General Motors and EVgo have partnered to add 2,700 EV fast chargers nationwide in the United States over the next five years. With this expansion, the EVgo fast-charging network, which was already the nation’s largest, is set to triple in size.
In a statement, GM CEO Mary Barra said the automaker’s planned charging station expansion is representative of its commitment to EVs and ensuring the technology continues to rise in popularity.
“We are moving quickly to bring new EVs to market that customers will love,” Barra said. “We know how important the charging ecosystem is for drivers, one that includes access to convenient and reliable public fast charging. Our relationship with EVgo will bolster the public fast-charging network available to EV customers ahead of increased market demand and reinforce our commitment to an all-electric, zero-emissions future.”
GM says the EV fast chargers will be installed in both cities and suburbs and at places such as grocery stores, retail outlets, entertainment centers and “other high-traffic locations.” Additionally, it says most of the EVgo DC fast-charging stations will be able to charge up to four vehicles at once and will have 100-to 350-kW capabilities for charging the more powerful EVs that are coming market – like the GMC Hummer EV, for example.
EVs may be better for the environment than gas cars are, but the advantages are somewhat negated if the electric energy is sourced from a fossil-fuel-fired power plant. As such, all 2,700 of these new EVgo charging stations will draw power from 100% renewable resources. EVgo became the first North American vehicle charging company to only set up chargers where it can run them off of 100 percent renewable energy last year.
GM and EVgo will likely collaborate to install more EV fast chargers as demand for electric vehicles grows. The automaker says the two companies “designed this new endeavor to leverage private investment alongside government grant and utility programs,” to help it build out a charging infrastructure before it begins to roll out electric vehicles en masse. Unlike Tesla, GM is not interested in building its own charging network and says setting up “necessary charging infrastructure ahead of market demands will require continued public-private partnership.”
GM is currently working to bring 20 new electric vehicles to market globally by 2023 and has sidelined $20 billion to develop both EVs and autonomous vehicles between now and 2025. Every single one of GM’s brands will eventually offer an EV product, as well, with the automaker planning several different Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC and Buick electric vehicles at the moment.
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Comments
Are these charging stations free to use? If so, how long will that last as demand grows? How do they get “renewable” power directly to the chargers? What is the cost to add a 220-volt charging station to a home? Not just an extension cord from a 110 outlet.
If you already have a 220v dryer plug in your Garage, it can be between 300 to 1000 dollars depending on what charger you get. Some states/electric companies offer discounts on Charging stations as well.
Why do you feel it’s required to get free “fuel” for your vehicle?
Didn’t say they should be free. Asking how these things work. Never had a need to use one and never plan to. How many more power plants will need to be built if the whole country has EVs? The grid is taxed now. They told us to raise our thermostats to turn down our A/C at home to lessen strain on Power Plants. They had already lowered the voltage output.
check this article: https:// insideevs .com /news / 436665/24-million-evs-limit-current-power-grid/
Worst case 24 million best case 65 million with today’s grid.
But the grid is upgrading slowly and more energy sources are being added.
Should have no trouble with future demand of EVs
Your statement about more energy sources being added on top of the existing energy supply is just not true .
The grid needs a 100% rebuild to cope with large scale ev deployment
James that is just not true…. Only a minority people use fast chargers anyway (I have 3 plug-in vehicles including the BOLT ev, and have never used a fast charger since the Level 2 facilities (dryer outlet, etc) are good enough), as 80% of people slow charge at home over the midnight hours HELPING the grid utilize underused facilities at that time.
The savings from banned incandescent lights, energy efficient refrigerators and air conditioners going from SEER’s of 6 to now 13-14 easily compensate for ONE FULL electric plug-in car.
The other point where you are mistaken, is that the grid is constantly, and continually modernized. Nuclear Plants may be discontinued, but those that remain are being uprated for higher output.
Decades ago, the conversion of old-school manual defrost refrigerators with microscopic freezing sections being replaced by huge ‘frost-free’ energy hogs, required the construction of fully 6 utility scale power plants just to power the difference nationwide in the USA.
What with increasing Solar and Wind power generation, it appears that, even with multiple plug in ev’s in each home, that this time, NO new central stations will be required…. The problems that Wind and Solar cause (duck curve, etc) can easily be solved by time-of-day metering – as evidenced by the usage of a gasoline powered filling station that is 10 cents per gallon cheaper than the joint across the street. Utilities just have to price the electricity commensurate with the time of day when it is especially dear, or, times when they have too much and gladly give it away.
Bill Howland’s explanations are right if all BEV users have charging points at home, or if BEVs are being sold only to those people who do have an individual house to live in, where they control the electricity supply.
