The Weekly 1.21⚡(EVI News #20): Memorial Day EV Travel. Iowa Charger Outage. The Power of Dynamic Pricing.

Good day, fellow electron enthusiast ⚡🔋

It’s a long weekend heavily associated with travel, which could mean you’re short on time this Sunday, or simply scanning to catch up as you head back to work later this week.

Either way, we’ll dive right in here… ⤵️ (but if you have a few extra seconds, do send this to a colleague or friend who'd find it useful!)

📢 Memorial Day Travel Emphasizes New Charging Options for EV Drivers

News - Charging vendors are adopting various strategies to win over EV drivers hitting the road for the long weekend, from welcome pricing and half-off charging deals to sharing travel tips and new station announcements. With charging sessions predicted to jump by one-third, which providers will attract new business and who will be left behind?

Numbers - AAA predicts 39.4 million Americans will hit the road this weekend, making up more than 87% of travel share for the long weekend. EV data analytics firm Paren forecasts DCFC session growth up to 35% at peak travel times, compared to 2024.

Nuance - More EV drivers will hit the road this year, as part of the first big travel test of 2025. Many will be faced with new charging vendor choices, as neither iONNA nor Tesla were an option for many drivers in 2024, while rising networks like Mercedes-Benz HPC, bp pulse, and Pilot-Flying J’s EVgo stations were only just gaining momentum. Furthermore, complimentary charging plans that biased some drivers to established networks like Electrify America and EVgo have now expired, encouraging those customers to consider other options based on power, pricing, convenience, and amenities.

Next Up - While not fully established by any stretch, the new wave of charging vendors available to EV drivers this Memorial Day offers a glimpse of what’s to come. More options. Greater competition. Stall count/congestion. Adjusted pricing. Adapter requirements. Appropriate power. All will be a factor in DCFC selection from here.

🔍 Charging Vendor Spotlight: MidAmerican Energy

News - MidAmerican Energy is an energy provider based in Des Moines, IA, whose service territory covers approximately two-thirds of Iowa. Since 2020, the company has also operated a MidAmerican fast charging network across the state for EV drivers.

Numbers - 100 DCFC dispensers across 50 locations, ranging from 50-150kW power delivery. As of April 30th, 2025, all of these locations are unavailable due to their Shell Sky software provider ceasing operations in North America. Migrating the network to a new provider will take more than a month, according to MidAmerican’s website.

Nuance - Losing the state’s largest DCFC network as summer travel ramps up is a significant blow to Iowa EV drivers and travelers visiting the state in an electric vehicle. Alternatives such as Tesla Superchargers (seven locations) and Electrify America (five locations) exist, but will have to soak up the overflow from MidAmerican’s outage during Memorial Day peak travel. Many locations also do not support CHAdeMO, as MidAmerican does, leaving Nissan LEAF owners and other models using the outgoing standard with far fewer travel charging options this month.

Next Up - A note on the company’s EV charging page advises drivers to look for a new charging app for its network, which it expects to be back online by the middle of June.

🔌 AC/DC: Toyota’s New RAV4 Walks the Line

News: Ever the contrarian when it comes to full electrification, Toyota unveils the 2026 RAV4 plug-in hybrid EV (PHEV) with both AC and DC charge ports… on certain trims… if they make enough of them.

Numbers: AC charging almost doubles the power from previous RAV4 PHEVs, jumping to 11 kW via its J1772 port. The Woodland and XSE model trims will also add a CCS1 DC charging port, which Toyota says will charge from 10-80% in half an hour.

Nuance: Do we need a DC port on a plug-in hybrid? No. Especially when it will be sitting on a fast charger for 30 minutes to add local commuter miles that could just as easily be added at home, or on a more powerful modern destination charger at work or a retail location. Anyone who has endured the abominable early DC charging profile of a Toyota bZ4x or Subaru Solterra will understand the shudder running through EV drivers who pull up to a busy DCFC location with multiple Toyota models plugged in.

Next Up: Watch to see which trims and editions of the 2026 RAV4 that Toyota pushes as the model comes to market. Hopes were high for the well-specced RAV4 Prime upon its release, yet limited supply from the automaker constrained its availability. As Toyota continues to sit on the electrification fence, don’t expect the addition of a DC port to have BEV drivers stepping back to a hybrid.

🛣️ On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - A quieter week of activations and additions to the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) in the run up to Memorial Day weekend in the US. Texas had a strong showing this week, with 39% of the new station locations energized in the Lone Star State.

