Electrify America Goes Commercial

Electrify America this week got into the B2B (business-to-business) game, launching Electrify Commercial.

This may come across as a little confusing at first, since Electrify America has previously partnered with corporations like Walmart and Love’s to install ultrafast charging stations. Although those were major corporate partnerships, though, the target customers were still normal electric vehicle drivers, and the charger network was fully Electrify America’s. In this new venture, the customers are “utilities, fleet owners and operators, government entities, and businesses seeking to manage their own network of chargers.”

In other words, rather than roll out more charging stations for its own network, the new charging stations will be for the use, ownership, and custom needs of some other business’s or organization’s staff or clients. That also means that Electrify Commercial could offer slower/lower-power (cheaper) charging stations if desired.

“The new business unit helps business-to-business (B2B) customers — including utility companies, fleet operators, automotive manufacturers, real estate developers, property owners, retailors and government entities — formulate and deploy a strategy tailored to their specific EV charging needs,” they add. “Electrify Commercial’s comprehensive suite of services is designed to support B2B clients’ charging needs at any speed, resulting in a seamless experience for both station operators and EV drivers.”

But then, how integrated is the offering? What parts of the process does Electrify Commercial offer? The short answer: it’s highly integrated, or as integrated as desired, and Electrify Commercial will do all of it if you pay for that. The longer answer is:

• A customized EV charging program tailored to fit the needs of the client
• Site acquisition, including identification, research, and analysis of potential locations
• Site development that maximizes the use of space
• The latest technology to handle applications from Level 2 AC to 350kW DC charging
• Proactive monitoring with in-depth asset management
• Premium driver experience offering the latest technology to support the EV market
• Robust testing of EV charging through Electrify America’s Center of Excellence technology lab
• Intelligent energy management recommendations in order to provide cost-saving options

Electrify America has been on a roll recently. In October, it announced a partnership with Meijer to install 36 ultrafast chargers at 9 stations. In September, it rolled out a home charging portal. In August, Electrify America partnered with Love’s to put in 28 new ultrafast chargers at 7 stations. In June, it became possible to drive across the United States on the Electrify America network.

On the other hand, there have been some notable issues with Electrify America stations that have made the network not nearly as slick and smooth as it seems on the surface. It appears that Electrify America is trying to resolve some of them, but we’ll have to wait to take some more long-distance trips or hear much more from other users in order to see how much progress is made.

Electrify America doesn’t have as many fast charging stations nationwide as EVgo or ChargePoint, but it has more chargers per station than any network other than Tesla’s, which mean that it has the second most EV fast chargers in the country. We’ll see how this new Electrify Commercial initiative rolls into the picture.