The Weekly 1.21⚡(EVI News #15): HDEV Hubs Fuel Fleet Electrification. iONNA's Largest Station So Far. Funding Pauses Face Up to Court Rulings.

Good day, fellow peruser of power delivery ⚡🔍

We’re right back at it this week, with many of the major charging vendors springing into action and fleet operator hubs in the spotlight ahead of ACT Expo in California.

Legal action around frozen federal funding for infrastructure projects is also gathering pace, so watch for more coverage of the key decisions this week and beyond.

That said, let’s juice up with another week of EVI developments ⤵️

📢 HDEV Charging Hubs Proliferate in SoCal

News - Multiple infrastructure providers for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles (HDEV) shared developments this week, including several spring charging hub openings.

Numbers - Three companies - Greenlane, Terawatt, and Prologis - all shared details about their new charging hubs for electric trucks this month. The Prologis facility in Vernon, CA has 32 chargers at up to 600kW, with 4.8MW of power capacity.

Nuance - Terawatt’s opening in Rancho Dominguez is covered in the Fleet Focus section below. Greenlane Infrastructure officially opens its hub in Colton, CA later this week. For a closer look at how these busy, power-hungry sites come together, take a look at Voltera’s feature on building its Lynwood HDEV hub in 18 months.

Next Up - All of these infrastructure players and more will gather at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Anaheim, CA at the end of the month. Expect more announcements around new sites/partnerships as fleet electrification takes center stage.

🔍 Charging Vendor Spotlight: Francis Energy

News - The Tulsa, OK-based charging provider continues to build out from its early core of stations in the Sooner state. It has shifted from various hardware providers early on, settling on SK Signet’s latest generation of 400kW for NEVI installs.

Numbers - 926 ports at 174 stations across 12 states, with 74% of Francis sites in the company’s home state of Oklahoma. Planned expansion puts the network close to 300 stations, which would place Francis in the top 10 of US charging vendors.

Nuance - With more than $90M in NEVI award wins over the past two years, Francis is one of the CPOs most heavily invested in the outcome of the FHWA’s review of the program. More than 100 new Francis charging locations hang in the balance, subject to legal challenges and the approach that different states take to paused funding.

Next Up - For now, Francis NEVI sites continue to open, with recent activations across Pennsylvania adding a new state to the network’s map. Beyond obligated projects, which were excused from the FHWA’s required pause, look for wider legal action around NEVI funds to dictate how fast Francis expands over the next 12-18 months.

🔌 AC/DC: Ad-Supported L2 Charging Model in Doubt

News: Some former Volta stations offering complimentary AC charging are transitioning to a fee-based model, as new owner Shell continues to bring the locations under the umbrella of its Shell Recharge brand in North America.

Numbers: Only a handful of sites have shown up with fee-based charging, but more than 1,300 stations with 3,000+ L2 ports could be impacted. As highlighted in our Shell Recharge vendor spotlight in edition 11, around one-third of the network’s DC stations are former Volta sites, which had already explored fee-based charging.

Nuance: “Free charging has arrived!” declared early Volta stations like this one back in 2019, betting on advertising revenue from their vibrant displays to offset electricity costs. Acquisition of the network by Shell two years ago didn’t immediately dismiss that model, but it appears economic reality is starting to bite and free charging at these stations could soon depart. The next question becomes the level of fee charged, as ad-supported stations could still be leveraged to deliver discount pricing, although initial rates at $0.39/kWh with a $1.49 session fee at the location pictured don’t offer much hope in that direction, either.

Next Up: As it’s unlikely there will be a formal announcement to share rising prices at Shell Recharge L2 stations, we’ll have to keep an eye on different regions to see how quickly the trend spreads. Take a look at the local Volta/Shell Recharge L2 stations in your area: are they now showing a fee to charge?

🛣️ On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - Another quiet week for Canada as far as Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) additions go, but the US continues solid progress with iONNA and Rivian adding to their public stall counts in multiple states.

Numbers - 244 fast charging ports at 46 charging stations, added to AFDC listings this week across the United States and Canada.

