The Weekly 1.21⚡(EVI News #25): Tesla Hits 70K in Texas. BC Ski Resort Lands AC Charging. Largest East Coast Fleet Hub Opens.

Good day, fellow fan of coffee* & kilowatts ☕⚡

Other networks might steal the show for highest power or most appealing amenities, but when it comes to sheer stall count consistency, nobody tops Tesla. The latest global Supercharger milestone emphasizes that fact this week, with North America acting as a driving force behind the network’s continued momentum.

*if the java don’t charge ya, insert beverage of choice here 🍵

Let’s shine some sun on this 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’s Latest Texas Location Pushes Superchargers Past 70,000 Stalls

News - Tesla Charging confirmed on Friday that its latest location in Burleson, TX pushes the Supercharger network past 70,000 charging stalls, globally.

Numbers - North America makes up approximately half of the global Supercharger count, with 34,991 stalls in operation across the US and Canada at the time of writing, according to supercharge.info.

Nuance - The milestone comes at a time when Superchargers are starting to face widespread competition in North America. While the network’s coverage remains far ahead of its competitors, many now offer greater charge power, superior amenities, and a more consistent experience when it comes to connector type and site-by-site access. Milestones like this, with posts in the tens of thousands, are a reminder that the Tesla Charging team is a relentless machine when it comes to deployment.

Next Up - Summer 2025 is the first travel season in which almost all EV models available in North America now have access to the Supercharger network. Most are accessed via an adapter that the driver must carry with them, whereas new players are deploying both CCS1 and NACS/J3400 handles at their charging stations. Watch to see whether the sheer coverage of the Supercharger network wins the day, or if EV drivers prefer to try a variety of new charging vendors as more options emerge.

🔍 Charging Vendor Spotlight: Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging (MB-HPC)

News - As the network celebrates the start of summer, more sites in the pipeline, and its first locations open in the Northeast, MB-HPC is also extending holiday weekend pricing for July 4th travel. All of the network’s charging locations will be $0.25 per kWh for EV drivers who plug in from July 3rd to July 7th, 2025.

Numbers - 385 stalls at 39 MB-HPC stations in 12 states will be discounted for the holiday weekend, with the rate a healthy 37.5% below the network’s already reasonable welcome pricing of $0.40 per kWh. Watch our latest vendor spotlight video for more 👇🏻

Nuance - Price competition is heating up. MB-HPC already has attractive welcome pricing at many of its newer locations, as well as competitive time-of-use rates at its HQ charging hub in Sandy Springs, GA. This holiday discount delivers travel DCFC prices that are close to home electricity rates, at a time when costs are rising. Expect a spike in utilization across the network and the potential for drivers to return at normal rates, as they experience what MB-HPC has to offer.

Next Up - More than 72 million Americans will hit the road later this week, with more electric vehicles than ever among the traveling masses. If you’re traveling in Texas, the Southeast, or up through the mid-Atlantic to the Northeast, there’s a good chance you’ll have an opportunity to take advantage of this discount. If it’s your first time at a Mercedes station - as it will be ours - let us know how it goes 📨. For the second half of the year, MB-HPC’s map shows 15 new locations coming soon, including the first stations for California, Utah, Indiana, New Hampshire, and Maine.

🔌 AC/DC: New AC Charging Hub for Whistler, BC

News: BC Hydro confirmed its new destination charging hub is now operational in Whistler, BC, offering affordable L2 power for EVs visiting the renowned resort town just in time for summer.

Numbers: 22 AC ports at the resort’s parking lot #3 adds to existing charging options in the area, including another (DCFC) site from BC Hydro and various stations from SWTCH and Tesla.

Nuance: Usually, when we discuss hubs, it’s in the context of DC charging serving a city or a busy travel corridor. It’s a defensible point that AC charging hubs are both more affordable and more important, as they are less expensive to build and deliver a greater number of ports for the money. Longer charging times are the counterpoint, but when it comes to locations with extended dwell times, such as tourist attractions, cultural centers, and resort destinations like Whistler, AC is a perfect fit and, usually, the smarter choice for local businesses.

Next Up: BC Hydro will celebrate the new Whistler AC hub as its largest charging location to date (by port count), then move on to its next location. The utility-led network is becoming the poster child for provincial EV infrastructure in Canada, with more than 400 charging ports added over the past year.

🛣️ On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - Only a handful of new stations added this week, but most of the major players were active, and Tesla’s additions, which often lag AFDC listings, make for a healthy seven days of openings overall.

Numbers - 140 DC charging ports at 44 charging locations added to AFDC this week.

