Good day, fellow Charge Curve Evaluator 📉🧐

We can’t ignore hardware and freight as the month comes to an end and the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo looms in early May. Hardware manufacturers are positioning their latest systems ahead of exhibiting in Las Vegas, where they’ll try to attract the attention of commercial buyers and fleet operators.

Back on the consumer side, Tesla is once again looking to free Supercharging as a demand lever, while the rising nationwide networks make their case to non-Tesla drivers and the more adventurous owners of S/E/X/Y models (and the Cybertruck), who might be attracted from Supercharger weak spots, such as limited voltage and pull-through stalls.

With plenty to digest, let’s feast on the latest EVI news across the US and Canada ⤵️

News - Ahead of May’s ACT Expo event, ChargePoint and ABB unveiled new fast-charging systems designed to carry both companies into the next era of DCFC. ChargePoint’s Express Solo brings North America’s second-largest charging provider into the realm of 600kW fast-charging, while ABB’s new M-Series system takes a modular approach to deliver from 200kW to 1.2 MW, depending on site/client requirements.

Numbers - We previewed the anticipated jump to 600kW charging last year in edition 36, and now ChargePoint has jumped into the ring with the Express Solo. It will go head-to-head with newcomers like Alpitronic’s HYC1000, which will deliver up to 600kW on a single connector, and Tesla’s true V4 Superchargers, which have finally upped the voltage to 1,000V at the power cabinets and can deliver up to 500kW to an individual EV (once one arrives in the US or Canada that can accept that much power).

Nuance - We’ve been here before. In 2018, Electrify America went to town with hardware capable of up to 350kW at most of its travel corridor locations. To this day, that power level remains ahead of what most EV models can accept (although that original hardware’s reliability has been a major cause for complaint). But new models capable of charging at much higher rates are coming, and BYD’s Flash Charging has the industry focused on 5-minute charge times, so networks are looking to the next era of DC fast charging. Hardware isn’t everything in the EV charging experience, but it provides the foundation upon which the best networks are built. Ample power and reliability are the two areas that matter most. With the latter mostly resolved, CPOs must now make the next-generation hardware decisions that keep DCFC power ahead of the EVs that need it.

Next Up - ACT Expo runs from May 4-7 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Expect to see a wide range of hardware and charging solutions officially unveiled/on display that week, where they could attract the attention of the biggest names in fleet operations, property management, and other key sectors on the brink of electrification.

News - Red E has branched out from its regular development of new sites in Michigan and Massachusetts this month, as the company also adds new pins to its network map via takeovers of existing locations from other providers.

Numbers - 1,727 DC ports across 479 sites in 45 states. Although almost half of the network’s locations are found in either its home state of Michigan or the adopted home of Massachusetts, recent additions in Washington state (14 locations) and California (8 locations) caught attention. As detailed below, many of these sites were previously operated by other networks but now show up under Red E’s banner.

Nuance - Although site takeovers aren’t unusual in the EV charging world, they usually involve longstanding locations with aging hardware. That seems to be true of Red E’s latest additions in California, which are primarily gas stations with defunct Freewire Boost 200 units that will need to be replaced. But the Washington sites are recent enough that we’ve reported about them in this newsletter, which didn’t exist prior to 2025. Examples such as Sedro Woolley and Newport have modern hardware that, until recently, were wrapped as EVCS units.

Next Up - Red E’s deployments continue apace in markets like the Northeast and Great Lakes region, but network expansion can happen on multiple fronts. If selling directly into high EV adoption markets like California and the Pacific Northwest proves less fruitful than in other parts of the country, expect to see Red E picking up more sites from existing players in these places as the year progresses.

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News - Another steady week for AC charging additions, although Canadian installations are limited to only Ontario and Quebec this week. ChargePoint again underpins L2 deployments, with more than half of the new ports, while EV Gateway (53 ports) and Vialynk (36 ports) slide into second and third-placed spots for AC installations over the past 7 days.

Numbers - 385 L2 charging ports added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this week, spread across 20 states and 2 Canadian provinces.

Notable New L2 + AFDC Additions:

🔷 FLO added 34 AC ports across 6 locations, including 23 new ports at GreenP parking locations in Toronto, ON (zoo included).

🏙️ EV Gateway added 33 new ports at 4 parking garages across the city of Cincinnati, OH, with 10 at the 5th & Race facility the largest of the bunch.

🟠 ChargePoint added 224 ports across the United States and Canada. New hardware added at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, CA, brings more destination charging stalls across the campus, with 22 ports added in this week’s update. Other notable locations include The Arcadian apartments in Fort Lauderdale, FL, and updated hardware at the Scenic Hudson Park in Irvington, NY. Most fun location is awarded to K1 Speed in Thornton, CO, where you can add electrons to your own vehicle while depleting the batteries of the company’s all-electric go karts out on the track.

⭕ Red E added 21 ports across 5 sites in 4 states. The Comfort Inn in Grand Blanc, MI (8 ports), is the pick of the bunch, if you’re hitting the road to the Great Lakes region this summer.

