The Weekly 1.21⚡ (EVI News #42) - Superchargers Dominate Q3 DCFC Deployments. Maryland Awards Boost Travel/Workplace Charging. Uber Revamps Electric Rideshare. Walmart Unites Retail + Charging Discounts.

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Good day, fellow electric adventurer 🔋🧭

A whipsaw week in the world of electrification saw established automakers committing to electric vehicles and adjacent products, while dropping certain model lines, as Tesla reported record EV sales and booming energy division results for Q3, but still saw its profits slip.

On the infrastructure side, a steady stream of new charging stations is just the beginning of what could be a charging renaissance in the United States. This growth should also resonate in Canada, as vendors like IONNA find their way north of the border.

Between the stirring giants (Walmart, IONNA, MB-HPC), the ambitious rising stars (Electric Era, Red E, Rivian), and networks bolstered by NEVI funds flowing again (Francis, EV Gateway, Love’s), it’s likely we’ll see only acceleration, at least for the next 12-18 months.

Against that backdrop, here’s your summary of this week’s EV infrastructure developments across the United States and Canada ⤵️

📢 Tesla Q3 Earnings Call Highlights Supercharger Deployment Dominance

News - Tesla’s financial results for Q3 were closely watched for EV sales and adjacent business performance, with mixed outcomes. However, the Tesla Charging team recorded its best quarter for Supercharger deployment since 2022.

Numbers - Tesla added more than 2,000 North American Superchargers at the stall level in Q325, which is also the number that has been added in California since Q324, according to Tesla Charging. That number comes during a week in which CA passed 10,000 Supercharger stalls, meaning one-fifth of that deployment occurred over the past year. It takes the next 10 providers together to match that level of port/stall deployments.

Nuance - Most of the numbers making headlines take the stall/port count, which is useful but only tells part of the story. Tesla typically builds Superchargers bigger than its competitors in terms of stall/port count, with every dispenser serving a stall but the potential power level lower than most competitors, at peak usage. Taken at the station/location level, which simply compares how many pins each vendor has added to the charging map, ChargePoint adds slightly more discrete locations than Tesla, with 16.2% of Q3 adds compared to 14.3% for Superchargers. EVgo also ranks close to Tesla deployments, with 11.5% of location additions in Q325.

Next Up - Tesla shows little sign of slowing down, with weekly additions to our permitting/planning section (usually identified by MarcoRP on X) and the looming potential of Supercharger for Business, which will add Tesla hardware to third-party sites while continuing to build the Supercharger network. The first of those sites is expected to be activated in Q4 by Suncoast Charging, in Land O’Lakes, FL.

🔍 Charging Vendor Spotlight: Electric Era

News - Electric Era activated the second NEVI station in Delaware this month, the only charging vendor to make progress in the state so far. The Seattle-based company is also making progress across the United States, with recent activations in Kentucky and Colorado building network coverage away from the coasts.

Numbers - 21 locations energized across 12 states, with a further 30 showing “coming soon” status on the company’s station map.

Nuance - Electric Era has assembled a strong team of engineers and software professionals to deliver targeted coastal expansion with its current technology stack, but the next phase of growth is where things get really interesting. A new platform, developed entirely in-house, promises to give that growing team full rein over the company’s technology stack and greater scope to build solutions that unite EV customer dwell time with the retail offerings of their site hosts.

Next Up - In addition to tens of new stations in the pipeline for its current system, which uses SK Signet 400kW dispensers alongside an integrated battery storage system, Electric Era also shared plans for a next-generation, AI-driven charging platform called RetailEdge earlier this month. The system promises to augment the company’s obsessive focus on reliability by using integrated AI assistance to answer driver questions, support retail site hosts, and improve first-time charge success rates.

🔌AC/DC: Dieselgate Funds Will Support Workplace and Public Destination Chargers in Maryland

News: Maryland’s Department of Environment shared the latest awards for funds arising from the state’s Dieselgate settlement. This includes destination charging boosts for public parking lots in Baltimore and workplace charging for WSSC Water and AstraZeneca, among the award winners.

Numbers: More than $5M was allocated to charging stations across 35 locations, 66% of which will go to AC charging installs at public parking locations, multi-unit dwellings, and workplace lots for employees to charge their electric vehicles during the day.

Nuance: The awards represent the final round of funding from Maryland’s portion of a settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and Volkswagen. VW’s use of illegal defeat devices to mask the true emissions of diesel vehicles, more commonly referred to as “Dieselgate”, has delivered funding that many states have used to deploy EV charging. This is Maryland’s third round of awards drawn from those funds.

