The Weekly 1.21⚡(EVI News #21): Tesla Exits NJ Turnpike. Voltpost Energized in Illinois. Fleet Charging, Mapped.

Good day, fellow electric adventurer ⚡🧳

A hectic shortened work week here at Plug & Play EV HQ, with no fewer than seven charging vendors visited on our travels (eight, if you count the not-quite-ready Mercedes Benz High-Power Charging site in South Windsor, CT that I checked out…🚧👀)

Wherever you went, I hope your travels were safe, enjoyable, and (where possible) electrified!

With another thousand all-electric miles on our clock, let’s dive into the week’s EVI developments (and if you have a few extra seconds, do send this to a colleague or friend who'd find it useful) ⤵️

📢 Tesla and New Jersey Disagree on NJ Turnpike Charging Exclusivity

News - The New Jersey Turnpike Authority advised this week that it will transition to a new provider for DC fast charging at its service areas. We’ve previously reported on Applegreen Electric’s expansion into the Garden State. It appears that will now be cemented with exclusive rights to operate charging hardware at these locations, with Tesla removing its existing service area Superchargers in NJ as I type this.

Numbers - 9 service areas are in line to host Applegreen Electric stations, of which 6 already have the vendor’s hardware available. How soon these will transition to add NACS/J3400 handles, as well as what form and ratio this will take, remains to be seen. However, the hardware is capable of up to 400 kW at 1,000 volts, which represents a step up from the current 250 kW/500V Supercharger capabilities.

Nuance - The argument for “universal” access vs “exclusivity” isn’t as simple as either side makes out. For their part, Tesla Charging makes the case for co-location and open competition, but hasn’t unlocked its Superchargers on the turnpike for use by non-Tesla models to date. Tesla also has no 1,000V charging hardware in the marketplace (yet), which limits charging power on 800V EVs. Meanwhile, the NJ Turnpike Authority cites “universal open access EV chargers” as its underlying motivation, despite the Applegreen deployments to date offering primarily CCS1 handles. Both of these scenarios can change, of course, but neither party is offering full transparency on their decisions to date.

Next Up - Applegreen stations at the following stops will be available from the end of next week: Vince Lombardi, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Stockton, James Fenimore Cooper, Joyce Kilmer, and Walt Whitman. Three other Turnpike service areas are in line for a retrofit by the end of 2025: Molly Pitcher (July), Clara Barton, and John Fenwick (by Fall).

🔍 Charging Vendor Spotlight: Electric Era

News - Seattle-based Electric Era continues to expand into new states with its diverse, in-house technology stack, combining rapid deployment with battery-backed charging.

Numbers - 17 stations energized across 10 states, with an eleventh expected to be added this week as the company lights up its first location in Delaware.

Nuance - Electric Era deployed its first site at Plaid Pantry in late 2023 and has developed an impressive spread of stations since then, with activations along both coasts and several map pins emerging in the middle of the US. To hear more about the company’s approach to technology and deployment, check out our conversation with CEO Quincy Lee and VP of Site Implementation, Lang Reynolds, earlier this year.

Next Up - That first location in Delaware is all set for utility energization this week, with another 10+ stations on deck across the country. This includes new states like Colorado, Ohio, and Georgia.

🔌 AC/DC: Voltpost Brings Public Post Charging to Illinois

News: The destination charging provider Voltpost, whose solution involves retrofitting existing street lighting posts to house EV ports, launched its first public site in Oak Park, IL.

Numbers: Two new J1772 charge ports, with power delivery up to 7.6kW (240V at 11A). Pricing set at $0.25 per kWh at launch.

Nuance: Voltpost has scored several big projects, including work with Connecticut’s IES program and NY DOT fleet charging, but all deployments to date have been for private use. Cutting the ribbon on a publicly available option in Illinois brings this intriguing solution into the plans of locals without home charging and Midwest-bound EV drivers who stay the night.