Numbers - 183 fast charging ports at 53 charging station locations added to AFDC.

Notable Stations + Additions to AFDC

⚡ Pilot-Flying J adds new stations in Duncan, SC and Chemult, OR, bringing their total station count across the United States to 168 as the start of summer travel commences. With its strong coverage along I-40, the P-FJ network is a couple of key station openings (most notably in Tucumcari, NM) short of crossing the country.

🎲 Tesla placed a safe bet on new Supercharger locations in Las Vegas, which is about to pay off for EV drivers this summer. The location shown below at the Twain Center, which was under construction when we visited for EVCS in March, is now open, adding to last week’s opening in North Las Vegas. 28 stalls at Twain, 12 at the North site, and another eight at the South Town Center mean 50+ new chargers for Vegas in May alone. 💪🏻🔴

📶 Additional Supercharger openings last week confirmed by Tesla Charging include 24 stalls in Brampton, ON, 20 stalls in Asheville, NC, and smaller sites in Asheville, NC, Bluffton, SC, Tofino, BC, and Coulee City, WA.

🟦 Nova Scotia Power continued its development of a provincewide fast charging network with a new station in Millbrook. This is the fifth of 10 new fast charging locations expected to be open by summer, with another five in the pipeline before the end of 2025.

🍁 FLO was busy again north of the border, with new locations in Manitoba and Bayfield, NB. The latter is located on the way to Prince Edward Island, as highlighted in Walter/tNAC’s weekly update below, and adds an intriguing option for visitors to the area. It’s only a 50kW station, but the attractive location at Cape Jourimain Nature Centre looks like a spot where we’d want to linger.

⚡ Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging opened two new 10-stall sites in Greensboro, NC and Denton, TX, with the network now at more than 30 locations across the United States. Though the Texas triangle and Southeastern states maintain the lion’s share of locations, the Northeast and California are next in line for expansion.

🟢 The City of Lynwood in Washington added some heavy-duty hardware for a municipal location, with three ChargePoint Express Plus units powering six stalls at up to 200 kW. Not bad for a City Hall location, although the proximity to I-5 will make it valuable for travelers and locals alike.

🔶Rivian energized new eight-stall Adventure Network locations in King of Prussia, PA and Ventura, CA. These are brand new stations, built from the ground up with the latest Rivian charging hardware, as opposed to the widespread upgrades underway across the existing RAN network to make older locations suitable for other electric vehicles.

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.

💲DCFC Pricing: Dynamic Pricing Powers Increased Charger Utilization, Says CNZ Study

News: A study by the Center for Net Zero, in partnership with the Octopus Electroverse network, found a significant correlation between dynamic price changes at participating chargers. The study was conducted in the United Kingdom but has implications for earlier-stage markets like the US and Canada, where EV charging is only just starting to become a competitive sector.

Numbers: 117% increase in utilization. That was the result when pricing dropped by 40% during what the network operator tagged as “plunge pricing” events, communicated to more than 110,000 EV drivers in the UK. Smaller price drops also yielded utilization spikes, albeit less dramatic, as a 15% discount prompted increased charger volume of 30%.

Nuance: In the first five months of this digest, we’ve covered several small-scale price experiments by individual networks, but none with the extensive impact of this study on the Electroverse network. Charger price transparency is further ahead in the UK and the whole country could fit into some states many times over, but the underlying takeaways could still apply here: with enough EV drivers in one place, offering substantial discounts when power is cheaper is more effective than messaging around sustainability.

Next Up: If this study interests you, fast forward to the “Data Dive” section below for more takeaways! ⏩

✒️ Policy: States Form New Coalition to Offset Federal EV Disruption

News - Climate Alliance states including New Jersey, California, and Oregon formed the Affordable Clean Cars Coalition to advocate for more affordable electric vehicles, improved access to charging stations, and better air quality.

Numbers - 11 governors from the multi-state network launched in 2017 signed onto the new coalition, with the notable absence of Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro. PA has continued to progress its awards from the federally funded National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, making it a surprise omission from this group.

Nuance - Although the coalition is newly formed, the names are familiar and no-one would expect those involved to be in favor of the proposals targeting electric vehicles and renewables that are winding their way through Congress. The move feels largely symbolic, although meaningful state-level action as the national landscape shifts is one of the ways that EV technology has continued to gain momentum in the face of federal opposition.

