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Last month, we reported that Electrify America was making some changes. Among them are new stations to replace first-generation stations that were giving problems, a new way to describe charging speeds, and easier access to customer service. Now, we’re seeing the progress is well underway.
Our Loveland, CO charging station has been upgraded and is now online!
This location features three 350 kW Hyper-Fast chargers. The CHAdeMO at this location was not upgraded. https://t.co/YoZSrcVXzv pic.twitter.com/zr4XN4gd3C
— Electrify America (@ElectrifyAm) September 30, 2022
To really understand what the company is doing as it announces these station upgrades on Twitter and Facebook, you have to go back to some of its press releases from March and September. I’ll save readers the trouble, and just sum it up here.
In March, Electrify America announced a brand new station design. The new, ultra-fast chargers with up to 150 and 350 kilowatts of power will keep Electrify America’s recognizable green lighting and 8-foot height.
Electrify America says it refines the look, while also reducing how much space (footprint) the charger takes up. If you’ve ever stumbled around between a car and their current bulkier chargers, you know that this is going to be pretty helpful. These newer stations are also only going to have one cable per station, but with a much longer cable that can reach EVs easier. This will mean you won’t have to be as careful to park your car just right for the cable to reach the charging port, and two cords aren’t needed to reach both sides of every EV that might nose-in or back in.
Image courtesy of Electrify America
Another big improvement is that the new stations have a much easier to use and easier to see display. It’s brighter, so seeing it in daylight will be easier. It’s also recessed into the station a bit to help with glare. This will help customers who don’t rely on the app to get guidance on their charge session and to know what the status of their charge is.
As we discovered last month, Electrify America is also adding balanced chargers to its charging network. This technology will enable all “balanced” Electrify America chargers to deliver 350 kilowatts, meaning drivers will no longer need to search for a dedicated ‘Hyper-Fast’ 350 kW charger at a charging station.
When a charger is balanced, it means that it can simultaneously provide up to 150 kW of ultra-fast charging for electric vehicles that are able to accept this much power. If the adjacent charger is not being used, then your charger can offer the full 350 kW to hyper-fast capable vehicles.
This balanced technology distributes power amongst EVs during charging, as different EVs have different maximum charging limits.
For example, if two EVs are charging at the same time, each on balanced chargers, but the first EV requires a much lower level of power (like a Chevy Bolt), the chargers will balance the energy dispensed to provide the maximum level of charging power that the lower-power vehicle will accept. At the same time, the second charger may allocate the remaining power to a second, higher-powered EV at the output that it can accept.
So, if you’re driving a Kia EV6, with its super fast 800-volt charging system, you’d be annoyed if you pulled into an Electrify America station and saw me sitting there in my Bolt EUV taking up the 350 kW spot. You’d face the choice of settling for a 150 kW stall or waiting for me to get my slow car out of the way (which could take as much as an hour). But, if there’s a balanced pair of stalls, you could pull up next to my car and plug in, and I’d only be taking up 55 kW at most, leaving the rest of the 350 kW shared power for you to use.
If you plugged in next to another Kia, you’d only get half of the power, but if they finish charging while you’re still there (or hit their taper), you’d get full power after they’re not taking their full share of it.
So, yes, this arrangement is pretty nice.
Another thing announced in March that the company is implementing today are solar awnings. The company is adding solar awnings to 400-500 individual chargers at 100 charging stations across the country. Not only will the awnings provide shelter from sun and weather, but captured energy will help power station operations. The company has already installed solar canopies at its flagship charging stations in Baker and Santa Clara, CA. Captured solar energy is also routed to power onsite battery systems which charge electric vehicles.
Other improvements it is planning to add at some locations include:
Another thing Electrify America is doing with these new stations is giving new power names of “Hyper-Fast” for 350 kilowatt (kW) chargers and “Ultra-Fast” for 150 kilowatt chargers in an effort to simplify the charging experience for people who don’t know what a kW number means. The company has made this new naming system available to all charging vendors in order to create a worldwide standard (assuming others adopt it, of course).
To make it simple and easy to understand, the new labels on chargers across the Electrify America and Electrify Canada networks will bear the Hyper-Fast and Ultra-Fast names. The companies developed the first publicly accessible charging speeds of up to 150 kW and 350 kW, which have become industry norms.
The new labels will include two descriptions of maximum power in colors that are both easy to see and hard to miss.
It’s nice to see all of this change show up in the real world at stations people are using, even if the last part is a bit of a silly set of marketing terms.
Jennifer Sensiba is a long time efficient vehicle enthusiast, writer, and photographer. She grew up around a transmission shop, and has been experimenting with vehicle efficiency since she was 16 and drove a Pontiac Fiero. She likes to explore the Southwest US with her partner, kids, and animals. Follow her on Twitter for her latest articles and other random things: https://twitter.com/JenniferSensiba
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