Next Up: The aforementioned project wins are complemented by funding in Michigan and California, providing Voltpost with a nationwide deployment path over the next year or two. If these early locations see the kind of use observed from curbside charging pilots in New York City, expect to see them popping up on a lamppost near you, if you live in a densely populated area with limited destination charging options.

🛣️ On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - A very slow week in terms of additions to the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), with the long holiday weekend appearing to take its toll. It’s the first time we’ve seen fewer than 100 ports in this weekly digest, at least. Look to the first week of June to see if we have a wave of openings to offset the holiday hangover.

Numbers - 97 fast charging ports at 36 charging station locations added to AFDC. In a change from previous weeks, Canada had a strong showing with more ports added than usual and activations across six different provinces.

Notable Stations + Additions to AFDC 

⚡ Pilot-Flying J adds new stations in Ocala, FL, Erie, PA, and Big Spring, TX bringing their total station count across the United States to more than 170 locations as we enter June. The Texas location is a NEVI-funded site, which brings the state’s total to seven stations opened with the assistance of federal funding.

🟦 A new Electric Circuit station in Quebec brings six new charging stalls to Stanstead, QC. Power is up to 360kW at the location, which serves a more scenic route near the eastern Canadian border with the United States.

⚡ Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging expands its presence in the Southeast with a new site in Ellenton, FL. Nine new stalls at up to 400 kW are now available at the Simon Properties retail site, with familiar MB-HPC “Welcome Pricing” set at $0.40/kWh (net).

🍁 Petro Canada updated another location along its Trans-Canada Highway network, this time in Calgary, AB. As with previous upgraded sites, this station has transitioned to ChargePoint.

🔴 Tesla Charging confirmed new Superchargers energized in 10 different states, including Mountain Home on I-84 in Idaho, and 16 new stalls in Cleveland, TN.

🟢 Updating on last week’s vendor spotlight covering the outage of MidAmerican Energy chargers in Iowa, a handful of sites appear to be transitioning to new provider, ChargeLab. Five sites, representing 10% of the network, now show up and hopefully indicate progress towards MidAmerican’s goal of having sites back up and running before summer.

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: bp pulse Evolves Launch Pricing to Time of Use

News: One month after opening its first airport Gigahub near Boston Logan airport, bp pulse shifted the trial introductory pricing to another ongoing experiment, with time-of-use (TOU) rates now in effect at the Boston Gigahub.

Numbers: The Gigahub’s launch rate of $0.36 per kWh is maintained, but only for drivers visiting between the hours of 10PM and 6AM. Breakfast through lunchtime charge sessions cost six cents more, at $0.42 per kWh from 6AM to 2PM. Peak hours are 2PM to 10PM, which at $0.48 per kWh is still several cents below the national average observed in our bi-weekly pricing index.

Nuance: A peak rate of $0.48 per kWh puts the Logan Gigahub closer to Greater Boston fast charging competitor prices, but retains a very affordable rate for rideshare drivers and other price-conscious users who can schedule their visits for off-peak hours.

Next Up: Given the potential for high-utilization locations near airports and important travel corridors, bp pulse’s choices around pricing at new sites are worth following. The pending launch of a massive new Gigahub near LAX and another in Duarte, CA will be the next spots to watch. If pricing remains as competitive as it is in Boston, bp pulse could be onto a winner with low launch rates that transition to tiered TOU pricing.

🚛 Fleet Focus: MHD Infrastructure Map Enhancements

News - Calstart shared an enhanced resource to help freshly electrified fleets find charging options. The National Zero-Emission MHD Infrastructure Map provides visibility of nationwide ZEV charging infrastructure and now features improved data visualization with expanded development status information.

Numbers - Only 17 charging hubs show open at the time of writing, 59% of which are in California. A further 16 commercial charging stations are under construction, primarily serving the stretch of I-10 between Los Angeles, CA, and El Paso, TX.