Notable New Stations + AFDC Additions:

🔴 In addition to that marvelous milestone in Texas, Tesla Charging confirmed 136 new stalls at 9 other new Superchargers energized in 7 states (CA, CT, FL, GA, MA, PA, and TX).

⚡ Pilot-Flying J continued an impressive nationwide streak of openings, adding 5 new stations and moving closer to that magic 200 mark set by the network for its first activity period. 5 stations in 5 states (AZ, CO, IL, IN, and NM) is a solid week’s work, with the federally-funded Moriarty, NM station edging the NEVI map closer to 100 active sites.

💞 Love’s EV charging also opened a new NEVI site, as Kentucky added its fourth confirmed federally funded station to the map. Its location in Grayson, KY on I-64, with very few alternatives on the 100+ mile stretch between Lexington, KY and Huntington, WV.

🟦 FLO Charging ramped up its partnership with the Metro grocery chain with a new four-stall location in Montréal, QC. Announced one year ago, the venture will eventually deploy more than 500 fast charging ports at 130 stores across Quebec and Ontario.

🍁 Electric Circuit was another vendor busy in Quebec this week, opening three new locations with 7 fast charging stalls in Gatineau, Marsoui, and Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon.

⚡A new EVgo station in Oxnard, CA returns the network’s focus to metro/suburban areas in the Golden State, while the aforementioned Pilot-Flying J expansion continues growth along travel corridors under the EVgo eXtend model. 8 new stalls at up to 350kW will charge up residents and visitors to the coastal city, 60 miles west of Los Angeles.

⭐ iONNA opened its latest location in Texas, with 10 new stalls added at the Grand Prairie (North) Rechargery Relay station, in the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex. Another location from the network also looks about ready to energize only 12 miles to the south, which will also be in Grand Prairie but will double as a travel option for the I-20 corridor.

 🤠 Staying in Texas, Mercedes-Benz added to its HPC network presence in the Lone Star State with a new station energized in Baytown, TX. More than one-third of the MB-HPC network is made up of locations in Texas, at the time of writing.

⭕ Red-E Charging added 10 new fast charging ports at four locations in Michigan (x2), Missouri, and Ohio. The network also batch-added a large number of previously opened stations, placing it in the top 10 of North American DCFC vendors, by AFDC site count.

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: Facing Cost Criticism, Rivian Trials TOU Rates on Its Adventure Network

News: A Rivian Adventure Network (RAN) station in Charlotte, NC is now operating on time-of-use (TOU) pricing, indicating the potential for RAN to become the latest fast charging network with rates that vary based on the time of day that drivers plug in.

Numbers: Four separate time slots are broken out, then multiplied out to 16 potential rates based on weekday vs. weekend and Rivian vs. non-Rivian model. The cheapest time to plug in is 2AM to 8AM, which is $0.27/kWh for Rivians and $0.31/kWh for other models. Peak is capped at the original flat rate of the Charlotte RAN, which is $0.38/kWh for Rivians and $0.45/kWh for other models, both from 8AM to 10PM.

Nuance: Although this is only live at one station — and, notably, one that was already quite affordable, unlike many other RAN locations — it indicated Rivian’s willingness to experiment with pricing to make the wider network more compelling for non-Rivian models. Rising RAN prices caused a stir earlier this year, just as the network opened to other models, with flat rates as high as $0.74/kWh. A move to TOU pricing across the network would at least offer some travelers respite from those peak rates.

Next Up: Watch for more sites to adopt TOU rates, especially at high-utilization RAN stations, which will provide a better indicator of whether tiered pricing shifts customer behavior and/or attracts more business. Also watch those tier windows, which at first glance lean heavily on a broad daytime window to main peak pricing, which could limit the appeal of lower but ultimately inaccessible TOU rate tiers.

🚛 Fleet Focus: EV Edison Opens East Coast’s Largest Fleet Charging Facility in New Jersey

News - EV Edison confirmed the launch of a new electric fleet facility in New Jersey, the largest multi-class charging hub on the East Coast to date.

Numbers - 30 high-power charging dispensers from Zerova Technologies, capable of charging class 4-8 fleet vehicles at up to 180kW.

Nuance - While coverage of the West Coast’s fleet charging hubs is a weekly occurrence, the East Coast rarely sees such announcements. As it seeks to attract new electric fleet customers to New Jersey, EV Edison’s site points to powering operations for Einride, a freight tech company operating electric and autonomous vehicles. Einride is staging its vehicles at the site and offering its trucks to regional partners for sustainable transport operations in the Tri-state area and beyond.

Next Up - Though phase one is capped at 180kW, expansion plans for subsequent phases tout power up to 360kW and greater capacity to meet rising demand for commercial EV charging on the East Coast.