Next Up: No timeline was provided for the installation of charging hardware, but it’s reasonable to assume that the AC charging installations will proceed more quickly than the DCFC corridor installs. View the full map of funded locations here.

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🛣️ On the Road: This Week in DCFC

News - A steady week for DCFC activations and additions to the AFDC, with major players including IONNA and Electrify America absent while several competitors pick up the slack.

Numbers - 179 DC charging ports at 48 charging locations, in 27 states and provinces, added to AFDC this week.

Notable New Stations + AFDC Additions:

🛫 Any week with a bp pulse airport hub opening is a good one for juicing the port count, so the activation of the Houston Gigahub right next to William P. Hobby airport is welcome news. 40 stalls all served by 150kW Tritium hardware is an interesting choice, eschewing higher power units in favor of steady charge stations aligned with the needs of local rideshare fleets.

🔴 Tesla was back on the activation trail with a vengeance this week, adding 184 new stalls at 12 new Superchargers across seven states this week. New Jersey, Oregon, and Virginia all got two new locations, with others in Florida, Kentucky, and New York. A 40-stall location in Baker also pushed Tesla past the 10,000 Supercharger stall milestone in the state of California, along with activations in Benicia and Long Beach, CA.

🔵 EVgo posted a wide range of openings as well, all of which occurred under the eXtend partnership with Pilot-Flying J. New P-FJ stations in seven different states (IL, KS, MD, MN, SC, VA, and WY) make for impressive reading, with the location in Grantsville, MD, also marking the first NEVI-funded station to open in Maryland.

⚡ BC Hydro caught up on its data entry with the addition of six new locations across British Columbia, increasing the networks DC port count by 16. The pick of the bunch is an 8-stall station in Port Alberni, BC, which caters to all comers with not only CCS1 and NACS connectors, but also a CHAdeMO handle for the many Nissan LEAF drivers traversing one of Canada’s longstanding areas of high EV adoption.

⭕ Red E is forging a productive partnership with value retailer Aldi in New York state, as two new openings in Geneseo and West Carthage, NY, demonstrate. The locations continue Red E’s open approach to charging hardware, which in other states has leaned into AUTEL, ADS-TEC, and ABB. With Aldi, the network is deploying Lincoln Electric’s 150kW Velion chargers, typically with dual NACS/J3400 and CCS1 handles.

🚤 Sticking with New York, a new station from rising charging vendor ChargeSmart EV will be warmly welcomed by winter visitors to the Adirondacks. Four dispensers capable of up to 320kW serve eight stalls in the relatively remote town of Saranac Lake, NY, providing the highest power option in the mountains until you hit the EVolve NY location in Keene.

🔶 Rivian added a new Adventure Network location in Oklahoma City, with eight new 300kW stalls (including one pull-through) at the OKC Outlets right off I-40.

🧀 Francis Energy activated Wisconsin’s 10th NEVI-funded station, with a new spot in Brule at the Twin Gables Cafe & Lounge. It’s a relatively rare find in NEVI world so far, as dining establishments make up only 6.6% of stations activated under the program, with gas stations and truck stops dominating at 56% of open stations.

🏥 EVCS shared the network’s latest activation on the West Coast, at a community hospital in Newport, WA. Medical facilities aren’t commonly featured in this section, but the blend of fast charging and L2 units at a location with widely different dwell times is equipped to serve hospital staff, patients, and visiting service providers in a single site.

🔋 Electric Era completed its duo of Delaware NEVI stations, after opening the state’s first federally funded station back in June. That site in Camden is only 15 miles from the second spot in Harrington, both of which bolster the otherwise underserved DelMarVa peninsula travel route along Highway 13.

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

📝 In the Pipeline - New Sites Planned, Permitted, or Under Construction

🐧 More Kempower equipment on deck for NYC, or at least in view of it, as the new “Get Charged” station in Whitestone, NY, nears completion. We visited the location on the way back from Electrify Expo NY and appreciated the small footprint of the satellite system in a rather tight suburban parking lot. The “Get Charged” branding is also new to us, promising low pricing and options for both NACS and CCS1 models, via EV Connect.

🚨 A rare week in which IONNA confirmed more locations underway officially than hardcore permit-spotter AlejandroEV66 uncovered outside of official channels. His update on a new Rechargery in Gallup, NM, was still welcome news, but the brand itself shared news of upcoming stations in partnership with Casey’s. Eight of those have already broken ground, according to IONNA, with two in Illinois, two in Missouri, and the remainder at Casey’s c-stores in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

🪙 More NEVI sites underway in Michigan, as Francis Energy ramps up activity in another Great Lakes state. Following early work in Ohio and several activations more recently in Wisconsin, new locations in Bear Lake, Flint, and Gaylord, MI, all moved into the construction phase this week. Check the latest status on the MDOT NEVI map.