I live in an apartment building, would have to park my car in the street (I live in Germany) and consequently would not buy an BEV if I have not the guarantee that I can attach my BEV for charging to a public charging point when I come home from work or some leisure evening activity.
But that would require a massive investment in such public charging points and in the electrical grid as such.
That’s why methinks that the FCEV is the way to go, not the BEV (FC = Fuel Cell).
The knack is the decoupling in time of the vehicle and electrical grid: the electricity for charging the BEV must be produced in the moment of charging. The electrolytical production of H2 happens independently of the fuelling the vehicle with H2 and the use of H2 to produce the electricity for the electric motors driving the vehicle’s wheels.
The old coal fired plants are being retired at a fast rate, and replaced by renewable or natural gas fueled power. The grid may have to be enhanced in areas, who knows? The impact on pollution can only be good. When we don’t need as many “gas” stations they can be transformed into quaint retro diners with overpriced sandwiches.
Your view is pie in the sky .
When the tree huggers succeed in banning any new natural gas lines this no new power plants and “renewable sources “ are not up to snuff (cold spell in middle of winter ) we will be stuck looking at ourselves with a collapsed economy .
The tree huggers have already succeeded in preventing a needed natural gas line in New York even though New York cities utilities have stated there will not be enough natural gas supply to supply new homes and businesses
Well before you accuse me of being a Tree Hugger, my favorite Central Station Type is a nice modern COAL plant – as existed in Tonawanda (Buffalo), NY prior to Cuomo’s ban of Coal Power in NY State. Hopefully those states that still have them will keep them, as I charge my 3 cars with possibly 1% of Coal power from Pennsylvania.
The thing that is currently hurting Coal-fired plants the most is the artificially low price of Natural Gas – which I expect to rise in future years.
But in Western NY / Southern Ontario, the current problem is TOO MUCH generation, or, more to the point, not enough usage, as Ontario Power Generation on a regular basis, to their Great Reluctance, discharges excess heat into Lake Ontario, and PAYS NY ISO to take the electricity off their hands, which goes here to operate the pumped storage facility in Lewiston, NY, since otherwise, we don’t have enough usage for it either…. Hopefully in the next decade there will be a factory opening (such as Kodak Pharmaceuticals in Rochester) making something again. And this with 3 large coal fired plants (Dunkirk, Tonawanda, and Somerset) totally mothballed.
OPG , on occasion, usually after midnight, or just after sunrise, pays to have NY State take the electricity, since it is a dicey thing to lower the output of a Nuclear Plant, especially if the fuel is old. It would be far more cost effective for the Canadians to have something to use up their ‘excess juice’ charging EVs rather than having to pay us Americans to take it.
They are not free. Nor are most of Teslas super chargers. I have a level 2 charger at home for my 2018 Volt. I wired it myself and the charger was in the trunk when I bought the volt used. To buy a level 2 charger you will spend $300-$500. Installing them is no big deal but if you have to hire an electrician it can get expensive. I charge whenever we park the car at home and it takes about 4 hours on my level 2 if the battery is depleted. On a BEV it going to take longer if you are discharged but most of the time zi put 30-40 miles on my car on a daily drive so It would be rare to have to fully charge a BEV at home.
I ran a 240v line from my primary breaker box to my carport costing me about $100 for supplies
A,so perhaps you missed the part where all of these stations are going to be using renewable energy. Likey solar and battery banks. No strain on existing power grids
Ah that is the 100 million dollar question . The tree huggers are also against building new power lines .
The off shore wind energy is 4 -10 times more expensive then current sources . Nys signed a long term deal to buy for $100 kwh vs current cost on open market of $30 kwh
And the wind mills decrease in production 3.5% each year .
Not sure where the power for an all ev transportation industry is going to come from
This is an interesting read
https:// arstechnica .com /science/2020/07/offshore-wind-in-europe-wont-need-subsidies-much-longer/
James – please type SOMETHING factual. You are overstating the cost by 1000 times…. The units you are looking for are Mwh, not Kwh.
The fact that we NY Staters are stuck with Cuomo and his high-handed lockdowns make me wonder who will be DUMB enough ever to vote for a RINO or Democrat ever again.
Of course he’s going to make dumb infrastructure decisions – but those are the smartest things he ever does, and I could tolerate him if he didn’t, as a for instance, kill 6,000 (or probably more like 30,000 – since if they die in the ambulance they didn’t die in the nursing home) elderly folks.
Giving the nursing homes immunity also prevents relatives from visiting their in-laws, those suffering from dementia many times not allowing anyone to feed them but their relatives, who have been banned from the facility, such that many starve to death, and you can’t sue the facility. But such is life under a dictator.
