Electrify America to build charging stations we've been dreaming of
Electrify America wants to improve the charging station experience for EV owners with a concept called “The Charging Station of the Future, Today.” Boil all the jargon out of the press release, and you have the kind of destination charging experience that people have been talking about for years but that hasn’t yet been built as regular practice. The EA concept includes a “customer oasis” to hang out in during the charging process, said space offering features like valet parking, lounges, room to host an event and vehicle showcase areas. The illustrations show lovely, well-lit parking lots and even a pull-through space long enough to accommodate a pickup and trailer. Check out the awnings with solar panels as well. EA says these are in the works now, with up to 500 chargers at 100 stations slated for such protection from the elements. The awnings will sending their captured energy to on-site battery storage stations.
This sounds like the luxurious Audi Charging Hub the German automaker opened in December for a trial run in Nuremburg. That’s gone well enough to encourage a second Charging Hub headed for Zurich, Switzerland.
And it’s all built around a next-generation charger. The stand will remain eight feet tall but occupy a smaller footprint, potentially allowing EA to install more chargers at a location. Instead of each charger having two plugs, there will be just one at the end of a cable management system able to reach the charging port anywhere on the vehicle. An improved screen will be brighter and more legible in direct sunlight.
We say this can’t come soon enough. We tooled around New England in a Kia EV6 last week, and our experience with Electrify America stations in the region was so challenging and expensive that we were always happy to find a competitor station. It made us understand how Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess felt last summer when he publicly lambasted VW’s European charging partner Ionity. (For those not aware, Electrify America is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VW, funded with $2 billion to help clear the smoke after dieselgate.)
The first locations to get these future chargers will be Beverly Hills, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California, and the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Openings in those cities are scheduled for this year and 2023. Bring it on.
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