Notable Stations + Additions to AFDC:

🔴 More new Superchargers than you can shake a NACS handle at this week, with eight new North American locations shared by @TeslaCharging. That’s more than 100 new stalls across seven states/provinces, even before we talk about the temporary Megapack units that helped charge up concertgoers at Coachella last weekend. Locations in British Columbia, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia were all shared via the company’s account this week.

✅ iONNA stations are finally showing up in AFDC listings, with 10 of the new network’s early locations now present. We covered many of the sites in earlier editions as they were energized, but the latest in Reynoldsburg, OH is newly commissioned this week. This is a seven dispenser/14 stall station with full canopy and pull-through thanks to the site’s original use as a CNG station. Expect to see plenty of superlatives thrown its way this week.

💞 Love’s Travel Stops added a third NEVI site in Pennsylvania, this time in Mifflinville, PA. The previous sites in Jonestown and Slippery Rock both have canopies and facilities that have been appreciated by EV drivers. Expect more praise for this location, which adds much-needed redundancy to the westward I-80 route into the Pennsylvania Wilds.

⚡Another NEVI site was also chalked up for Impower Connections, which opened the first station in Texas late last year. The latest location is in Balmorhea, TX, for a total of five in the Lone Star State and accessible via the SWTCH app.

⭐A semi-activation for Shell Recharge caught attention in Texas, as the site showed a couple of ports added in Sugar Land, southwest of Houston. Early photos of site testing show a much more interesting build, with full canopies, pull-through stalls, and at least 12 ports. Recharge Hubs like this could mark Shell’s evolution in North American EV charging, with more clearly strategic deployments from the likes of bp pulse and Pilot-Flying putting pressure on the oil giant to modernize its EV charging offering here.

🟢 In more predictable Electrify America news, 10 dispensers from the network’s current generation of hardware were added at Costco in Murietta, CA. As with other EA stations at the retailer, Costco sets the pricing at its sites and this station comes in at $0.49 per kWh. Other EA stations nearby charge $0.64 per kWh (non-member pricing).

🔷 EVolve New York got back on the map this week, with a new station in Southold, NY. This adds to the network’s presence on Long Island, which now numbers five locations managed by New York Power Authority and 14, in total, for Electrify America on the Island.

🔶Rivian continues opening up its Adventure Network (RAN), with existing stations in Front Royal and Fredericksburg, VA upgraded to gen 1.5 hardware for public use. New builds in Arizona, Connecticut, and New Mexico were also energized, bringing a total of 30 new public stalls online.

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

🤖Technology: On the Run Upgrades to ABB A400

News: Parkland-owned On the Run Charging is bringing ABB’s latest hardware to its new stations, more than doubling maximum power delivery as it does so.

Numbers: The ABB A400 is an all-in-one unit with two ports capable of simultaneous charging at 600 amps. The 400kW max is shared in 50kW chunks, based on power requested by the EVs plugged in. The unit has a 32-inch touchscreen for customer interaction, charge session information, and advertising.

Nuance: This is one of the first deployments of ABB’s latest hardware in North America and represents more than twice the power of On the Run’s earlier sites. Very few A400s are in the field yet, but Walmart Energy displayed the unit at its Year Beginning Meeting, which could see the model become a familiar sight for EV drivers in the United States.

Next Up: As reported by Electric Autonomy Canada, On the Run is preparing to open more four more locations with A400s this spring, two in British Columbia and two in Quebec. More will show up in Ontario during the second half of the year.

💲DCFC Pricing: bp pulse Experiments with TOU

News: bp pulse continued its experimentation with North American DCFC pricing this week, announcing time-of-use (TOU) rates at select stations in the United States.

Numbers: Many locations under the bp pulse umbrella (TravelCenters of America, Thornton’s, and its upcoming Gigahubs) set pricing at $0.48 per kWh. Example pricing from an early TOU site in Riverview, FL shows a 12.5% swing in either direction, with off-peak rates six cents below that level and peak pricing six cents above it.

Nuance: TOU rates are deployed sparingly in North America so far, with only EVgo and Tesla leaning into the pricing strategy decisively. As the industry matures and competition increases, new players with ambitious growth plans like iONNA and bp pulse, have started to experiment with TOU as a way to shift demand and align operational costs with utility rates . Mercedes-Benz HPC also offers TOU pricing at its flagship site in Georgia, but has yet to experiment with the approach at partner sites like Buc-ee’s or Simon Properties.

