court.

News - Electrify America (EA) has installed pressurized anti-theft cables at one of its most frequently vandalized locations in Seattle, WA.

Numbers - As a network, EA has more than 5,400 DCFC ports across 1,116 locations in 47 states. There are also 138 locations offering a small number of L2 ports, primarily in California and large metro areas. While vandalism has been an issue in several markets, Washington state has been the focus of repeated cord-cutting for cable theft.

Nuance - “Due to recurring cable theft, we have installed theft deterrent sleeves at this location.” This note from EA explains the latest development at this location. When I visited the Fred Meyer - South location in Seattle during the summer of 2024, it had recently been repaired, while the yet-to-be-commissioned V4 Supercharger in the North lot sat with cut cables. Tesla used a similar pressurized cable system to deter future cable cutting, but subsequently removed the sleeves in favor of a mobile security system. This makes sense from a customer perspective, as DCFC cables are already bulky, and an additional sleeve only compounds that issue.

Next Up - Vandalism remains a localized problem in most cases, with the majority of EA’s thousands of locations experiencing no cable cutting. However, for a business that lives or dies on utilization, having key metro charging sites offline for weeks at a time awaiting new cables is not sustainable. If the anti-theft sleeves succeed in deterring thieves, expect to see more of this solution at EA locations, given the cost of replacing a cable runs into several thousand dollars per instance.

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News - A steady week for AC charging growth, with ChargePoint again underpinning most of the additions, as Red E and ChargeSmart also deploy notable locations.

Numbers - 396 L2 charging ports added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this week, spread across 30 states and provinces.

Notable New L2 + AFDC Additions:

◾ Blink Charging added 30 new L2 ports at six different locations in four states (CA/FL/IL/TX). One-third of these are located at the Loews Hotel & Convention Center in Arlington, TX.

🟠 As usual, ChargePoint accounts for the bulk of AC charging additions this week, with 221 ports across 21 states, representing 56% of the total ports added to the AFDC. Notable locations include eight more ports at The Weld property in Raleigh, NC, 10 at the Rowan University Vet School in Mantua Township, NJ, and five new destination chargers at the Courtyard Hotel in Riverside, CA.

🟦 FLO added 22 L2 ports at nine locations across Canada. Edgewood Park in Surrey, BC, gets four new ports, as does a community garden location in Montreal, QC. Franklin Township in New Jersey also gets two new FLO AC sites.

⭕ Red E added two notable L2 locations, with 20 new ports at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport and 14 more at a medical facility in New Hartford, NY.

🟢 New York-based Chargesmart EV added 10 destination chargers at the Red Roof Inn (Airport) in Rochester, NY.

🛌 Enertech shared a new destination charger at the Country Inn in Greeley, CO.

News - This was another quiet week for fast-charging additions, with the likes of Electrify America, Rivian, and bp pulse notable by their absence. Red E returned to form, however, with several new locations, and BC Hydro continued to expand its footprint in British Columbia, after passing 800 ports earlier this month.

Numbers - 213 DC charging ports at 44 charging locations added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this week, spread across 26 states and provinces.

Notable New Locations + AFDC Additions:

🔵 EVgo was one of the busier operators this week, with 50 ports across seven locations in three states. The network has been on something of a New Year clean-up with its AFDC listings over the past few weeks, but locations like Apple Valley, CA, and Half Moon Bay, CA, add to EVgo’s presence in its home market, while Garden City Park, NY, was confirmed for Long Island EV drivers. Under the eXtend umbrella, a new location was also energized in Fort Pierce, FL, in partnership with Pilot-Flying J.

🟠 ChargePoint added 11 new DC ports across five locations in three states and two provinces. A pair of CPE250s from GPM Investments in Mountain City, TN, scored financial support from Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), while the two Canadian locations are in Clarenville, NL, and an additional dispenser in Port Coquitlam, BC.

🔴 Tesla Charging added 44 stalls at four Superchargers across three states and one province this week. The most notable is Taylorsville, UT, which brings a full V4 Supercharger (dispensers and cabinets) to a location outside of California for the first time. This means up to 500kW charging for capable vehicles, although only the Cybertruck falls into that category at this time for Tesla models. Other Superchargers opened this week are Prescott, AZ, Valley Springs, CA, and Sherbrooke, QC.

🔷 BC Hydro had just the one entry this week, after notching four and its first 400kW hardware in edition 54. The eight new stalls in Nanaimo, BC, continue the integration of ABB’s A400 units, two of which are installed alongside the more familiar Terra 184.

🔷 Two new locations at Canadian Tire stores and another two south of the border in Alabama and Ohio make for a solid week of additions for FLO. The company’s Ultra units are now available at the locations in Canada, including this one in Quebec City.

🛣️ EVroadway celebrated opening its flagship fast-charging hub in Marin County, CA, with a mixture of ChargePoint and AUTEL hardware at Vintage Oaks Shopping Center.

🟠 IONNA continued its January pace of around two new locations per week, with the latest Rechargeries in Brunswick, GA, and Sparks, NV, inching the network towards 100 fast-charging map pins.

⭕ Red E added 16 fast-charging ports across four new locations in four different states (IN/MA/NM/VT). The largest brings six new DCFC stalls to the existing L2 option at a public library in Chelmsford, MA, with two also added at a FasCharge (Valero) store in Albuquerque, NM.

To see how and where the leading charging vendors are expanding, check out The Network Architect Channel on YouTube for weekly DCFC updates.

🔜 Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging confirmed 12 pipeline locations in the “coming soon” category, including two spots in British Columbia (Nanaimo and Penticton), where the network energized its first Canadian locations earlier this month.