You mean electricity doesn’t just come out of the wall socket?! (Sarcasm).
They are not free. Nor are most of Teslas super chargers. I have a level 2 charger at home for my 2018 Volt. I wired it myself and the charger was in the trunk when I bought the volt used. To buy a level 2 charger you will spend $300-$500. Installing them is no big deal but if you have to hire an electrician it can get expensive. I charge whenever we park the car at home and it takes about 4 hours on my level 2 if the battery is depleted. On a BEV it going to take longer if you are discharged but most of the time zi put 30-40 miles on my car on a daily drive so It would be rare to have to fully charge a BEV at home.
I ran a 240v line from my primary breaker box to my carport costing me about $100 for supplies
2,700 is simply not enough. That only seems like enough for one state
2,700 NATIONWIDE at least
Most people charge at home. So this starts to address apartment dwellers and street parkers. EVgo, ChargerPoint and Electrify America chargers are all compatible with CCS.
For long trip, you need their fast charging too.
Yes, most people charge at home, I think we’ve heard that about 1000 times now.
On the other hand, most people won’t buy an EV if they can’t actually travel with it.
Most families have more than one car in their households. A 100 mile EV is a great second car. A 250 mile EV can replace your primary in 99% of cases. Renting a vehicle for the rare trip isn’t that difficult if you don’t want to take an EV. I don’t care about the edge cases of people that need to drive 500 miles a day on a whim. It really is not common at all. People living in an apartment without a consistent place to charge is more common than that. This initiative is to solve the EV problems for those people.
If it’s possible to rent a car with sufficient range, then it’s probably possible to buy one, yes?
Unless laws are enacted to force me to buy something that is both more expensive and less capable, I’m not going to do so.
I’d much prefer they get recharging times down a lot more so that I actually don’t mind driving an electric car.
If you actually look at the Full release it states 2,700 in a 12 year timeframe.
While I am glad they are doing this it shows that GM is not totally behind EV’s as they State. Hope I am wrong but we shall see. They will lose ground to VW I fear.
The two main reason Teslas fly out of their Stores as soon as they arrive is because they have the absolute best Tech and most importantly the ONLY real Super Charging infrastructure.
While I do not think GM needs its own Super Charging infrastructure like Tesla has, they need to pump insane sums of money to every single EV Charging Company to get more built out and for their upfront money, GM customers would get reduced Rates while using them. It would be a Win/Win for GM.
2020 Bolt ev Premier on the lot at my local dealer right now…$50,325. That’s tough.
funny got a Premier at my local dealership for 14 Grand less than that.
That’s good.
Are you in Canada? Bolts fully loaded don’t cost that. Are there bars of gold in the glove box?
Yes ehh. . and $50 is still to much….even in Canada.
Looks like $32,747 for a dealer near me. So, $43,920
I guess that doesn’t really seem a lot better.
Sounds about right Nate. $44 is about the lowest in my city on a lower trim.
I will continue to think that the Bolt should start at $25,000
As it turns out, BEV (Battery-electric vehicle) are useful only as 2nd car for people who have a house of their own and can charge on their premises, overnight while they are sleeping.
In most countries, this is a quite limited market.
Real freedom comes with FCEVs, with FC meaning Fuel Cell, since the Fuel Cell and be refilled in a few minutes just as gas and diesel, the electricity for the electric motor(s) driving the vehicle’s wheels is produced in real time while driving, whereas the electricity for charging the battery of a BEV must be produced in the moment of charging, and the vehicle must be at full stop,not moving.
In many location in Europe that don’t have garage pop up chargers, street lamp chargers being installed. I have no issues with FC vehicles, but giving the infrastructure cost I just don’t see the idea taking off when a chair alternative exist. A couple billion dollars build thousands of charging stations. The same amount build a few fuel cell stations.
There is a DISCUSSION about installing BEV charging stations into lamp posts. That is not to be taken seriously.
The lamp post in front of my house has a circumference of 41 cm, which gives a diameter of 13 cm. This is by far not enough to install the socket for the charger cable’s plug; and one needs space for the user interface with a display, a numeric keypad, a slot for bank cards. All this doesn’t fit in a lamp post. Then the electrical supply for the lamp post would have to be strengthened because charging a huge battery draws more Ampere than a neon light or LED bar.
Then the lamp posts are only on one side of the street, which already halves the number of cars which could be served by what is already a technical impossibility.
From one lamp post to the next, there are six cars being parked. That is, at most one out of 12 cars could be charged. Don’t think that anybody would buy a BEV without having the GUARANTEE to find a free charging outlet to plug his car in over the night.
