EVGo announces a new partnership with GM for 5 year tripling of stations

[BoltEV]

I just received the following email from EVGo:

Did you see the exciting news?! We are tripling the size of our public fast charging network over the next five years – adding more than 2,700 public fast chargers in 40 metro areas through a partnership with General Motors (GM) to make it even easier to go electric.

EVgo is committed to expediting mass adoption of electric vehicles in the US by creating a convenient, reliable, and affordable EV charging network that delivers fast charging to everyone. We have long worked with automaker partners and other leaders toward making this mission a reality by increasing transportation electrification across the United States.

Today, 115 million Americans live within a 15-minute drive of an EVgo fast charger. Our work with GM will add more stations in cities and towns where EVgo is already present, and bring fast charging to new markets across the country. Like the existing EVgo network, each new fast charger will be powered by 100% renewable energy, strengthening and extending our commitment to a cleaner and greener future for everyone.

Our work is focused on delivering great fast charging services for you, the EV driver, and for future EV drivers. We are committed to making sure that the convenient and reliable fast charging experience 200,000 EVgo customers already enjoy grows to millions as more and more EV models come to market. Click to learn more about why we're working with GM to accelerate the deployment of public EV fast charging infrastructure across the U.S.

Please reach out to EVgo Customer Support if you have questions or need any assistance, 24/7, at [email protected] or 877-494-3833.

More than ever, EVgo is here for you.

Sincerely,
Your Fast Charging Friends at EVgo

 

[BoltEV]

https://www.evgo.com/about/news/general-motors-and-evgo-aim-to-accelerate-widespread-ev-adoption-by-adding-fast-chargers-nationwide/

 

[theothertom]

This is great news! Finally GM is getting some skin in the charging network game.

 

[michaelbolt]

Hopefully they will install multi position stations. Too risky to use if only one station

 

[GetOffYourGas]

I feel like EVGo is pretty clueless as to EV drivers' actual needs.

Today, 115 million Americans live within a 15-minute drive of an EVgo fast charger.

This fact is practically useless. Unless you cannot charge at home, practically noone charges at a DCFC within 15 minutes of where they live! And if that's the primary way to charge your EV, then EVGo will make sure it costs much more than gasoline while simultaneously being less convenient.

No, we really need DCFC networks to fill in the highway corridors first. Then urban DCFC would be more useful for people visiting a city than those who live there. But if you can't get there to begin with, the point is moot.

On that note, I haven't seen anything about which metro areas are included in that number. I'm guessing they won't be in any city that helps me much.

 

[summit]

How about a couple of DCFC plugs at each petrol gas station

 

[SparkE]

I feel like EVGo is pretty clueless as to EV drivers' actual needs.

Today, 115 million Americans live within a 15-minute drive of an EVgo fast charger.

This fact is practically useless. Unless you cannot charge at home, practically noone charges at a DCFC within 15 minutes of where they live! And if that's the primary way to charge your EV, then EVGo will make sure it costs much more than gasoline while simultaneously being less convenient.

No, we really need DCFC networks to fill in the highway corridors first. Then urban DCFC would be more useful for people visiting a city than those who live there. But if you can't get there to begin with, the point is moot.

On that note, I haven't seen anything about which metro areas are included in that number. I'm guessing they won't be in any city that helps me much.

This is useful for people living in apartments or rental housing where they cannot modify the electrical setup to add a 240V socket. Also, if in a rental house, one can use a DCFC those times when the battery is below 50% and you want (close to) a full charge overnight but only have a 120V outlet in your rental garage.

I seem to recall that over 33% of the U.S. households live in rentals.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

What percentage of current (non-Tesla) BEV drivers don't have access to home charging? I'm curious to know. I am willing to bet it is much lower than the national average.

Also, rentals don't preclude charging at home. Many rentals are single-family homes or duplexes around here.

Anyway, I already addressed the biggest problem with your use case: cost. If you are predominantly charging your EV at EVGo stations (because you cannot charge at home), it will be far more expensive than gas. Very few people would pay more for that inconvenience.

 

[BoltEV]

I have to agree with SparkE’s cogent statement on this issue.

Anecdotally:

My “full” charge of a mostly depleted battery woukd take 11 hours on my 20A Clipper Creek charger in my garage

When I drove Uber full time before the Pandemic, on average, 5-7 days per month, I would drive out of my local area due to rider preference.

