Go-Station Building New EV Charging Network

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The Southwest, and eventually the wider United States, is getting a new EV charging network. With modular upgradability, data-driven locations, and the ability to reserve charging, Go-Station has some interesting plans.

While it may seem nerdy, PlugShare is a great place to keep a finger on the pulse of the EV scene. You can see where people are having success, where they’re experiencing trouble, and where new and exciting things are happening. Recently, Albuquerque has been a rough place to own a fast-charging CCS or CHAdeMO EV. The local utility, Nissan, and local businesses all came together years ago to provide a good number of stations for the relatively small city. More recently, the stations have been failing one by one, and not getting repaired. The last operating station was down to only providing low-speed charging, and now is only intermittently working.

Faced with all this turmoil, users were excited to find a new station under construction, but it was from a provider I hadn’t heard of before: Go-Station. After looking them up, I got in touch with Ray Addison, the Vice President. It turns out that they have some pretty cool plans.

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There are a few things that set Go-Station apart from other charging providers.

First, they are getting their hands on as much data as they can about EV drivers, and doing their best to locate stations in places where they’re actually needed, as opposed to a “me too” approach of saturating relatively well-served areas with even more charging stations. Their first station in Albuquerque is proof of this. The situation was getting bad there, and they showed up to put in a station.

Second, they aren’t just buying hardware from ABB and putting it in parking lots. They worked with hardware makers to come up with flexible solutions to better serve EV drivers. For one, they are making stations modular with upgradeable speeds. This means they don’t have to go all-in and spend the big bucks putting in 150–350 kW stations like Electrify America. They can start with lower speeds, get stations installed where they’re badly needed, and then upgrade speeds later. This gets stations in lots sooner rather than later.

Finally, they’re starting out in a few underserved states to make sure they have the basics down before expanding nationally. They’re currently working with site owners to go beyond New Mexico and install more stations in Nevada, Texas, Colorado, and Arizona. Multiple sites are planned for each state to go online within the next 12 months.

While they aren’t ready to announce exact sites, it seems pretty clear that they’re serious about making a meaningful impact on the drivability of CCS and CHAdeMO cars in places where drivers currently struggle, and where new buyers would probably be hesitant to jump in. It’s great to see a charging provider doing this.

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