The Weekly 1.21⚡(EVI News #94) - LAZ Parking & Evercharge's L2 Partnership. Fast Charger Use Skews to Established Providers. Walmart EVC Debuts in Kansas.

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Good day, fellow Charge Seeker 🪫🗺️🔋

Walmart appears to be preconditioning its pack for a final-quarter WEVC deployment push, with 12 openings so far in October, marking the retailer’s third-best month to date. The same goes for several large charging providers, all of whom will be needed just to match the record-setting pace of 2025 DCFC deployments.

The transition to NACS-J3400 connectors is also back in the spotlight, as Rivian opens a key site in Wyoming with NACS-only dispensers and Electrify America’s largest site to date deploys only CCS1. I ran a LinkedIn poll to see what people prefer: a hybrid transition or a “rip off the Band-Aid” approach. Final results from that and a companion YouTube poll in the next edition.

Moving on, here's how EV infrastructure progressed across this week ⤵️

📢 LAZ Parking and EverCharge Partner on Residential Charging

News - LAZ Parking and EverCharge (owned by indiGOtech, aka GO) announced a joint venture intended to streamline the path for L2 charging for multifamily residents across LAZ's US footprint. The first product for these installations is the broadly monikered LAZ Multifamily EV Charging Powered by EverCharge SmartPower™.

Numbers - LAZ manages more than 2 million parking spaces at 5,700 of its properties across the US and Canada. EverCharge brings more than 10,000 ports at 1,000+ multifamily sites to the table, serving 50,000 registered drivers. According to LAZ, the collaboration brings its overall network to 25,000 ports.

Credit: LAZ Parking

Nuance - Most standalone EVSE companies have to navigate complicated routes through parking and property managers, utilities and HOAs, in order to deploy their charging systems. LAZ already owns half of those relationships, which gives EverCharge a clearer path to deployment. The SmartPower load management software is another asset, staggering overnight sessions within a building's existing electrical capacity to serve more charging spaces without requiring an upgrade from the utility.

Next Up - No deployment projections were included in this announcement, but the SmartPower system is reportedly ready for immediate deployment, so we’ll be watching for early installations in the first half of 2027.

📊 Sunday Stat: According to Asset Market in Canada, a 10% lift in EV charger reliability can yield as much as a 40% increase in utilization, based on fast-charging sites the company tracks.

Credit: Asset Market

On the topic of utilization, Asset Market reports that the national average reached 15.4% in Q3 2026, but that leans heavily on improvements from the top 3 networks. Remove Tesla, Electrify America, and EVgo, and “the rest of the market fell from 5.4% to 4%, then held flat.”

The takeaway for charging providers is to build new site forecasts around sites in the immediate vicinity of planned sites and compare utilization to locations with similar characteristics, not the national average.

🔍 Charging Vendor Spotlight: Electrify America

News - The second-largest fast-charging network (by stall count) in the US opened its largest site last month, with a 24-stall location at the Sand Lake Corners South retail property in Orlando, FL.

Numbers - 6,049 stalls across 1,194 sites in 48 states, with stall count ranging from 2 or 3 at EA’s smallest sites to 20+ at major locations, like its Harrison St. flagship in San Francisco, CA, and this new Florida hub. An average of 5.1 stalls per site, according to DCFCtracker, puts EA right in the middle of the pack chasing Tesla (avg: 12.3 stalls per site). EA is ahead of ChargePoint, EVgo, and Red E, in this area, but behind newer players like IONNA, Walmart EV Charging, and Mercedes-Benz High Power Charging.

A new EA location in Orlando, Florida, at 24 stalls, is now the network’s largest site | Credit: Electrify America

Nuance -Appropriate stall count is on every CPO’s agenda as the market matures, and Electrify America says it considers various aspects of each unique location as it sizes up a site. These include an area’s EV population, charging demand and supply, utility capacity and costs, and nearby amenities. As to future sites, an EA spokesperson confirms that drivers can expect plenty of spaces at the network’s latest locations: “We’ve required a minimum of 10 chargers for new Electrify America owned-and-operated stations since 2024. We’re also building stations that far exceed that minimum.”

Next Up - As described above, double-digit stall counts will be the new normal for Electrify America. As this dates back more than a year, we should expect to see 10+ from most of the network’s new locations from 2027 on. The network also has several large-format openings planned for 2027, which will be the company’s first year operating outside of the 10-year investment obligation of the consent decree that created it back in 2016.

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🔌 AC/DC: This Week in L2 Charging

News - L2 additions climbed from last week’s edition, with ChargePoint accounting for ~70% of the total. Clusters of locations with up to 50 ports in Evanston, IL, and Bayonne, NJ, also contributed to the rebound. Canada was also on the rise, with new AC ports added across four provinces.

Numbers - 549 L2 charging ports were added to the Alternative Fuels Data Center this week, covering 26 states and 4 Canadian provinces.

