Good day, fellow festive charging friend ⚡🎄

Let’s keep this brief, for anyone who has holiday fun to return to. We’ll run through the latest locations and the few news items that bubbled up during this abbreviated week.

Here’s your digest of EVI developments this week across Canada and the US ⤵️

(p.s. This edition was compiled amidst seasonal travel and associated ailments, so please forgive the late send! 🤒)

News - At the eleventh hour, the state of Maryland punted on charger inspection fees that face heavy criticism from the industry and EV drivers alike. But the battle isn’t over, as the proposed fees are still slated to begin in 2026. The start date has been delayed six months, to July 1st, instead of this Thursday.

Numbers - $150 per port is the inspection fee proposed by the Maryland Department of Agriculture. While that sounds like a relatively small amount, for operators managing hundreds - or in some cases thousands - of ports, such as primarily L2 networks, the cumulative cost is material.

Nuance - Other states already enforce inspection fees, but the $ 150-per-port price tag would make Maryland the most expensive by $50. For comparison, Connecticut charges $50 per port, and Florida charges $100. Most other states are in the realm of $25, which is what many industry advocates are targeting for Maryland.

Next Up - The delay gives opponents breathing room to regroup and work with authorities in Maryland to develop a more equitable solution on measurement and who pays what. The only certainty is that losing chargers in a state with positive EV adoption trends is an own goal that the sector doesn’t need, especially in the current climate.

News - Walmart Energy recently passed 200 sites “in the pipeline”, from early permitting to sites under construction and already activated.

Numbers - 16 Walmart Energy sites are open across five states, with more than 130 charging stalls. It’s further upstream that the real action is happening; however, with 219 planned locations. Given Walmart’s national footprint of 5,000+ stores (including Sam’s Club locations), many more are expected to be identified in 2026.

Nuance - Walmart is one of the few new fast-charging providers not to put all its hardware eggs in the Alpitronic basket. What started with ChargePoint Express Plus units quickly transitioned to Alpitronic hardware, but ABB’s A400 is also in use at locations like Queen Creek, AZ, and Lakeland, FL. Other rising CPOs like IONNA and Mercedes-Benz HPC have, in the same period, decided that Alpitronic is all they need for now.

Next Up - 2026 is all about the activations. As IONNA’s gradual 2025 ramp moves into its hockey-stick phase this month, the sheer number of locations on Walmart’s planning map suggests we should see a spike in activations in the second quarter of 2026, if not the first. This will be music to the ears of EV drivers hoping to see the latest fast-charging hardware in underserved markets like Arkansas, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.

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News - A quiet period for charging adds with the holiday landing right in the middle of the week, and no Tesla data added, although Superchargers did open this week. However, some providers didn’t get the memo and kept their eyes on end-of-year targets. Minnesota opened its first NEVI site, for example, and IONNA lit up locations quicker than they could be added to the AFDC, so expect a surge as they head to 100 early in 2026.

Numbers - 210 DC charging ports at 47 charging locations added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this week, spread across 22 states and provinces. For what it’s worth, this week’s activations pushed the AFDC listings past 17,000 DC fast charging locations.

Notable New Stations + AFDC Additions:

🟠 IONNA’s sprint to the 2025 finish line looks like it will fall short of 100 fast-charging locations, but it’s not for want of trying. The network has moved from 44 active sites at the end of November to almost 70 at the time of typing, with hundreds of locations somewhere between permitting and powering up. Notable additions this week include 16 stalls in Rock Hill, SC, the company’s first location in Vermont, in Brattleboro, and the long-awaited Bridgeville, PA. At 237 days from fences up to activation, that last site represents the longest wait for an IONNA activation. The network average turnaround is closer to 90 days, and several recent sites have eclipsed that.

🔵 EVgo closed out the year strong/cleaned up some site data, with 38 ports at 10 locations in five states and the District of Columbia. An example of the former is found in Greenfield, WI, with six ports at a Meijer grocery store, next to an existing Tesla Supercharger. The other side comes from EVgo’s ReNew program, which replaces aging hardware for site-appropriate upgrades. Examples are found at Raley’s locations in Nevada, where new Delta Electronics units replace the old equipment.

⚡ Pennsylvania’s NEVI progress keeps on rolling, with the state’s 27th federally-funded location opened at Blue Mountain service plaza in time for Christmas travel. PennDOT confirmed the activation as the first NEVI location on the PA Turnpike, with another to follow before the year is out. This is also the first Applegreen Electric site energized under NEVI.

🪙 Francis Energy opened Minnesota’s first NEVI site, with a location at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Burnsville, MN. The activation fulfils one of the state’s goals to get pins on the map for the federally-funded program before the end of 2025.