◾ Blink had a quiet week, with 12 port activations at 5 sites in 4 states. The two at the Sleep Inn & Suites in Savannah, TN, are the most useful of the bunch to EV travelers.

⚡ 30 workplace charging ports installed by Vialynk for the Middle Country Central School District in Selden, NY, aren’t available to the public, but they provide a great example of a large-scale educational deployment that could serve teachers with EVs or the district’s electrified fleet vehicles.

News - A quiet week in Canada, but a good range of interesting new fast-charging additions to the AFDC in the US, including Rivian moving its “full NACS” approach outside of California and Electrify America getting some large-format sites on the board. Optimus Energy also drops a batch of site data for South Carolina, creating a strong week for ChargePoint.

Numbers - 329 DC charging ports at 62 charging locations added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this week, spread across 19 states and 2 provinces.

Check out the DCFCtracker.com site to see a map of the latest AFDC additions, which can also be filtered down to the past week or month.

Notable New Locations + AFDC Additions:

🟢 Electrify America had an impressive week, energizing exactly 40 new stalls across 4 locations in as many states. The company marked Earth Day with a ribbon-cutting for its latest site in partnership with Shoprite, located in Yardley, PA (10 stalls), and another 10 stalls at a Kroger Food 4 Less grocery store in Lancaster, CA.

⚡ Optimus Energy dropped 84 ports at 24 South Carolina sites into the AFDC records this week, which constituted more than three-quarters of ChargePoint’s additions. The sites typically have 4 stalls, many of which are at municipal locations such as libraries and town halls.

📍 Kwik Trip added another April pin to the Kwik Charge/NEVI map, with a new site energized in Stewartville, MN. As usual, Jay at WisconsEV is our go-to source for information on the brand’s progress across the Great Lakes region (as well as many other DCFC site visits and updates). More info in the video below.

🩶 Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging lit up another location in Fort Myers, FL, this time at the Lochmoor Plaza. This one lies to the north of the network’s first site in the city, on the other side of the Caloosahatchee River, in a suitably upscale retail area. Marking Earth Day this week, MB-HPC confirmed that the network has delivered more than half a million charging sessions in the US and Canada.

⚡ Pilot-Flying J opened a new travel center site with 4 × 350kW stalls in Van Horn, TX. The town on I-10 is a great example of the burgeoning competition for DCFC dollars, with the “downtown” Electrify America location soon to be joined by a Love’s Travel Stop charging location and an 8-stall Tesla Supercharger.

🔶 Rivian continued its decisive start of a complete shift away from CCS1 connectors, with another 100% NACS-J3400 site. This one in Tigard, OR, brings the trend to a new site and one outside of California, where four existing RAN locations were recently converted to offer only NACS-J3400 plugs.

🔴 A solid week for Tesla Charging, with 92 new stalls at 8 Superchargers in 7 states. The largest brings 24 stalls to Westlake Village, CA, while 12 stalls in Ocala, FL, ensure that guests at the Staybridge Suites start their day at a high state of charge.

☀️ Dual credit to both Scott Thomas and Ben at EV Infrastructure Report (tweet above) for flagging the eye-catching new City of Tallahassee fast-charging location. The ChargePoint units deployed are common enough, but get a load of that futuristic curved canopy… more of this, please! And cheers to the City for making this one happen.

✈️ Solsource shared the opening of its new 4-stall Supercharger for Business location at Fuel & Fly Mart, serving Tulsa International Airport in Oklahoma.

🛒 Walmart confirmed its debut location in Loveland, CO, as reported via The Arkansas eTraveler’s updates in edition 67, with the site now showing up in AFDC listings. With AFDC additions about a week behind actual activations, the latest site to add to the growing Walmart collection is Supercenter #2883 in Plano, TX, which Landon’s monitoring via EV Texans tells us went live in the app on Wednesday.

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

📝 Starting with permitting news, we have new Superchargers found by MarcoRP1 for Fullerton, CA, Opa-locka, FL, and Gig Harbor, WA. A new Supercharger for Business client called ROAM also plans to build an 8-stall station in Statesville, NC.

🚨 Even more exciting, Marco also shares news of the site plans for another ROVE Charging Hub in California, this one slated for Oceanside.

🚛 A new Megacharger is also in the Tesla pipeline, with 8 x Semi charging posts on the permit for a site in Irving, TX.

✅ On the non-Tesla side, IONNA permits were spotted by EV Infrastructure Report for Noblesville, IN, and Pasadena, TX. From the same source comes news of another bp pulse Gigahub in Morrisville, NC, and a Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging site in Suwanee, GA. Give the account a follow for that broad drop of DCFC info alone.

🚧 Sticking with IONNA, construction has progressed at our nearby site in South Weymouth, MA, among many others. Dispensers were in the ground when I swung through the busy lot last week, but I neglected to take pictures so you’ll just have to wait for the Quick Charge site visit video via Plug & Play EV channel.