Next Up: The opening of a new Gigahub in Boston, MA this week offers a look at bp pulse’s take on launch pricing, which is set at $0.36 per kWh. With these airport hubs likely to see high utilization by rideshare and fleet drivers, expect TOU pricing experiments at Gigahubs as well.

✒️ Policy: Court Rulings Attempt to Thaw Funding Freeze

News - A ruling in Rhode Island, from a district judge appointed by President Trump in 2019, instructs the current administration to release federal funds related to climate and infrastructure projects that were paused when the new administration swept into office earlier this year.

Numbers - Two notable funding rulings were issued this week. Rhode Island’s directly addresses five agencies, including the Dept. of Energy, while a judge in the District of Columbia ordered the immediate release of up to $625 million in climate grants allocated under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which have been frozen since mid-February.

Nuance - In her ruling, Rhode Island’s Judge McElroy, appointed by President Trump in 2018, said plaintiffs had demonstrated in court that the indefinite freeze “was neither reasonable nor reasonably explained.” She added that proving that the freezes were “fundamentally arbitrary” was a likely outcome, should the case continue. This puts the ball back in the Trump administration’s court, with named agencies likely to appeal the decision rather than immediately release funding to comply with the order.

Next Up - As more rulings assess the legal validity of various funding freezes, escalation to the Supreme Court at some point seems inevitable. Judge McElroy’s summary is particularly telling, acknowledging as it does the right for the Trump administration to take actions to enact its agenda but concluding that “agencies do not have unlimited authority, nor do they have unfettered power, to hamstring in perpetuity two statutes passed by Congress during the previous administration.”

🚛 Fleet Focus: Terawatt Opens First Heavy-Duty EV Hub

News - Terawatt Infrastructure opened its first medium- and heavy-duty EV charging hub in… you guessed it, Southern California. Rancho Dominguez, to be specific, a location which serves the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and the region’s Inland Empire.

Numbers - 12 miles north of the nation’s busiest port, Terawatt’s first HDEV hub features a total capacity of 7MW across 20 charging positions. The company estimates that its new facility will be able to charge up to 125 electric trucks per day.

Nuance - This facility follows a charging location for light-duty EVs that the company opened last year in Inglewood. The latest Terawatt hub opens at a pivotal time for fleet electrification, as support falls away at the federal level but is being bolstered at the state level, especially in the key market of California. For the wider I-10 routes, partnerships with local and state governments/utilities, including various grants and incentives, are considered critical to meet ambitious fleet electrification targets.

Next Up - Terawatt’s next expected opening is in Rialto, CA, around 70 miles east of this first location. It is slated for June 2025 and begins to open up what the company’s CEO Neha Palmer calls “electric lanes, " enabling top-up charging and expanding the use cases for fleet EVs.

🎧 For Your Listening Pleasure

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

🎧AI Driven Charger Uptime with Alex Aguero of Sitetracker ✅

In this edition of the EV Resource podcast, Sitetracker’s Director of Customer Success Alex Aguero talks to host Zach Hurst about the opportunities for artificial intelligence deveopments to enhance EV charging. From greater uptime to enhanced predictive maintenance, Alex shares how AI tools can support a better experience for EV drivers.

💻 WoW - Webinar of the Week

With HDEV fleets taking a lot of attention this week, it’s worth remembering the value of electrification at the local level with smaller commercial fleet vehicles.

💻Real Talk, Real ROI: Electrification for Fleet Operators🔌

In this online event, Mitra EV and Clean Fuels Ohio unpack how small and midsize fleet operators who are curious about how electric vehicles can enhance operations, reduce costs, and create new revenue opportunities

That’s a wrap on North American EV infrastructure for another week.

If you could charge at one iconic station in the US or Canada this year, where would it be? Hit reply to share the best site you’ve seen (or would love to visit).

See you next week and remember, always thank your hotel when they offer destination charging 🛌🏻⚡

Cheers,

Steve / Plug & Play EV

p.s. Drop me a line if you’ll be in Boston for the opening of the Logan Gigahub this Thursday 24th April. I’m planning to attend with some other local EV folks and would love to say hello.

🔔 Essential EV Follow - Erika Myers