📝 In permitting, AlejandroEV66 identified new IONNA locations in Ontario, CA, and Raleigh, NC, while the network itself declared “fences up” in Seffner, FL, Everett, and Mount Vernon in Washington State. On the Tesla side, we have permits from MarcoRP1 for new Superchargers in Rosamond, CA, and Jerome, ID, as well as a new indoor charging hub for San Francisco, CA. At the latter, 18 stalls will be for the public, while another 30 will be assigned for fleet use.

🚧 Construction is progressing well at the District Heights Supercharger and Bowie Supercharger in Maryland. Reports also suggest that the first NEVI location in Georgia is finally due to be commissioned this week at a Racetrac site in Dublin, GA.

🛠️ An upgrade is as good as a new charging site, for some locations, especially when the hardware manufacturer of the original equipment is no longer in business. That’s the take that Red E offers from a Shell fueling site in Chicago, IL, where a dispenser that could no longer be maintained was replaced with AUTEL hardware, bringing the location back to life for EV drivers.

🚛 Another new Tesla Semicharger is slated for the Lone Star State, this time in Kyle, TX.

News - Electric truck manufacturer Windrose Technology is offering fleet clients three months of unlimited free charging with the purchase of a qualifying Global E700 Class 8 HDEV. The offer comes in conjunction with the company’s charging partner, Greenlane Infrastructure.

Numbers - The Windrose E700 has a 300-mile range and peaked at 772kW, when testing on Greenlane’s fleet fast-charging network last year. Greenlane has only one charging depot open so far, located in Colton, CA, but has six more sites in progress that will bridge routes from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, NV, and Phoenix, AZ, once they open.

Nuance - Free charging plans elicited a special kind of frustration for passenger EV drivers a few years ago, as Electrify America charging locations in particular became clogged with drivers squeezing every last cent out of their promotion. That scenario is unlikely to arise with Windrose electric trucks, given the tight schedules of delivery vehicles, and the welcome reduction in early operational expenses could assist fleet operators weighing the pros and cons of transitioning to HDEVs.

Next Up - Windrose founder Wen Han set a target of 2,000 E700 sales in 2026, although that figure is spread across up to 30 markets, with no specific numbers for North America. Nonetheless, sales of any significant volume in the US make charging infrastructure a key focus, with targeted corridors on I-5, I-10, I-15 from Los Angeles, CA, and I-35 in Texas.

News - IONNA has reduced prices at select Rechargeries to its lowest promotional rate during the winter storm currently marauding across the US. Oddly, it hasn’t been applied to Texas locations, where the company has a significant presence, and the first impacts of the freezing conditions are expected to be felt.

Numbers: The “storm pricing” is set at $0.25/kWh and appears to be limited to locations in North Carolina, at the time of writing. This represents a 36% discount on the network-wide rate of $0.39, which has been in effect since it appeared as a holiday promotion on December 17th, 2025.

Nuance - It’s hard to unpack the storm pricing approach until we know if it is applied to other Rechargeries in the storm’s path, from Texas through to Ohio and the Northeast. It’s not uncommon to see networks heavily discount or even waive fees during weather emergencies, as Rivian did during California’s wildfires, and Tesla has done during hurricane evacuation events.

Next Up - IONNA’s current pricing is intriguing, as what was assumed to be a promotional rate for the 2025 holiday season has remained in place for most of January. While the storm pricing is highly localized and expires on Monday January 26th, the flat rate of $0.39/kWh could represent a challenge to other networks, if it remains in place beyond January.

In every edition, we recommend one of the best listens on electrification, energy, or something similarly EV-related.

Freezing conditions in unusual places make it necessary to check out the Energy Capital podcast this week, which attempts to answer a question that might be much clearer by the time you read this: is the Texas grid now ready for winter?

🎧 Energy Capital Pod: Five years after Uri, is Texas ready for winter storms ⚡

Former Texas PUC Commissioner Will McAdams joins the podcast team to unpack the cascading nature of the grid failures during Uri and what has been done since then to reduce the rare challenge of frozen conditions impacting the region managed by ERCOT.

Here’s a selection of news items we couldn’t squeeze into other sections, followed by select EVI incentive program updates we think you’ll want to know about:

Funding bill aims to claw back $879M in BIL funding for charging infrastructure

L-Charge raises $10M in new funding from Ultra Capital

Get Charged + Kempower plan 80 ports for Queens and Long Island

ChargePoint adds charging options to rental car parking lots

Porsche rolls out Plug & Charge for Tesla Superchargers

$10 million available for hotel charging sites via NJ EV Tourism Corridor Charging

California’s Clean Bus & Truck Voucher program is open again

Application period open for Rebuild Illinois funding opportunity (DCFC + L2)

California’s FCCP incentives program application period remains open (deadline: 1/29/26) — assistance with applications is available here

Portal for Pennsylvania Corridor Connections funding is open (deadline: 1/30/26)

Michigan’s DTE is now accepting applications for grants from its Emerging Technology Fund through 1/31/26

Round 3 of Ohio NEVI funding is open, with an info webinar recording + resulting Q&A doc now available (up to 10 contractors selected, deadline for rd. 3 proposals: 2/5/26)

Round 3 of the Illinois NEVI funding is now open, with $65.6M available, including applications for M-HDEV charging sites (deadline: 2/13/26)

If you found this edition useful, please share the value by passing it on to a friend, colleague, or family member with an interest in electrification.

See you next week ⚡

Cheers,

Steve / Plug & Play EV