KIA & Electrify America Team Up For Fast Charging
KIA and Electrify America have teamed up to offer Kia Select, a program that allows Niro EV drivers to use the the EA DC fast charger network for one flat rate per minute with no additional charges.
KIA and Electrify America have teamed up to offer Kia Select, a program that allows Niro EV drivers to use the the EA DC fast charger network for one flat rate per minute with no additional charges.
There’s a projection there will be 20× more EVs on the road by 2030 than today.
Electric car charging stations have been growing at an exponential rate. With every manufacturer planning to make the eventual transition towards electric vehicles, throwing up infrastructure has become a potentially lucrative investment. While the number of gas stations are declining, EV chargers continue to grow. EVAdoption points out that as of March 2019, there were over 63,000 level 2 and up charging stations in the US.
In Sacramento — as part of a deal with the local utility, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) — Electrify America is putting $1.3 million into SMUD’s Energy StorageShares program.
Almost a year ago, I wrote an article about the first 40,000 miles in my Nissan LEAF. Fortunately, I continue to drive this car a lot, and can give you an idea of what to expect.
I absolutely appreciate the network of charging stations that Electrify America is providing. I used the network almost exclusively in a 4 state drive with a short-range electric vehicle (EV). I drove the 2015 BMW i3 from Electrify America charging station to charging station from deep in Florida to the Appalachians and then back. I had some problems, some small delays, but never had to leave any group of stations without a charge. Yet, I think my suggestions should be taken seriously.
There is a long-standing argument about whether Tesla is a car company or a tech company. This argument is typically made in the context of how Wall Street should value the company. If Tesla is just a new kind of carmaker, it should be valued at something significantly less than its annual revenue — maybe 25% to 50%, like Ford and GM. Alternatively, if Tesla is a tech company, then it could be valued significantly higher. Google, for example, is trading at about 6 times its revenues today, Facebook at 8, Microsoft at 9, and Salesforce at 10 times. Tesla trades at around 3 times its revenues with some profits, while Uber and Lyft trade around 4 times revenues and have never been profitable.
I became more aware of electric cars around 2013, but it was a few years later when conversations popped up with more people who were interested in electric cars, and in particular Tesla (and Elon Musk). Then, from diverse directions, old and young mentioned Tesla. I began sensing the rise of a new kind of techno folk hero.
The travel log of my trip from the Appalachians to Florida was quite different from my 3 day trip up. I again drove a 2015 BMW i3 REX with 71 miles of electric range. On the 3 day trip up to the Appalachians, I avoided using gas at all, going out of my way to find and use Level 2 chargers between the fast chargers. That is, until the last half hour to the mountain cabin.
Electrify America and Lyft are now collaborating on a program to bring electric vehicle charging to more drivers. The new program will provide people using “Express Drive” EV rentals from Lyft with charging access on Electrify America’s broad and growing network of DC fast chargers.