Call for Enhanced Oversight and Accountability of Electrify America’s Charging Infrastructure

Electrify America Unavailable

Comments to California Air Resources Board (CARB)

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will hold a public meeting to consider a staff assessment of Electrify America’s Cycle 4 Zero Emission Vehicle Investment Plan on January 25, 2024. The Board will then decide whether to approve or disapprove the plan.

I submitted the following comments to the California Air Resources Board:

To: cotb@arb.ca.gov
January 23, 2024

Re: 24-1-2: Electrify America’s Proposed Cycle 4 Zero Emission Vehicle Investment Plan

Dear California Air Resources Board,

I am writing as a concerned advocate for electric vehicle drivers. Last summer I travelled through the state of California in an electric vehicle. I encountered many of my fellow EV drivers who were having issues with non-functional Electrify America charging stations. Harris Ranch had a line of frustrated EV drivers waiting to use it because most of the six dispensers were down.

The reliability issues surrounding Electrify America’s charging infrastructure have raised significant concerns within the EV community. While the initial intent of the company to address the fallout from the 2015 Dieselgate scandal was commendable, it appears that their efforts have fallen short, leading to a new crisis in the form of unreliable charging stations.

The recent Sacramento Bee article by Ari Plachta highlighting the reliability challenges faced by Electrify America underscores the urgency of addressing these issues. As an active participant in promoting EV adoption, I find it disheartening that a company established with the explicit purpose of rectifying past wrongs is now contributing to hindrances in the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

The reliability issues reported, including broken screens, faulty payment systems, and slow charging, are significantly impacting the EV user experience. This not only undermines the trust of current EV drivers but also dissuades potential buyers from making the switch.

Electrify America ranking last in consumer satisfaction, as reported by J.D. Power, is indicative of the severity of the problem. The satisfaction score of 538 out of 1,000 is alarming, especially when compared to Tesla’s score of 739.

Unreliable charging infrastructure poses a major hurdle to achieving widespread EV adoption. Reports suggest that approximately 18% of individuals who switch to electric vehicles end up returning to gas-powered cars due to charging inconveniences. Given the magnitude of the issue, I urge the California Air Resources Board to consider the following actions:

1. Enhanced Oversight: Strengthen oversight mechanisms for Electrify America, ensuring that the company adheres to higher standards of performance and reliability. Confidence in California’s public charging network is crucial for the success of EV adoption.

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Thurmont Municipal Workplace Charging Funded by Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program

In a significant stride toward electrified mobility Thurmont, Maryland, has recently installed Level 2 workplace charging stations at two locations—the Municipal Office and Police Headquarters.

Thurmont, MD EV Charging
Thurmont Municipal Office – 615 E Main St, Thurmont, MD 21788

Support for EV Adoption

Convenient access to charging at workplaces can encourage employees to consider purchasing an electric car, especially those without access to home charging, such as individuals residing in apartments, condos or townhouses. Installing more workplace EV charging stations is one of the most effective ways to support the adoption of electric vehicles.

This electric vehicle charging installation was made possible through the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program (CAGP), an initiative funded as part of the Volkswagen settlement.

There is one single-port EV charging station located at the Thurmont Municipal Office at 615 East Main Street. A posted sign indicates that the charging space is reserved for town office staff only.

A Chevy Bolt EUV with a town emblem on the door was parked in the spot when I visited Thurmont last weekend.

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Fast Charger Locations for Maryland ECGP, Round Two

Maryland ECGP
Click map for location details

The map above shows the locations of DC Fast Chargers planned by awardees of the Maryland ECGP Round Two.

Electric Corridors Grant Program – Round Two Awards

A year ago, Governor Larry Hogan announced the first of three rounds of funding for the Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program (ECGP) funded by Maryland’s portion of the VW diesel settlement. The first round included 36 public DC fast chargers at 13 locations along designated Alternative Fuel Corridors. Many of these locations that were announced last year have yet to be built.

Round two includes 35 chargers at 13 additional locations.

Blink requested $1,684,189.50 in grant funding for 12 chargers at six Royal Farms stores plus an Exxon station in Grantsville in far Western Maryland. The six Royal Farms stores used to have 50 kW chargers on the ChargePoint network. Those have been shut off and each of the newly funded locations are approved to get two 180 kW Blink chargers.

An Exxon station in Big Pool, MD was approved for two 150 kW fast chargers. Big Pool Exxon requested $373,913.60 but it is not clear if they were approved for the entire amount. The grant has a cost share component so the recipients are required to pay a percentage of the total cost.

EVgo asked for $895,000.00 in Round 2 funding to place 19 fast chargers at 5 locations. One of those locations, the Wawa in Beltsville, seems to have already been built.

Maryland ECGP – VW Settlement

The funding comes from the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated approximately $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for EV charging infrastructure.

Maryland decided to release the funding in three rounds of public-private partnership grants. The first round included $3.7 million for DC fast chargers and Level 2 workplace charging.

Maryland Alternative Fuel Corridors

The Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program is for fast charging stations along Alternative Fuel Corridors that have been designated by the Federal Highway Administration. The Alternative Fuel Corridors for electric vehicles include US Routes 50 and 301 on the Eastern Shore and I-68 / I-70 in Western Maryland.

Funding Award Chart

The chart below details the applicants’ locations, number of chargers and funding amounts.

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Columbia Gateway Crossing Workplace Charging Funded by Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program

Ten Level 2 charging stations have recently been installed in the Gateway Crossing office complex in Columbia, Maryland.

These are some of the first workplace electric vehicle charging stations to be funded by the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program (CAGP).