Notable New L2 + AFDC Additions:

🟠 ChargePoint added 389 ports across 84 locations, with New Jersey (56 ports) and Illinois (54) topping the state list. Evanston, IL, brought the biggest cluster at 50 ports on Central Street, followed by 35 at the Seraphine Parking development in Bayonne, NJ, and 18 at the 52 Ten complex in Austin, TX. Pearland, TX (16), East Hanover, NJ (15), and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (14) fill out the larger sites, along with 13 ports across Ontario and British Columbia.

🔵 FLO added 32 ports at 5 sites, 22 of them at the Place Ste-Foy shopping complex in Québec City, which also received FLO fast chargers in Fast Forward. Others include 6 ports at Compugen in Richmond Hill, ON, 2 at the Gene Zwozdesky Centre in Edmonton, AB, and 2 at the École de l’Arc-en-Ciel in Saint-François-Xavier-de-Brompton, QC.

⚡ ChargeLab added 54 ports at 3 sites, including a 45-port location on Riverdale Avenue in Riverdale, NY, plus 5 in Brampton, ON, and 4 in Oakville, ON.

🅿️ ViaLynk added 30 ports at 3 sites, including 12 at Stratford Road Elementary School in Plainview, NY, a second school there after last week’s Pasadena Elementary, and 12 at the Falls at Settlers Walk in Springboro, OH. A 6-port site on Ellen Polimeni Boulevard in Canandaigua, NY, rounds out the set.

⭕ Red E added 10 ports at 4 sites, including 4 each at Communities First in Flint, MI, and Hunt Street Station in Detroit, MI. Single ports also came online at Clarks Pump N Shop in Winchester, KY, which also had DC fast ports in Fast Forward, and at Creative Bloc at Field House in Baton Rouge, LA.

⚜️ Circuit électrique added 6 ports at 2 Québec sites, 4 in Saint-Octave-de-Métis and 2 at the Vieux Presbytère in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville.

⚫ Blink Charging added 2 ports at Sierra Pacific Engineering and Products in Aurora, IL.

🏁 Rounding out this week’s L2 activity: EVOKE added 7 ports, 4 in Westport, CT, and 3 at a Woodspring Suites hotel in Washington, PA; EVSTART added 6 ports at 3 Ontario sites in St. Catharines and Hamilton, following last week’s Calgary site; EV Connect added 4 ports in Bremerton, WA, Ann Arbor, MI, and Knoxville, TN; OpConnect added 4 ports at Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites locations in Ajax, ON.

🛣️ Fast Forward: This Week in DCFC

News - Fast charger activations rebounded after two low energy weeks, with Tesla still on top and the Bay Area getting a trio of new IONNA Rechargery Relays. ViaLynk also made an impact with eight new Illinois sites, while a pair of Electrify Canada locations in Ontario helped Canada weigh in with 40 ports.

Numbers - 308 DC charging ports at 46 charging locations were added to the AFDC, covering 19 states and 3 Canadian provinces.

Check out DCFCtracker.com to see a map of the latest AFDC additions in the US, which you can also filter by the past week, month, or quarter.

US fast charger additions mapped by DCFCtracker over the past 7 days

Notable New Locations + AFDC Additions:

🔴 Tesla Charging added 96 ports at 7 of its own locations across 6 US states and Ontario. The largest is a 24-stall Target in Deerfield Beach, FL, followed by 16-stall sites at Good 2 Go in Camp Verde, AZ, and Latham Center in Latham, NY. An A&W in Kingston, ON, is the only Supercharger addition in Canada.

🟠 IONNA energized 30 ports at 4 sites, extending its activation streak to 16 weeks. A trio of Bay Area Rechargery Relays opened in California’s Livermore (12 stalls), Antioch (8), and Newark (6), while the fourth is a smaller Rechargery @ Circle K upgrade.

⚪ On the Supercharger for Business side, 12 ports at 2 sites arrived: 8 stalls at Texas Best Smokehouse in Valley View, TX, owned by Victron Energy, and 4 at the M-59 Enterprises Mobil in Macomb, MI, which we noted last week and has now reached the AFDC.

Walmart EV Charging comes to Kansas | Credit: PlugShare/Big Daddy KC

🛒 Walmart EV Charging ramped up activity with 5 new locations, all in different states (AL/KS/OR/SC/TX). All are 8-stall sites that are priced under $0.49/kWh and offer time-of-use pricing. Special mention for the activation at the Neighborhood Market in Shawnee, KS, which is the retailer’s first in the state and the lowest-priced of this week’s sites, at a very affordable $0.42/kWh.

⚡ ViaLynk had another strong week, extending its consistent opening streak with 44 ports at 9 sites, nearly all of which are in the Chicago area. Eight Illinois locations came online, plus a 4-stall site in Cambridge, VT. That batch carries the network well past 500 stalls, as it keeps pace with the CPOs chasing the top 10 positions in the United States.

🟠 ChargePoint added 16 ports across 6 sites, the largest adding 6 ports at an Acura dealership in Westwood, MA. Next came 4 ports at a Culver’s in Cartersville, GA, followed by smaller sites in Florida, Illinois, and New Mexico.