⚪ Another Supercharger for Business (SfB) site is coming to a second Wawa location, after the first opened down in Florida. The trash bags have been ripped away from V4 posts at the brand’s store in Gainesville, VA, shares Branden Flasch on X-witter.

🪙 NEVI sites continue to proliferate across the United States, with new leading CPO Francis Energy busy in multiple states and Kwik Trip promising more to come in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Dan the EV Man provides a nice concise summary of Francis’ progress and construction, including Milwaukee, WI, and Byron, GA, in the video above. And all the way back in the contract stages, word comes from fellow EV charging obsessive Lynryrd that Oklahoma has executed its NEVI awards with Love’s and EVgo.

Is there an upcoming site in your area that the EV community needs to know about?

Reply to this email with the location and charging provider (if known) and we’ll add it to the next edition 🙌🏻

News - After successfully completing trials with Einride, Amazon will deploy 75 electric trucks with the company to support the Amazon Relay “middle mile” network.

Numbers - Five Amazon locations will host the trucks and sufficient charging infrastructure to keep them on the road, with the online retailer targeting 3 million all-electric freight miles as a result of the partnership. Amazon has more than 70,000 owned freight units in its “garage”, so this is a targeted middle-mile initiative rather than a wider fleet commitment.

Nuance - Amazon’s most visible fleet electrification presence comes in the form of Rivian EDVs, which are now a common sight in some of the larger US metro areas. However, the investment runs much deeper than last-mile logistics, as explored in this 2024 deep dive by David Ferris. From the largest private commercial charging infrastructure in the country to operating 30,000+ EDVs as of February this year, Amazon is quietly electrifying one of the most impactful fleets in North America.

Next Up - Keep an eye on Einride's SPAC listing with Legato Merger Corp. III, which is anticipated before the summer. This should indicate whether the Amazon deal provides a sufficient foundation for taking the company public or is just the latest in a string of well-timed announcements ahead of a market debut.

News - The first quarterly report of the year from Paren shows US DC fast charging price up significantly from the opening quarters of 2025, when the company’s reporting had prices averaging as low as $0.48 per kWh.

Numbers - The Q1’26 average of $0.53 per kWh marks a 6% YOY increase for average DCFC rates in the United States, and as high as a 10% rise if the increase holds for another quarter. This is also now in line with a Pricing Index that we ran throughout 2025 and DCFCTracker.com’s pricing records, which covers 81% of US charging stalls.

Nuance - The 50 cent mark is becoming a notable price point for the US market. CPOs that slide rates in below that level are typically considered reasonable, while those who get close to 40 cents per kWh, like IONNA, Mercedes-Benz HPC, and Tesla Superchargers (as an owner or with a membership), are considered price leaders. Push too far above that cutoff or, whisper it, past the 60 cent mark, and accusations of premium rates or even “price gouging” begin to creep in.

Next Up - Charging rates aren’t jumping anywhere near to the 33% rise experienced by gas drivers in recent months, but DCFC competition is here and EV drivers are increasingly conscious of what they’re paying at the port. Between Paren’s quarterly reports and DCFCTracker’s daily updates, we have a much better handle on wider US charger pricing shifts in 2026. But not all sites matter equally to EV drivers, and some skew the average considerably upward at locations that most drivers will never consider visiting. Watch this space for more targeted weekly pricing updates in May, based on the DCFC sites that everyday EV drivers want to use.

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:

Paren releases Q1 Fast Charging Reports for the US and Canada

Oregon releases round 2 NEVI awards for 24 new fast-charging sites

Mercedes-Benz “Driver Dialogues” series coming to Braintree, MA, in early May

NY Power Authority funds “SmarterHelp” EV charging repair training initiative

Tesla rolls out new machine learning model to reduce Supercharger wait times

Rivian’s latest software update boosts fast-charging performance for R1 models

MB-HPC’s early ChargePoint hardware gets NACS-J3400 “OmniPort” retrofits

Minnesota’s 3rd round NEVI RFI is open (through 4/30/26) for 74 DCFC sites.

Maryland’s round 3 NEVI solicitation is open for applications (through 6/24/26)

Efficiency Maine is seeking qualified bidders for L2 charging (up to $120K per site)

Pennsylvania offers $100M for community EV charging projects, with different 2026 NOFO windows across the state. Start with the Interested Organizations Survey here.

$10 million available for hotel charging sites via NJ EV Tourism Corridor Charging

The latest round of Colorado’s DCFC Plazas Program is expected soon. Check the general info page to see previous recipients or sign up for the latest dates/news

Oregon will open round 3 NEVI solicitations this summer

If you found this edition useful, pass it on to a friend, colleague, or family member interested in electrification.

See you next week ⚡

Cheers,

Steve / Plug & Play EV

🍵^{This edition fueled by: George Howell Coffee}

🎵 ^{Spinning this Sunday: Damien Jurado - Museum of Flight}

^{📺 Watching this Week: Grand Canyon EV Road Trip Pt. 1}

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