🎧 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 return to our fortnightly Coast-to-Coast EVs podcast to talk formative Trans-Canada road trips and EV charger reliability with the team at Clockwork: Andrea Curry, Jenn Buchanan, and Matth Loos.

🎧Clockwork founders on measuring reliability + Trans-Canada EV road trips 🔧

In this episode, the co-hosts and co-founders explore the various forms of charging infrastructure issues and the importance of having visibility over the wider network, as well as individual site concerns.

Then there’s the value of a good, long EV road trip, which applies double if you take it with your fellow co-founder!

🧮 Data Dive - DCFC Site Turnaround Times Accelerate

An appropriately quick data dive this week, as we consider the fastest turnaround times for DCFC sites in the United States.

This is prompted by the headline-grabbing performance of the Electric Era team at a recently opened site with Costco in Northport, FL, which took only 54 days to move from a green light on the project to six energized dispensers serving Costco visitors.

How does this compare to the industry as a whole?

There are various nuances to the deployment of DC fast charging, not the least of which are permitting and final utility inspections. Happily, this example provides data points for all of them. Let’s take a look:

✅ The 54 days to completion break out as follows: 1) Proceed to Plan Completion = 12 days (22%), 2) Permitting Phase = 33 days (61%) , 3) Construction = 17 days (31%). Stages 1 + 2 happen simultaneously, leaving the final 8% to a 4-5 day period between planning/permitting completion and the ability to start construction (inc. a weekend).

🚧 In terms of “shovels to sessions”, a popular metric for EV site watchers on platforms like PlugShare, the timeline above puts Electric Era’s site at a mere 17 days. This undeniably beats the next best site we’ve seen, at the first Hawai’i NEVI station in Kahului, which broke ground on Feb. 1st, 2024 and was completed before the end of the same month, for a 27-day “construction-to-commissioned” turnaround.

📊 Sticking with NEVI site construction times, the range is broad and emphasizes why there’s excitement around charging providers who build out in under one month. The current “shovel to sessions” average across 83 NEVI-funded sites with identified construction start + station energized dates sits at 111 days, with the aforementioned low of 27 days at the top of the pile and the worst performers a handful of Pilot-Flying J location in Ohio, which took 230-240 days to complete after starting construction.

📉 In general, turnaround times at these NEVI sites are showing trending down, with sites energized in 2024 averaging 113 days, while a similar number of sites activated so far in 2025 cut that metric to 107 days. Electric Era’s own NEVI locations in New Mexico and Delaware helped contribute to that trend, with both locations posting turnaround times in the double digits, rather than the more common 100+ days.

⚡Away from the NEVI program, we’re beginning to see rising network iONNA also play in the mid double-digit range for sites breaking ground to charging vehicles. The first site in Apex, NC began construction in October 2024 and was launched in beta mode before the year was out, while a more recent May opening in Valdosta, GA had broken ground less than 50 days earlier.

What’s the fastest site you’ve seen built out in your area?

Have any “coming soon” sites lingered for a year or more before finally being energized?

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

🔋💯 Topping Off…

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:

Redwood Materials deploys second-life EV batteries to power microgrids

Uber and C40 Cities will bring more charging infrastructure to Boston + Phoenix

Ribbon cut on solar charging depot for electric school bus fleet in Turlock, CA

Town of Jackson, WY issues Request for Information to inform RFP for 20 charging stations - Deadline: Monday July 7th, 2025

Federal Transit Administration Low/No Emission Bus grant program NOFO - Deadline: Monday July 14th, 2025

New York tops up/expands ZEV Truck Voucher program to include more equipment and vehicle types

The application period for California’s FCCP incentives program has been pushed back from a July to August open date (window: 8/5/25 to 10/29/25)

📆EVent of the Week: Unlocking Charger Value for CPOs

It’s a quieter EVent week for North America due to the holiday on Friday, but this one is worth putting on your calendar for the workplace return just after the long weekend.

🖥️ Introduction to EVerest (LF Energy) Open Source EV software stack 🏔️

Better understand the value of open source collaboration and how EVerest integrates with existing industry standards in this 45-minute session from lead developers at Pionix.

The digital event takes place on Tuesday July 8th, 2025, at 10AM (Eastern) / 7AM (Pacific). Register here to attend.

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

See you next week and remember, every overnight destination charge on your travels means one less DCFC visit the next day… charge where you sleep this summer! 🛣️🛌🏻⚡

Cheers,

Steve / Plug & Play EV

🔔 Essential EV Follow - Kitty Adams Hoksbergen

📍 Charge Site of Week: Circle K/Tesla Supercharger - Wilson, NC (I-95)