General Motors president Mark Reuss recently outlined three major hurdles that he believes may prevent consumers from buying an electric vehicle: range, cost and charging infrastructure. The industry is currently working on getting battery-powered vehicles cost on par with their internal combustion-engine counterparts and is also developing more efficient and energy dense batteries – but what are brands like GM doing about the lack of charging infrastructure?
Alex Keros, lead architect of EV infrastructure at GM, recently highlighted the ways he and his team plan to tackle the charging grid problem in a recent post published via his LinkedIn page. In the post, Keros says “the heart” of GM’s charging strategy “is ensuring the EV charging experience positively impacts decision making when purchasing an EV,” and explains his team is “doing this by making it easier than ever to charge at any station in any setting by facilitating the build-out of additional infrastructure and executing next-generation vehicle-grid technologies.”
Keros then points out some example of strides the automaker has made in this space, such as displaying nearby available charge points within the myChevrolet app in the Chevrolet Bolt EV. The automaker partnered with Qmerit to connect Bolt EV owners to installers of at-home charging stalls as well, and is also working with Bechtel to help set up more charging stations in the U.S., providing the construction company with data that will help it decide the best places to set up the stations.
GM also plans to partner “with utilities to deploy innovative demand response programs and support thoughtful approach to rate design so our customers have access to the most cost-effective options for charging.” It sounds as though the plan is to inform EV owners of the most cost-effective times to charge their vehicles, whether it be at home or at a public charging stall, and may prove to be crucial to keeping ownership costs of EVs down when more people need to charge up.
GM’s vice president of EV infrastructure, Mike Ableson, previously said that investing in third-party charging companies is “best use of our capital, not to build our own charging networks.” The company seems to have little interest in building its own charging stalls, unlike Tesla with its Supercharger network. Porsche also has its own charging stalls and stations, but unlike the Tesla stalls, they are paid for and installed by Porsche dealerships.
“We are in the thick of putting all of these pieces together right now, and our intent is to leverage additional partners to bring electrification to mainstream customers,” Keros also writes in the post. “It is not lost on our team that there remains lots of work to do, but being a market leader positions us well to build on our initial learning.”
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Comments
Sounds like a bunch of BS to me. I’m still waiting for the production date on C8’S, loosing $20k per unit at $60k. THAT’S NOT SMART BUSINESS , IS IT ???
Can’t truly believe anything GM says about production, it’s all about the BENJAMINS………
BARRA, careless about consumers.
GM is just a faded memory of what it once was. If you cant see that ck your history…….
lol, so a faded memory of the bogged down company so far in debt with legacy costs that it pretty much went under and had to be rescued? THAT GM? Or the GM from the 70’s and 80’s that didn’t know how to make a reliable car, basically inviting companies like Toyota and Honda to come in and grow their markets? THAT GM?
I’m good with the “let’s build EVs” GM. I’m not convinced they’re being aggressive enough about it, but I also don’t want to go back to the “old” GM. I want an entirely new GM that wakes up, and stops killing every car they make in favor of a SLIGHTLY different sized SUV. I want a GM that makes EVs AND supports them.
I’m a Bolt owner and I love my car, but I’m disappointed in the lack of marketing and production increases that have followed the Bolt’s release.
Your 1 ? must be your own.
Possible you don’t know your GM history.
You kids think you know it all,
Lol enjoy the day,
As a Bolt EV driver in Portland Oregon there’s no shortage of non-Tesla level 2 charging stations in the area and along the interstates. What is lacking is the availability of charging stations along the Oregon coast. There are a few scattered here and there, but most are private. As EV’s become more popular the chance of arriving at a charging station only to find it occupied (or broken) only adds to the range anxiety I experience when I travel there. RV parks are another option and I pack a portable L2 charger with me, but there’s no guarantee the owners are going to let you charge your car there.
I really like the Bolt and plan to keep it another year or so but if the charging infrastructure hasn’t improved along the coast, or the number of fast DC chargers increased substantially in that time frame I will likely replace it with a plug-in hybrid.
during the gas crunch my son raced motorcycles in different states and we carried a 30 gallon barrel of gasoline so we would not have to worry about finding a open gas station. I do not see how we can carry extra volts in case I can’t find a charging station
Hybrid plug in / 30 gal dino juice. Just in case plug in takes a $hit……
It’s not just the availability of chargers, even if you find one, it’s not just a five minute fill up.
GM could take a big step by putting a free level 3 at each of their dealerships
The first step is to kill off the Chevy Volt that didn’t have this problem.
I have a volt and use it as designed. Short trips for errands and very seldom use the gas engine 24000 miles on 52 gallons of gasoline. I charge mainly at home living in Minnesota I don’t have to stand outside in the winter cold to fill a gas tank. People always ask how long does it take to charge and I tell them about 20 SECONDS 10 to plug it in and 10 to unplug it the next morning . You have to consider how long a persons vehicle sits idle not being used . The volt is well engineered and a great car but GM as usual just can’t find there way !
I don’t expect EVs to sell in big numbers until AVs get popular. When this happens a lot of EVs are likely to be autonomous taxis (ATs) operating from taxi depots. Taxis will do automatic changing at the depots. A 1000 AT depot would require a HV power supply of approximately 10 MW capacity to supply approximately 100 MWh of electricity a day.
So GM is really not doing anything. So far they only make a small number of COMPLIANCE CARS.
Tesla is the only automaker with the best range, their own Super Charging, make their own batteries and drive sysyems.