🟢 Electrify America opened a new location in the far north of New York state, in partnership with EVolve NY’s NEVI program. Alexandria Bay, NY, is near the border with Ontario and brings four new 350kW ports to the relatively remote location. The state now has 18 active NEVI locations, but still lags leader Pennsylvania (27) and Ohio (22).

🔷 Two FLO locations in British Columbia add seven new ports for the network, with a third in Châteauguay, QC. The latter is a deployment of two FLO Ultra units at a Canadian Tire store, one of the charging company’s primary retail partners.

🔴 Tesla Charging had a busy week, with 196 stalls opened across 15 new Superchargers in six states and two provinces. The largest of them are 20-stall sites in Redlands, CA and Pompano Beach, FL, and with 48 new stalls, Florida almost matched California’s total (56) this week. Another location north of the border brings 12 stalls to Edmonton, AB, the city’s first Supercharger with V4 posts.

⚪ That Supercharger count also includes the second Supercharger for Business (SfB) activation in the United States, which went live in Spring Grove, IL. BA Solutions is the owner, second only to Suncoast Charging, which opened the first SfB location last month in Land O’Lakes, FL.

⭕ Red E continued the steady pace it has cultivated throughout 2025, with another 10 ports across four locations in three states. Massachusetts gets two, both in Southborough, with the others opening in Kimball, MI, and Burlington, NC.

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

📝 In permitting, AlejandroEV66 identified a new IONNA location in Gilroy, CA, and from MarcoRP1, we have permits for new Tesla Superchargers in Salinas, CA, Fishers, IN, and Bellevue, WA.

🚧 Mercedes-Benz is buttoning up new sites every week, so let’s take a look at one I stumbled across on my travels this week. Fredericksburg, VA, looks all set but for the commissioning, which will take some pressure off the aging EA location and Rivian Adventure Network site at the (insanely busy on Christmas Eve 🛍️😬) Spotsylvania Town Centre retail area.

🚨 Watch for continued activity from Applegreen Electric on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where all 17 service plazas will deploy fast chargers over the next two years. New Stanton West in western PA, approaching Pittsburgh, is the following location in line for activation.

News - A report by David Ferris for E&E News explores the wide variety of prices for public fast charging in the Mid-Atlantic region. The wide spread, ranging from cheaper than home charging to almost $5/gallon gasoline, demonstrates the complexity of electricity rates and the Wild West of DCFC pricing.

Numbers - $0.16 per kWh to $0.76 per kWh is the eye-opening range arising from the article’s analysis, which it compares to the equivalent of $1/gallon gas to $4.75/gallon. Although there are certainly locations where gasoline reaches the latter price point, David correctly highlights that the former would have drivers from all over town going out of their way to fill up with such cheap fuel.

Nuance - The least expensive location in the analysis is HITT Co|Lab, a facility in Falls Church, VA, dedicated to sustainable practices. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that includes a 2,800 ft rooftop solar array designed to produce more energy than the building needs to run. At the other end of the spectrum, a Tesla Supercharger in the center of Washington DC has peak rates of $0.76 per kWh for owners of non-Tesla models without a membership plan.

Next Up - With electricity prices continuing to rise, public EV charging operators face a stern test to keep prices affordable. Battery storage systems are one way to mitigate factors like demand charges, but additional hardware adds cost to projects that are already CapEx-intensive from day one. Rate reform holds one potential path to making life easier for charging providers, as the Ontario Energy Board demonstrated with rates tailored to EV charging, which will take effect January 1.

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

This week, we head back to the Inside EVs Plugged-In Podcast for a look back over the year’s top 10 EV stories.

🎧Plugged-In Podcast: Top 10 EV Stories of 2025 📰

Hosts Tim Levin and Patrick George cast an eye over events from a tumultuous year for transportation electrification and offer their thoughts on what we could see in 2026.

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:

16 states and DC sue over impounded charging infrastructure funds

DHL takes delivery of first Tesla Semi, as US Semichargers planned by Tesla

Hypercharge to deploy destination charging at Prince Edward Island resorts

California’s Clean Bus & Truck Voucher program is open again

Application period open for Rebuild Illinois funding opportunity (DCFC + L2)

The deadline for NMDOT’s third phase of NEVI funding is this week (deadline: 12/31/25)

Now in phase 2, Arizona is accepting bids for 34 NEVI stations (deadline: 1/16/26)

California’s FCCP incentives program application period remains open (deadline: 1/29/26) — assistance with applications is available here

Portal for Pennsylvania Corridor Connections funding is open (deadline: 1/30/26)

Michigan’s DTE is now accepting applications for grants from its Emerging Technology Fund through January 31st, 2026

Round 3 of Ohio NEVI funding is open, with an info webinar recording + resulting Q&A doc now available (up to 10 contractors selected, deadline for rd. 3 proposals: 2/5/26)

Round 3 of the Illinois NEVI funding is now open, with $65.6M available, including applications for M-HDEV charging sites (deadline: 2/13/26)

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