If I wanted a turnaround sooner than 11 hours, I would stop at the EVGo chargers at the Union 76 gas station one mile from my home and do a 30-60 minute charge there, then top off at home

The extra cost of the EVGo was worth the extra hours I was able to drive Uber the next day.

 

[SparkE]

Also, rentals don't preclude charging at home. Many rentals are single-family homes or duplexes around here.

They aren't in NYC, or Chicago, or San Francisco. But my point was that you may not have access to 240V at a rental. Charging at 12A/120V is about 1.2W an hour into the battery (assuming around 88% efficiency of the EVSE at 120V). 10 hours of charging would give you 12 kWh a night, 14 would give you around 16.5 kWh. For those days when you need more than that, a DCFC near home allows you to add 20 or 30 kWh fairly quickly. That is why they are useful. If you live in an apartment in a big city, and your garage (if you have one) doesn't have a plug, you can't drive electric without using someone else's charging H/W. So DCFCs *are* useful in cities - for some.

Anyway, I already addressed the biggest problem with your use case: cost. If you are predominantly charging your EV at EVGo stations (because you cannot charge at home), it will be far more expensive than gas. Very few people would pay more for that inconvenience.

At $0.30 kWh, $1.80 worth of electricity is 6 kWh (EVgo in Calif is currently $0.26/min with a subscription plan). At 4.4 miles per kWh, that is 26 miles. That's better than most SUVs for a gallon of gas. I wouldn't call that "far more expensive than gas". And it's cheaper if you use the 240V (J1772) charging stations. (Heck, there are a ton of free ones around my area.)

Just because you don't live in an apartment doesn't preclude a lot of people from living in apartments. And charging at 120V because you rent the house that you live in can be insufficient at times, so a charger close by (or on the way to work) can be very useful.

What percentage of current (non-Tesla) BEV drivers don't have access to home charging? I'm curious to know. I am willing to bet it is much lower than the national average.

If true, maybe that is due to the fact that there haven't been enough public charging stations until recently for those people living in rentals to start considering buying EVs. And now that EVgo (and others) are installing more an more stations in the cities where they live maybe more of them WILL be considering an EV. That's a good thing. More people driving electric.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

At $0.30 kWh, $1.80 worth of electricity is 6 kWh (EVgo in Calif is currently $0.26/min with a subscription plan). At 4.4 miles per kWh, that is 26 miles. That's better than most SUVs for a gallon of gas. I wouldn't call that "far more expensive than gas". And it's cheaper if you use the 240V (J1772) charging stations. (Heck, there are a ton of free ones around my area.)

Ok, but I have not seen EVgo chargers that cost only $0.30/kWh. And nor does the Bolt get a nominal 2.2 mpk.

In NY, EVgo is $0.27/min. The fastest EVgo I have seen in the state is 125A. That's a peak rate of about 43kW. The average charge rate is about 40kW. If you charge past your car's taper, the average is much lower. I have seen average rates as low as 20kW, especially in cold weather. But let's go with 40kW. Keep in mind, that 40kW is the best you will get with EVgo, and the numbers below could easily be twice as expensive.

In an hour, that's 40kW for $16.20, or $0.405/kWh.

The Bolt gets 3.9miles/kWh according to the EPA. You can do better, you can do worse, but let's use that.

That's $0.104 / mile.

Current gas prices in NY range from under $2/gallon to maybe $2.50/gallon. Let's call it $2.25.

To get $0.104 / mile, your car must get 21.6MPG. That's pretty bad.

And again, if you aren't spending the time and effort to keep your car only charging at or near its peak rate, you can easy fall into the range of 11MPG or worse! Who would pay that much for fuel, especially given it is far less convenient than gasoline? This won't be expanding the EV market by much, if at all.

 

[xgashole]

I feel like EVGo is pretty clueless as to EV drivers' actual needs.



This fact is practically useless. Unless you cannot charge at home, practically noone charges at a DCFC within 15 minutes of where they live! And if that's the primary way to charge your EV, then EVGo will make sure it costs much more than gasoline while simultaneously being less convenient.

No, we really need DCFC networks to fill in the highway corridors first. Then urban DCFC would be more useful for people visiting a city than those who live there. But if you can't get there to begin with, the point is moot.

On that note, I haven't seen anything about which metro areas are included in that number. I'm guessing they won't be in any city that helps me much.

