All the news about EV charging in the US

Mercedes-Benz cut the ribbon on its first EV fast-charging hub in the US, complete with a swanky waiting area and 400kW charging speeds courtesy of ChargePoint.

The hub is located at the automaker’s US-based headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, meaning most of the early users are likely to be Mercedes employees. But the company says that owners of non-Mercedes EVs are welcome to use the chargers as well.

Subaru is hopping on the Tesla charging port bandwagon. The automaker has announced that it will adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) for “certain” electric vehicles starting in 2025.

Subaru says it will also supply NACS charging adapters to customers who own or lease an EV with the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard in 2025. The company has been relatively slow to adopt EVs. It currently only offers the Solterra, and even that’s only as part of its partnership with Toyota; everything else is gas-powered. Subaru plans to add to its EV lineup, though, and it has three vehicles in the works that it’s supposed to reveal by 2026.

BP is buying $100 million of Supercharger hardware from Tesla, making it the first company to purchase DC fast-charging equipment from the automaker for use in a third-party charging network. The sale is going to the oil and gas conglomerate’s EV charging business known as BP Pulse, which plans to invest up to $1 billion in building a nationwide charging network by 2030, including $500 million over the next two to three years.

Tesla’s equipment can charge at up to 250kW and features a Magic Dock connector to connect using the standardized North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug from Tesla or a CCS Combo attachment that supports most other EVs. The press release doesn’t mention whether the deal covers Tesla’s updated V4 Superchargers, which are only just starting to roll out in the US.

Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus will start implementing Tesla’s winning charging plug standard known as the North American Charging Standard, or NACS, in “certain” vehicles starting in 2025. Toyota will also provide current and soon-to-be EV buyers with adapters to access 12,000-plus Tesla Supercharger stations.

One of Toyota’s first vehicles to include a NACS connector is a future three-row SUV it is planning for 2025, which will be assembled at the automaker’s plant in Kentucky. Toyota is currently light on EV options compared to most other automakers and has only released the mediocre bZ4X and the Lexus RZ 450e.

ChargePoint, one of the companies racing to put EV charging stations all over the US, announced today that it is beginning to roll out support for the NACS connector that is quickly becoming the national standard. ChargePoint stations that have previously used other ports and power sources can start to use the Tesla-created plug in November, and the company says it now offers “every necessary cable solution to charge an EV in North America and Europe.”

The company first said it would add NACS plugs to some of its stations in June, as the standards organization SAE International announced that the NACS (which stands for “North American Charging Standard”) port would be standardized for cars in North America. A number of car makers have since said they plan to make NACS-capable cars and offer adapters for their existing models.

If you’re an urban-dwelling electric vehicle owner, your public charging options are often limited to slow AC chargers found in tight parking spaces that are too small for typical DC fast chargers. Now Gravity, the company that started an EV taxi fleet in New York City in 2021, designed a compact and super fast DC charging system for big dense cities that can reduce your charging time from hours to just minutes.

Gravity’s system includes small dispenser boxes that the company calls “Distributed Energy Access Points,” which can be mounted above or in front of a parking spot and deliver up to a ridiculously high 500kW of energy. That compares to DC fast charging stations from other companies, which have larger stall units and max out at 350kW.

BMW, famed German automaker and parent company to Mini and Rolls-Royce, announced its intention to adopt Tesla’s electric vehicle charging standard for its future EVs, in the latest win for Elon Musk’s company.

BMW said that owners of electric vehicles with the Combined Charging System (CCS) outlet will get access to Tesla’s Supercharger network in early 2025, most likely through the use of an adapter. BMW will also start producing EVs with Tesla’s charging standard built into the vehicle that same year.

Two more major automakers are jumping on the Tesla bandwagon. Hyundai and Kia announced today plans to adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS), aka the “Tesla plug,” for its future electric vehicles.

Hyundai and Kia models compatible with Tesla’s NACS plug will start arriving in the fourth quarter of 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, the automakers will also provide adapters to its current customers so they can access Tesla Supercharger stations. Hyundai’s current EV lineup, which includes the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6, along with Kia’s EV6 and EV9, have charging ports that are compatible with the Combined Charging Standard, or CCS, for DC fast charging.

Honda revealed that the upcoming 2024 Honda Prologue is “expected” to get an EPA-estimated 300 miles of range on a single charge while announcing a slew of new specs for its first all-electric SUV. Built on GM’s Ultium platform, it achieves this range thanks to the 85kWh battery inside, which is the same size as the Chevy Blazer EV.

The two vehicles have many similarities inside and out, from the 121.8-inch wheelbase to the 11-inch driver instrument display. However, the official EPA range for Chevy’s SUV is already known, at 279 miles on a full charge.

Imagine buying a new car, and suddenly, most gas stations are broken. That’s a reality new electric vehicle owners are finding when it comes to EV charging stations supplied by significant players like ChargePoint, Electrify America, and EVgo.

Many stations often result in customers leaving without a recharge thanks to unreliable or damaged hardware, and the situation is growing worse over time. For some EV owners, it might feel like the companies behind the charging networks are asleep at the wheel. But occasionally they stick their heads up to let us know they realize there’s a problem, and they’re laboring to fix it.

If you were holding off on buying an EV because you didn’t know where to start on getting a home charger installed, Hyundai’s new deal might help you out. The automaker is now offering a free home electric vehicle charger plus up to $600 off the installation cost with the purchase or lease of select Hyundai EVs.

Hyundai is offering up the ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 charger on the Hyundai Home Marketplace. The charger is currently listed at $549 on the website and supports up to 50 amps, which could get you around 37 miles of driving range per hour of charging. The additional $600 installation credit applies only to services ordered through Hyundai’s website.

EV owners fed up with the often broken, discombobulated charging experience in the US are about to get a lifeline from the federal government.

The US Department of Transportation is authorizing $100 million to “repair and replace existing but non-operational, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.” The investment comes from a $7.5 billion pot of money for EV charging that was approved as part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The department has already approved around $1 billion for the installation of thousands of new EV chargers along major highways in the US.