Next Up - Regardless of state pushback, all eyes remain at the federal level to see which provisions of a distinctly anti-EV budget bill will be kept by the Senate. If proposed items such as annual EV registration fees and clean vehicle tax credits are maintained, it will fall to states to step in with their own concrete policies to continue the momentum towards transportation electrification.

🚛 Fleet Focus: Windrose Electric Trucks Complete Interoperability Testing with Greenlane

News - Windrose conducted interoperability tests with its all-electric class 8 truck at Greenlane Infrastructure’s recently-opened HDEV charging hub in Colton, CA.

Numbers - Two Alpitronic HYC400 dispensers delivered 738 kW via the Windrose truck’s dual CCS1 connector system.

Nuance - With a 729 kWh battery pack onboard, some serious charging power is required to keep charge sessions effective. Windrose’s dual connector system is one approach to leveraging existing infrastructure, which typically caps out around 400kW. Charging stations with a suitable layout to connect two dispensers to one large vehicle aren’t currently common, hence the focus on dedicated HDEV hubs like Greenlane’s new site in Colton.

Next Up - Until Megawatt Charging System (MCS)-enabled stations move from planning to active pins on the map, successful interoperability tests for CCS1-equipped trucks provide a bridge to the future of fleet charging for heavy-duty electric vehicles.

🎧 For Your Listening Pleasure

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

We head north of the border this week, tuning into the Tech Around Town podcast:

🎧 Clockwork team talk Trans-Canada EV road trip + charging reliability 🔧

Clockwork’s co-founders, Andrea Curry and Jennifer Buchanan, join the Communitech team behind Tech Around Town to unpack the benefits of EV ownership as tech entrepreneurs and their mission to fix what’s broken in the charging sector.

🧮 Data Dive - The Impact of Dynamic Prices on EV Charging Demand

Back to the CNZ/Octopus Energy pricing study, which you can read as a full paper or in summary here.

I spoke to David Ferris at E&E News about the potential implications of this UK study for North American EV charging earlier this week. The piece is behind a paywall but you can read it here if you’re a subscriber.

Either way, there are some juicy morsels to snack on as we consider alignment with the US and Canadian EV charging markets 🔍⬇️

📊 Pricing shifts need to be substantial to truly adjust demand. A 15% discount offered to the 110,000+ EV drivers in this study only yielded a 30% increase in charging volume, while the 40% discount was almost 4x as effective, delivering a 117% increase.

🏡 North American states and provinces are more geographically diverse than my native UK, which is a relatively densely-populated country where home charging can be harder to implement. Many US and Canadian EV drivers are less reliant on public charging and, thus, less influenced by dynamic pricing changes at those stations.

🌆 However, cities and busy metro areas in North America have closer characteristics to the UK driver base and are more likely to have a developed public charging infrastructure than rural areas. As the reliable impact of price events was most prominently identified in those drivers living within 10 km (6.2 miles) of a charger, the study’s findings could be a valuable indicator of behavior in parts of the US and Canada where public options are abundant.

💲 EV drivers in lower income areas exhibited greater price sensitivity and were more influenced by pricing events. This has implications for deploying electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in economically vulnerable areas of the US and Canada. Despite the fact that these areas are often the most heavily impacted by poor air quality, economic benefits are more likely to be influential than “green messaging”.

⚡ The study is also meaningful for North American utilities, who have a clear interest in leveling out demand as EV adoption grows here. CNZ found in another study that flexible EV charging times could absorb over around 15TWh of otherwise wasted wind and solar in the UK by 2030. The organization is already an advisor to the state of California.

What data from the CNZ study jumps out at you?

Hit reply to share your thoughts or to recommend a data dive item for future editions.

🔋💯Topping Off…

Here’s a selection of items we couldn’t squeeze into other sections (or have covered to a greater degree in previous editions):

bp pulse partners with Waffle House for fast charging in southern states

Analysis in California puts the cost of “fueling” an EV at 11.9 cents per mile

XCharge North America secures exclusive charging deal with Roady’s Truck Stops

SparkCharge raises $30.5M to expand mobile EV/fleet charging solutions

Blink Charging to lay off 20% of its workforce

Tesla extends rideshare fleet purchase program to Lyft drivers

If you found this edition useful, consider forwarding it to a friend, colleague, or family member to share our efforts.

See you next week and remember, as the unofficial start of summer EV travel begins, PlugShare is your co-pilot 📌🛣️⚡

Cheers,

Steve / Plug & Play EV

🔔 Essential EV Follow - Walter Schulze