Instant EV Charging Stations: Just Add Freewire

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The US electric vehicle market hit a couple of speed bumps in recent weeks, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering General Motors. The company has been pushing forward with a multi-year plan to electrify whole fleets of vehicles, and the next step involves a hookup with a startup that has a solution for the EV charging station bottleneck.

An EV Charging Station For Every Fleet

To be clear, not all fleets are equal. Hertz, for example, was all over the EV trend just a couple of years ago, only to shock and sadden EV fans all over the world just last week, when it sold off 20,000 relatively new electric cars from its fleet. The company cited high repair and insurance costs. Driver reluctance to rent an EV also appears to be a factor, as CleanTechnica’s Jennifer Sensiba noted in December. Uncertainty about the availability of public charging stations is among several factors that can scare drivers away from renting an EV.

In contrast, the EV charging station issue is not necessarily a factor for fleet owners and their drivers. If a garage or depot is part of the business, a charging station can be located there, and routes can be planned around it. The US Postal Service, for example, is in the middle of making over 400 of its facilities to accommodate EV charging stations for its new fleet of 66,000 electric vehicles.

The Postal Service owns a total of about 230,000 vehicles, so there’s still a long way to go. However, it’s a start. The hub-and-spoke concept will allow for enough overnight charging to complete a route the next day, if all goes according to plan.

An Ultra-Fast EV Charging Station For Every Fleet

The US Department of Energy’s range estimate for Level 1 EV charging is 5 miles per hour of charging. It bumps up to 25 miles per hour for Level 2, which fits the Postal Service’s plan for overnight charging.

DC fast charging is a horse of a different color. For 30 minutes of charging you can get about 100-200 miles of range, but you’ll probably need a whole new electrical upgrade to deliver it. DCFC charging stations are designed to deliver direct current from a 480-volt AC electric circuit. In contrast, the typical home runs on a 120-volt system.

Installing a DCFC station is expensive, and it might not even be an option for businesses in rental properties. Assuming the same factors are at work for ultra-fast charging (20 miles per minute of charge), that cuts a lot of commercial fleets out of the picture.

That’s where the startup FreeWire Technologies comes in. The company’s battery-equipped EV charging stations first crossed the CleanTechnica radar about eight years ago. The battery system enables FreeWire charging stations to deliver ultra-fast charging with minimal upgrades to the existing electricity infrastructure.

“…the battery generally acts as a buffer during times of peak demand in order to avoid high peak demand chargers and improve grid flexibility,” our editor Zach Shahan explained in 2020. “On the flip side, it can also put out more power than other stations, due to its ability to add a “boost” of electricity from the battery as well as the grid. The charging station is called a ‘Boost Charger.’”

The Drop-In Charging Station Solution

FreeWire has been rather busy since then. The company has taken steps in support of the Biden administration’s NEVI (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) funding plan for ramping up the number of charging stations, and it has also picked up a number of significant partners along the way.

“FreeWire’s contribution to the NEVI network is a potential mind-bender,” we observed last February.  “The company has already prepped a NEVI guide to smooth the process for funding applicants, and it already has relationships with gas station stakeholders. Aside from Phillips 66, last September FreeWire announced a similar deal with Chevron and Texaco branded stations.”

The latest news from FreeWire broke just this morning, when the company announced that it will collaborate with the GM Energy branch of General Motors to deploy its Boost Charger stations for fleet owners and commercial customers.

“This effort will help support GM Energy by providing a streamlined and flexible EV charging solution,” FreeWire explained in a press statement.

“FreeWire’s Boost Charger is a flexible, ultrafast EV charging system that can be deployed in a matter of days, without the need for expensive construction or electrical upgrades,” the company added. “This is an ideal solution for customers who require an ultrafast charging solution but have limited on-site power, face long or costly construction timelines for grid capacity, or lease the property where they plan to install charging.”

Wait, What Is GM Energy?

General Motors launched its GM Energy branch in 2022 to consolidate its EV charging-as-a-service businesses in a new unit, dedicated to a soup-to-nuts approach to vehicle electrification. The company also followed up with the launch of its GM Envolve branch last year, which provides a dedicated account executive — a real person, apparently — to help fleet owners maximize their efficiency and revenue opportunities.

With the FreeWire hookup, GM Energy can now add ultra-fast charging to its list of services. Under the new agreement, commercial customers will have easy access to a “a turnkey energy transition package that includes both vehicles and a charging solution that fits their specific needs,” FreeWire explains.

On the GM Energy side, GM includes everything from soup to nuts: Bi-directional charging with vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid applications, stationary storage, solar products, software applications, cloud management tools, microgrid solutions, and hydrogen fuel cells.

“GM Energy’s services will also enable the sale of energy from EV and stationary storage batteries back to utilities during peak, high energy consumption periods, unlocking even more potential value for customers and increasing resiliency for the electrical grid,” GM adds.

The Envolve side applies a new level of personal service for fleet owners to access the full range of GM services, and products, including its BrightDrop electric delivery van. WalMart and FedEx were among BrightDrop’s early adopters after GM introduced the EV as an in-house startup in 2021. Brightdrop was integrated into the GM corporate structure last November, apparently as part of GM’s efforts to coordinate all of its EV services.

To gild the electrification lily, FreeWire’s Boost Charging stations can also be tuned to recharge their batteries during times of the day when more renewable energy is available.

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Image: Ultrafast EV charging station with GM electric vehicle, courtesy of FreeWire Technologies.