I have found EVGO to be a very expensive way to recharge, but sometimes the only L3 option available. Will this change that?

 

[MidRom]

I used EvGo charger only once, halfway through a 300 mile road trip. It cost about 83 cents a kwh, which included an initial hook-up fee and surcharges for busy charging time period. Expensive. A necessary evil. I could have save 30-cents a kwh by charging a few miles away at a Tesla Supercharger. (I have a NACS adapter), so poor planning on my part.

Note that at many EvGo charging stations and others brands of charging stations, the owner of the business or location gets a portion of the proceeds and has input into the prices charged. The EvGo DCFS charger I used was in a WaWa gas station/coffee shop. They allow EvGo to install charger on their property and collect a share of the revenue.

For now, I view more DCFS chargers anywhere to be a good thing. I live in upstate NY, in an area with few EV's and few chargers. Both Highway and local chargers are all necessary and useful. Over the next few years, the number of DCFS charging stations will likely quadruple, with DCFS chargers being installed in Shopping malls, replacing gas pumps at gas stations, in parking lots at businesses, apartments, offices, even schools and churches, etc. A local hospital to me, has a DCFS fast charger 50 feet from the Emergency room main entrance. I guess you DCFS fast charge your car while their sewing up your bullet wound!. Competition will pretty quickly drive the prices down.

Additionally, many destination businesses such as hotels, malls, restaurants, etc. will soon provide very low cost (or even free) DCFS charging, as they want to entice you to shop or stay at their location. Costco is installing DSFS chargers. They will charge very low rates. They will make their money on you spending $300 in the store while your car charges conveniently right outside.

 

[summit]

My sister in LA was charging Evgo exclusively, but now prefers Tesla as it is cheaper (time of day dependent)

 

[MidRom]

Too add just a bit to my previous answer, there are many unknown and hidden chargers. It would be wise for most EV owners to install plug-share and a few other EV app's and explore. I just bought my first EV, a 2018 Chevy Bolt six months ago. By using the apps, by driving around, by talking to local EV owners, I found many available chargers that I did not know about.

- Binghamton University, a large SUNY university is 3 miles from my house. It has free chargers, most are slow chargers, but for the 30,000 students, faculty and nearby residents, they are very useful (and free!). I have charged there while attending a college football game at the college. There are 4-5 other large colleges within 50 miles of me, which sounds far and out of the way, however most are in larger towns or cities or along highways; places and routes that most people normaly travel. Many have free or very low cost chargers., I have a friend who works at Cornell University. He pays 1-cent a minute to (slow) charge. Cheaper and more convenient than stopping at a DCFS fast charger.

- The Southern Tier welcome center is 10 miles from my house and is right on the main highway that I often travel. This a tourist visitor center located where you first enter NY state from Pennsylvania (going northward on highway #81). It has four totally free fast chargers (2 DCFS and 2 ChadeMo). They also have a few shops and a nice restaurant there, so you can have a nice meal and charge for free while stuffing your face. Many tourist areas have similar visitor welcome centers.

- There are local municipal parking lots near me, not more than 1/2 mile from my house, with chargers (mostly slow chargers). These did not show up on the Plug-Share app, I just noticed them one day while shopping locally. I have a 240v home charger at home, but if I did not, I would be fine charging there 12-hours overnight 2-3x a week. Heck, I walk 2 miles a day for exercise, so walking to a nearby charger would serve a dual purpose.

A local golf course I play, has an EV charger. It is slow, but so is a game of golf Especially mine!

There are a lot of hidden gems of charging stations, both fast and slow, you just have to find them.

 

[BillM]

It was about 2016 and the Walmart near me had two EVgo L2 and one 50 KW DCFC charger. I had a LEAF back then. I was going to use an L2 charger to top off while shopping in the store. On the LCD screen, one of the two charger apps had crashed leaving the Windows XP desktop visible with “Administrator” showing in the corner. I could not believe they would use such an outdated platform and even worse were apparently running their apps logged in as the network administrator. Needless to say I didn’t try to charge there and didn’t touch anything. It is possible if the Accessories folder osk (on screen keyboard) was there, someone with bad intent could have taken over some part of their control network. Since then I have stayed away from EVgo over security concerns of someone infiltrating and doing damage to charging vehicles. That was nine years ago and hopefully they have since learned better security techniques and have more robust apps.

Edited: to correct, it was Windows XP, not Windows 95 thst they were running.