Electrify America invests in new and old infrastructure in California

According to Electrify America, it will add “360-740 new chargers in California, with a target of 530.” Moreover, it will install more chargers at each station to “best serve the increased demand for EV charging.” The investment is part of the company’s ‘Cycle 4 plan.’

The Volkswagen subsidiary will also replace about 600 chargers at roughly 130 sites across the US state. The company writes that these chargers, some installed as early as 2018, have now approached the end of their useful life.

In terms of charger upgrades, it will invest 25 million dollars and “focus on upgrading under-performing legacy equipment to its newest generation chargers” to improve the customer experience, “especially with regard to reliability.” As the company notes in its outline of the ‘Cycle 4 plan,’ there is “wear and tear” on the hardware, which negatively impacts the customer experience and satisfaction, which has fallen to “its lowest level recorded during the first half of 2023 and satisfaction with DC fast chargers sinking 20 points between 2022 and 2023.”

Electrify America does not mention when it plans to install new or replace old chargers. Nor does it say whether or not it will use its Gen 4 chargers, though that is very likely. After all, the company dedicates an entire page of its 55-page plan to the charger’s features.

Just recently, the VW subsidiary announced that it will  re/introduced alongside fees for idiling at its DC chrgers across the US. Electrify members will also see an increase in their Pass+ subscription. The monthly fee is now $7 (up from $4), with the 25% discount on charging fees staying the same. This comes after prices were already increased in March.

electrifyamerica.com (PDF, most important info on pages 5-9, and 23)