The market for BEV is exclusively as 2nd or 3rd car for someone with his own house and a place to put his BEV on his own premises. And that market segment is limited.
Elon Musk did the right thing when he targeted his BEVs for the upper crust of this unegalitarian society, for the rich and super rich, as an additional toy and display of wealth and exclusivity. GM with its Bolt BEV is aiming at the wrong segment.
You may now understand that the electric grid would need a huge expansion to support this dreamed up BEV wonderland.
Consider the difference: the BEV needs the electricity at the place where and WHEN the car is parked, and the WHERE is primarily there where the owner lives. For Fuel Cells, the electricity needs to be there where water is separated into H2 and O2, and this can be activated when there is a surplus of energy in the grid, instead of turning off wind mills and photovoltaic complexes.
Consider also that electricity from photovoltaic is not available at those times when the private BEVs will be charged, i.e. night time.
Producing Hydrogen is the best way to store energy which would otherwise be wasted or not produced at all.
Refuelling a FCEV takes about the same time as a the fuel for an ICE. H2 fueling statiosn can be installed as expansion of of traditional gas stations.
I have read, that installing a H2 fuelling station would cost about 1 million Euro. Maybe the price and be brought down with higher numbers.
You’ve thought a lot about this, but you might have over though it. Technically they would only need to provide a 120V socket as the cheapest easiest option. I would provide some the ability to overnight charge. That would be a free option. Option 2 you provide the charging cable. It basically looks like a male to male J1772 cable (already in use in Europe). One end plugs into the lamp post and the other end into your car. The CCS protocol would take care of charging you account because it using your VIN # to authenticate. No additional interfaces necessary for billing.
Will the electric grid need expansion? Sure, but it’s not like you wake up one morning and say “time to expand the grid”. It’s happening all the time and it evolutionary.
FC fuels will exist for certain classes of vehicles where it makes sense. But for consumer passenger vehicles I don’t think we’ll get there. For one they compromise space to hold their large tanks. And unlike EV batteries there are only so many locations you can put those tanks safely out of the way.
Automatic vehicle identification and payment via VIN sounds like the greatest invention since sliced bread. But it requires FIRST that all BEV support it, 2nd the existance of a central register which links the VIN to a bank account and person. The first I consider as not given, the second is a great source for personal moving profiles for police and spy agencies. No thanks. Besides, the existing VIN registers are held nationally, but cars do easily cross country boundaries, especially within the Schengen space. So this surveillance system would have to be international. Well, the NSA could do it. Maybe the already do it. Edward Snowden did not tell us about this.
Then, with VIN-ID or regular payment interface, one needs communications interface in the charging point, and additional communication cables (or 5G — but that is Chinese, and Germany might be sanctioned for deploying 5G, as she is sanctioned for inccreasing her sources of gas).
Whatever, your idea about lamp posts as charging points for BEV is and remains a pipe dream.
Besides, if electricityy is given for free to my neighbour’s car, I want it also for free for my hot water. Electricity is horribly expensive hereabouts.
Finally, to provide electricity at only 120 Volt, you need a transformator in the lamp post to down-transform the current from the standard 240 V….
Fuel cell and a circular economy with H2 is the future, not BEV.
I have the impression that the only problem with H2 fuel cells is the industrial production of those, in automatic productiion chains.
The protocol is part of the CCS specification. It’s up to the car manufacture if they are going to 100% support the protocol, but there isn’t really a reason not to on the vehicle side. As far as central register there wouldn’t be a need for that anymore there is for the various charging stations now. There would be a vendor that owns the equipment. You would register with that vendor just as you do today. If you plug into a station you’re not registered on then the vendor can either not charge your vehicle or provide a token charge at reduce speeds. Once again it’s up to the vendor.
This chaos is one of the main obstacles against BEVs. There must be a way to pay without previous registration and special interfaces, just as at petrol ststions where you can put cash on the table or use a debut or credit csrd.
The flew is pushing against selling more BEVs…
BTW, the German government’s executive order on public EV charging points does not mention the VIN. As far as I can see, the VIN makes sense in the CCS protocol only to ensure that its the same car during the same during the whole charging process.
So please answer me this….
Why in China and Europe which most people live in Apartments, EV’s are selling like Hotcakes?
It is due to their insane lead compared to us in their Charging Infrastructure. It is really that Simple.
There is nothing that I have come across in my Model 3 that I cannot do compared to my GM ICE vehicles I have had.
Our Country is run by Big Oil. I hate to say it that simply but it is very true. Both sides are lobbied hard not to pass any legislation in favor of EV’s. China and Europe are the complete opposite.