Nuance - Against the backdrop of federal efforts to interfere with the state’s clean transportation goals, organizations like Calstart are working to continue developing resources that will support fleet electrification. With infrastructure companies like Terawatt, Greenlane, and Prologis all opening new MHD EV charging hubs in the state this spring, the map pins will inevitably continue to grow in the second half of the year.

Next Up - Prologis will add its Vernon, CA charging hub to the map later this month. Expect the Golden State to continue leading deployment of medium-to-heavy-duty EV charging, as many of the fleet incentives and post-2030 ZEV targets originate there. Those efforts should also feed out into neighboring states along commercial transport corridors, such as up the West Coast to Portland and Seattle, and out along I-10 into Arizona.

🎧 For Your Listening Pleasure

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

This week we travel to Texas, with a call for pragmatism over ideology in the state’s power generation policy, courtesy of the Energy Capital podcast:

🎧Doug Lewin & Drew Darby on energy solutions vs. political theater in Texas☀️

As Texas House Energy Resources Chairman Drew Darby points out, the big challenge in Texas centers on energy sourced from convenient locations at a competitive cost. Texas has abundant resources from many cost-effective generation points that also happen to be clean tech, but bills working their way through the state’s legislature threaten the ability of Texas to continue leading energy tech.

This conversation makes the refreshing case for a “yes, and…” approach, which brings the most cost-effective technologies together to advance the energy revolution across the Lone Star State.

🧮 Data Dive - Available Charging Remains a Drag Factor on EV Sentiment (But Is It Valid?)

Back to the annual event of gauging customer sentiment towards electric vehicles this week, as JD Power’s 2025 EV Consideration survey is upon us. Unsurprisingly, given how much it has been in the headlines this year, public charging remains high on the list of customer concerns.

Here are some of the survey’s takeaways related to infrastructure:

✅ A majority of auto shoppers were “EV curious”, with 59% likely to consider an electric vehicle. That still leaves more than a third of buyers unconvinced, with how to “fuel” the vehicle being a primary sticking point.

⛔ Charging station availability remains a top concern for prospective EV buyers, as 52% of respondents listed limited options as a reason for rejecting electric vehicles.

↔️ The gap between infrastructure expansion and consumer education appears to be a major factor here, as the US and Canada have added 17% more charging stations so far in 2025, when compared to the first five months of 2024, according to AFDC.

🔴 We also know that this data is compiled at a time when drivers are only just beginning to feel the benefit of added charging options from the Tesla Supercharger network. As more OEMs transition to NACS/J3400, will the availability of more than 12,000 new charging ports bring down the percentage of consumers worried about public charging?

🧭 Interestingly, the geography of shopper concerns doesn’t align with where charging infrastructure is poor, or where policymakers are against electrification. The lowest shares of consumers stating “very likely” as their intention to consider an EV live around the Great Lakes. Wisconsin (18%) and Minnesota (17%) both have pro-EV policymakers and infrastructure expansion embracing programs like NEVI, indicating that either gaps in consumer knowledge or concerns around cold-weather performance worry shoppers.

⚡The other states with the lowest “very likely” responses are Midwest neighbors Kentucky (18%) and Ohio (16%). Both have governors who embraced the NEVI program, with Ohio currently the leading state in NEVI station deployment. Even Kentucky has a handful of active stations and sufficient charging infrastructure to travel, though political persuasions in both states could now play a role, as federal policy turns against EVs.

What do you think: is charging infrastructure in North America still insufficient to support the next phase of EV adoption or does consumer awareness of available charging lag what’s actually happening in the market?

Hit reply to share your thoughts or 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):

School bus EV manufacturer Lion Electric purchased by Quebec-based investors

Greenlane Infrastructure hosts 20 fleet vehicle vendors at its charging hub in Colton, CA

Ontario earmarks $92M CAD for additional EV charging infrastructure

Electric Era finalizes first “rip & replace” install at former Freewire charge site

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, bring your business this summer to hotels and attractions that offer destination charging! 🛣️🛌🏻⚡

Cheers,

Steve / Plug & Play EV

🔔 Essential EV Follow - Nick Nigro