🟢 Electrify America energized 14 ports at 2 sites, including a 10-stall ShopRite location in Nutley, NJ, which meets the 10-stall minimum mentioned by the company in our charging vendor spotlight this week. Four NEVI stalls at a Wawa in Allentown, PA, round out the week for EA.

Credit: PlugShare/Electrify Canada

🍁 Electrify Canada was also in action this week, adding a solid 16 ports at two 8-stall Ontario sites, a Canadian Tire in St. Catharines and South Cambridge Shopping Centre.

🔵 EVgo added 8 ports at the West Stage development in North Richland Hills, TX, the network’s second location in the area north of Dallas-Fort Worth.

🟦 FLO added 6 ports at 2 Canadian sites, 4 at a Tim Hortons in Surrey, BC, and 2 at the Place Ste-Foy parking facility in Québec City.

🟡 Shell Recharge added an 8-stall site along the Southwest Freeway in Houston, TX, continuing the network’s Texas build-out.

🛣️ Pilot Flying J added 6 ports (listed on the EVgo network) at a travel center in Bloomington, IL.

⭕ Red E added 10 ports at 3 sites, including 4 each at a new NEVI site in Winchester, KY, a gas station on 11 Mile Road in Royal Oak, MI, and 2 at the General Store in Redstone, CO.

🏁 Rounding out fast-charging additions this week: EVCS added 16 ports at the Agua Caliente fuel station in Palm Springs, CA; Rivian Adventure Network added 8-stall sites in Marysville, WA, and Jackson, WY, the latter highlighted in last week’s pipeline section and both NACS-only; ChargeLab logged 4 ports in De Soto, IA, and 2 in Renfrew, ON; and Ford Charge added 4 ports at Planet Ford in Brampton, ON.

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

🍄 Level Up - Sites with Expansions & Upgrades

⭕ IONNA transitioned one site to a Rechargery @ Circle K location, upgrading a 4-stall site in San Antonio, TX, from 180kW ABB hardware to 400kW Alpitronic units. The single site represents a slower pace than the 3 to 6 upgrades per week we’ve seen in recent editions, but does put the takeover two-thirds of the way to completion.

↔️ In connector conversions, Rivian added 6 NACS-J3400 handles across 3 Adventure Network sites. Gila Bend, AZ and Wichita, KS each went from 1 to 3 NACS connectors, and Pooler, GA got its first 2. All are partial conversions, while Rivian’s new sites are now often energized as NACS-only sites. EVgo added one NACS cable at the following SoCal sites: Yucca Valley, Alpine, and Oceanside. All are partial switches, where CCS still makes up most handles.

🔧 Tesla expanded its V3 Supercharger at Buc-ee’s in New Braunfels, TX, to include V4 posts, which brings the site total up to 28 stalls.

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

📝 In Tesla permitting, MarcoRP shared new Supercharger filings for Woodstock, GA, Streetsboro, OH, and Fridley, MN (probably). A new hybrid site from WattEV that also includes Megachargers is also planned for Otay, CA. Check out the full tracking map from MarcoRP here.

🔶 After sharing a batch of new sites last week, RANtracker highlighted upcoming Rivian fast-charging locations permitted for Redondo Beach, CA, and Westbury, NY.

🛒 The Walmart EV Charging project has 361 sites in the pipeline across the US, which represents notable growth, because several sites also opened this week. 122 are currently under construction and the remainder in permitting/planning, based on numbers from Wattmart. Keep an eye on Middletown, KY, which has recently moved to the construction phase and is the state’s only WEVC location on the map, for the moment.

🚧 Construction is underway at new Supercharger sites in the following locations, according to supercharge.info: East Hartford, CT, and Yukon, OK, which will be a Francis Energy SfB location.

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 🙌🏻

🚎 Austin Electrifies Bus Lines with Camber Charging

News - CapMetro, which serves Austin and central Texas, has taken another step on the ride to electrifying its public transit system with two new electric bus lines, deployed in partnership with Camber Charging.

Numbers - CapMetro’s primary depot installation delivers 2.9 MW of charging capacity via two 1,440 kW Camber systems and 48 commercial dispensers, capable of charging up to 48 buses simultaneously. The two new park-and-ride terminals are Expo Center, with 8 bays, and Goodnight Ranch with 4 bays.

Credit: Camber Charging

Nuance - Both terminals use overhead pantograph equipment to top up buses automatically after a run. The system extends range from a standard 8 hours (after overnight charging) up to 22 hours of continuous service, using top-up charges at each terminal. Both Rapid 800 and Rapid 837 lines now run exclusively on electricity, and the 10–15 minute frequency at peak times is a service level that couldn’t be achieved with depot charging alone.

Next Up - CapMetro’s objective with this deployment was to “prove that a Rapid line can run more frequently without leaning on diesel,” according to Camber President Brendan Harney. If this project is a success, CapMetro operates another 63 bus lines across the region that could be electrified.