🧀 Wisconsin also added some new NEVI sites to the in progress bucket, with awarded locations in Manitowoc, Neenah, and Oxford, all flipping to yellow. That makes 16 sites now in the state’s federally funded pipeline, with several expected to come online this year. Thanks to Jay Williams at WisconsEV for the heads up on this activity.

💲 Pricing: Walmart Energy Offers 10% Charging Discount for Its Retail Subscribers

News - An addition to the Walmart Energy app, reported by Landon at The Arkansas eTraveler channel, highlights the big box retailer’s plans to bake EV charging into its wider subscriber ecosystem. It offers a fixed percentage off a charging session for customers subscribed to the Walmart+ membership program.

Numbers - Walmart is offering 10% off at its fast charging locations for Walmart+ subscribers. With many of the early Walmart Energy sites priced at $0.42/kWh, this subscriber discount lowers the rate to $0.38/kWh, which is around 40% lower than the national average price for DC fast charging in October.

Nuance - Walmart+ membership costs $12.95/month, so as a standalone way to reduce charging costs this discount offers less than similarly priced programs from Tesla and EVgo, which deliver discounted rates in the 25-30% range. However, there’s clearly much more to Walmart+ than EV charging, so members who shop with the retailer will also get free delivery for web orders, in-store discounts, and various other perks that might justify the monthly price of entry.

Next Up - Walmart Energy has around 18 sites under construction and hundreds more in permitting. As the project expands across the United States, more than 90% of the US population could be able to charge with the company and take advantage of pricing discounts that the retailer offers.

Watch the Walmart-related video below, which explores the journey of Alpitronic in North America and why Walmart selected the company as one of its primary hardware partners.

🚛🚖 Fleet Focus: Rideshare Represents a Bright Spot for Electric Fleets, as Uber Rebrands Its EV Arm

News - Rideshare giant Uber shared figures about its success with electric vehicles, as well as rebranding its Uber Green arm to Uber Electric. The company is also offering up to $4,000 in grants, stackable with local incentives, to help its drivers transition to an EV.

Numbers - 200,000 electric vehicles are now operating within Uber’s rideshare fleet globally, with 9.1% of all miles in the US and Canada completed by zero-emissions vehicles. If you read this before the end of October, you might also be able to save 20% on an all-electric ride by using the code: “GOELECTRIC20”.

Nuance - Despite flawed plans for rental EVs from various big names and GM’s missteps with the BrightDrop electric delivery vehicles, fleet use remains one of the most promising areas for transportation electrification. Rideshare aligns well with the technology, especially in cities, as short- and medium-length journeys in stop-start traffic maximize efficiency. We see various charging players supporting this use case, as EVgo reports almost a quarter of its sessions coming from rideshare drivers and bp pulse adding Gigahubs near airports, both for rideshare and rental EV fleets.

Next Up - As we’ve shared in previous editions, Uber is one of the most aggressive fleet operators in terms of electrification targets, with a goal to make all rides zero emission by 2030. Although the current numbers are a long way from that figure, rebranding as Uber Electric and offering compelling incentives for EVs despite the removal of federal subsidies shows the company is doubling down on electric vehicles.

🎧 Amped Up for Audio 🔌

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

This week, we return to the venerable Volts podcast with David Roberts, to unpack the application of “second life” EV batteries as grid-scale energy storage systems.

🎧 Volts Podcast - Colin Campbell on second life battery storage 🔋♻️

The host is joined by Colin Campbell, ex-Tesla engineer and current CTO of Redwood Materials, to discuss the business model, how much second life storage costs compared to other forms of storage, and the potential for this use case to scale widely to support the grid.

🔋💯 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:

Tesla shares real-time trip plan temperature adjustments + charge time impacts

Paren’s Q3 analysis confirms earlier reports of DCFC’s booming quarter in US

Wireless charging reaches 96% efficiency in Oak Ridge Labs research

it’s electric shares curbside charging installation in Newburgh, NY

Supercharger for Business program is now available in Canada

IONNA partners with Casey’s to expand presence in multiple central states

California’s FCCP incentives program application period has been extended into next year (new deadline: 1/29/26) — assistance with applications is available here

PennDOT shared Corridor Connections details, covering the next phase of Pennsylvania’s NEVI funding applications.

MCPA Minnesota corridor DCFC grants opened this week with a $1.89M budget - Apply here (deadline: 12/9/25 @ 4PM)

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

🔔 Essential EV Follow - Tiya Gordon (it’s electric)

📍Charging Site of the Week: Electrify America NACS Pilot Site (Waterford, CT)