That is my biggest fear for our Big Three. They fall behind and European and the ever growing Chinese Companies overtake them in the next 20 years. Fail to shift as a Company and you might get left behind. Look at Kodak and Nokia.
I have the statistics of new car registrations in Germany (passenger cars only).
In the year 2019, of a 3’607’258 total, 6.63% were hybrid, and 1.75% EVs, nearly exclusively BEV.
In the first half of this year 2020, out of a total of 1’210’622 passenger cars, 13.15% were hybrids and 3.66% EVs.
This is not “selling like hotcakes”, in my humble view, but shows that there is a very limited market for BEVs, composed of those people who have charging facilities in their own homes.
Europe as whole so far in 2020 is at 5% of the market for BEV’s. It is up 80% year to year. Orders are still pouring in. Most major cities in Europe will outlaw ICE vehicles being able to drive through by 2025. Germany is desperately trying to Slow Play EV’s to allow their Big Three Auto Companies to try and catch up. Tesla alone in June and July sold almost 20,000 Model 3’s in Europe and they have to Ship them all the way from California. Renault in June and July has sold well over 20,000 Zoe vehicles.
Guess what is not sold in Europe though….a GM BEV.
GM has no vehicle to sell in the second largest EV market. I will never understand why GM sold Opel. They should have left Chevrolet in Europe then. It is still insane to me that GM has no Footprint in Europe. Just insane.
I replied to you with statistics, but my post is “awaiting moderation” for more than 24 hours.
The stumbling block being probably a link to pertinent statistics by ACEA, the association of automobile manufacturers in Eurooe.
So you gonna invest Billions in developing electric vehicles then you have invest millions more for charging stations? For some strange reason you thank that is a better investment than making your present ICE vehicle best in class. That my GM for you.
Putting more and more money into ICE development at this point is throwing money down the drain. Direct injection, cylinder deactivation, variable valve timing, turbos, etc. That’s a lot of tech for incremental improvements. With EVs the biggest roadblock is battery energy density and cost. These things that can be worked on in labs on small scales not spending years designing new ICE technology. Battery technology is being worked on all over the place from cell manufactures to universities to find the best chemistries.
The flew is right.
The ICE is a complicated machine with a lot of moving mechanical parts.
1st: chemical energy in the fuel is transformed into heat and extendng gas;
2nd this exposively expanding gas is transformed in a longitudinal mechanical movement (the piston)
3rd this longitudinal mechanical movement is transformed into a rotational movement via the crankshaft;
4th this needs to be passed to the wheels via another elaborate system of gears and other.
In my view, the optimal electric vehicle has one electric motor per wheel, so no mechanical transmission of movement thruout the vehicle instead the direct coupling of motor and wheel. I would vote for an in wheel motor (hug motor), if this would not increase the unsprung mass considerably.
@Vcat
EV’s will become so cheap to mass produce that it will make zero sense for any Auto Maker to keep spending Billions on a dying Technology to try and keep it alive with ever so strict emissions around the World. So to answer your question, it is 100% the proper thing to do.
We now can recycle batteries, can you recycle Oil from the Ground?
ICE is dying and I want GM to be the absolute best Car Company in the World well into the Future as I am a GM fan.
Getting the idiot ICE drivers to stop parking in EV charging spaces would be a big step too.
Big question: what about the second hand, used BEV market?
Or put the question the other way: what is the resale price achievable after the use of a BEV after several years?
Or put it in still another way: who will trust a used battery in a used BEV of which one does not know about the loading cycles?
A big change in the automobile market is looming, methinks. If BEV actually do achieve a breakthrough.
Well that is a two sided answer to be honest.
The issue is that no other manufacturer makes a great all around EV right other than Tesla. So EV’s lose a lot of value in the used market. However, since everyone pretty much realizes that the Tesla Model 3 is pretty much the best overall EV on the market right now and yes that even includes the Model S….after three years the Model 3 retains onto 90% of its value. Just let that sink in.
You can spend 50K right now and in three years sell that three year Old Model 3 for like $45,000
How many cars can retain that type of value?
So I believe the point is when other Auto Makers make much better EV’s, people will pay a Premium for them used as they know they will last so much longer and with much less maintenance costs than a 3 year old ICE vehicle.
Well, less mechanical pieces to deteriorate, but the huge battery, and the state of decay of this piece is beyond verification for the prospective buyer of a used BEV.
Do reliable statistics of transaction prices for used BEVs?
Check out the 400,000+ mile Chevy Volt named Sparkie.
Also check out myev .com (used EV marketplace)