Columbia Gateway Crossing EV charging
7175 Columbia Gateway Drive – Eight EV Charging Ports in Rear

There are four dual-port EV charging stations located in the rear of 7175 Columbia Gateway Drive. These will accommodate up to eight electric vehicles charging at the same time.

The stations at this address are already turned on and I’ve seen a Mustang Mach-E and a Tesla Model 3 there during the week. There is a credit card reader on each of the charging stations but I’m not sure if payment will be required or what the price will be.

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Maryland Workplace EV Charging Grant Program – Round One Awards

Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program
Click map for location details

Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program

Maryland announced that funding was awarded for 74 charging stations with 145 Level 2 ports at 24 locations in the first of three rounds of the Charge Ahead Grant program (CAGP). PlugInSites has gathered information about the workplace charging locations and which companies won the awards. We’ve compiled the info into the accompanying map and chart.

Funding for the Maryland Charge Ahead Grant Program is provided from the “Appendix D” portion of the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated about $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions from the transportation sector. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

CAGP Round One Uses $642,942 in Volkswagen Diesel Settlement Funds

Maryland is releasing the funding in three rounds of grants. The first round includes $642,942 for Level 2 workplace charging. Here is the list of awardees along with the total grant funding they were approved for.

$234,000 Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI)
$117,000 Under Armour
$117,000 Maryland DGS
$86,665 WSSC Water
$45,000 MDOT
$36,000 Prince George’s County
$4,500 Fork United Methodist Church
$2,777 Town of Thurmont

Funding Award Chart

The chart below details the applicants’ locations, the number of L2 charging ports at the site, the total cost of each site, and approved grant funding amounts.

CAGP Awardees, Round One Chart:

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Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program – Round One Awards

Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program
Click map for location details

Recently, Maryland announced that funding was awarded for 36 new public DC fast chargers at 13 locations. PlugInSites has learned a bit more about which companies won the awards and how many stations each charging provider will be operating.

Funding From VW Settlement

The funding comes from the Volkswagen diesel settlement. Maryland was allocated approximately $75.6 million to use on projects to reduce the effect of diesel emissions from the transportation sector. Up to 15% ($11.3 million) of Maryland’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding can be used for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Maryland decided to release the funding in three rounds of public-private partnership grants. The first round is for $3.7 million for Level 2 workplace charging and DC fast chargers along highways.

Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program

The Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program (ECGP) is for fast charging stations along Alternative Fuel Corridors that have been designated by the Federal Highway Administration. The Alternative Fuel Corridors for electric vehicles include US Routes 50 and 301 on the Eastern Shore and I-68 / I-70 in Western Maryland.

The chart below details the applicants’ locations, number of chargers and funding amounts. EVgo was awarded $950,500 in grants for 22 fast chargers at 5 locations. Blink got $1,114,832 to install 8 chargers at 4 sites. An independent gas station in Annapolis, a gun store in Cumberland and Electric Vehicle Institute (EVI) were awarded funding for 2 chargers each. EVGateway got $315,840 to install 4 chargers at Ashley Homestore in Lexington Park. Here is a link to a map of all the ECGP locations for round one of the program.

Funding Award Chart

ECGP Awardees, Round One Chart:

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Maryland EV Charging Grant Programs Proposed

To Distribute $11.3 Million in VW Settlement Funds

The Maryland Department of Environment, in coordination with the Maryland Energy Administration, has developed frameworks for proposals on two grant programs to distribute $11.3 million of the state’s Volkswagen Mitigation Plan funding to help install electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Will this finally lead to our promised DC Fast Charging in Western Maryland?

Maryland Alternative Fuel Corridors

Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program

The proposed Maryland Electric Corridors Grant Program (ECGP) will help fund the placement of DC Fast Charging stations to be located along Federal Highway Administration designated Alternative Fuel Corridors. The electric charging Alternative Fuel Corridors include I-68/I-70 in Western Maryland and US Routes 50 and 301 on the Eastern shore. Grant awardees will get up to 60% of the cost to install DCFC stations that conform to the ECGP guidelines.

The ECGP grant guidelines are similar, but not exactly the same, as previous MEA administered grant programs to fund DC Fast Chargers. The Maryland electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program (eVIP) initially distributed $1 million to seed private investment in the build-out of a statewide fast charging network. The eVIP program was supposed to cover every corner of the state when then Attorney General Doug Gansler announced it in April, 2014. It helped to fund early DCFC installations at Royal Farms stores as well as chargers installed by EVgo and others.

The eVIP initiative was later expanded to include funding for other alternative fueling infrastructure and renamed the Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Program or AFIP. The guidelines for AFIP have been tweaked in recent years to include improvements that benefit EV drivers such as requiring at least two chargers per location to ensure redundancy.

Guidelines in the newly proposed ECGP framework include:

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ChargePoint Loses Appeal in EV Charging Patent Case

ChargePoint v SemaConnect Appeal

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Ruling in Favor of SemaConnect

Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the decision of a lower court in a dispute over an EV charging patent case brought by electric vehicle charging company ChargePoint, Inc. of Campbell, CA against a competitor, SemaConnect, Inc. of Bowie, MD.

Just over one year ago, Judge Marvin J. Garbis, of the U. S. District Court in Baltimore dismissed a lawsuit brought by ChargePoint that alleged that SemaConnect had infringed four patents in the area of networked electric vehicle charging stations. The lower court judge found all of the patent claims asserted by ChargePoint were invalid.

The judge had agreed with SemaConnect’s defense that the patents were invalid because the claims were drawn to an abstract idea, and the method of implementing those claims was not enough to transform the abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.

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Maryland Releases VW Mitigation Plan – $11.3 Million for EV Charging

SemaConnect Maple Lawn

Plan to be Submitted to Trustee

The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) released its Volkswagen Mitigation Plan yesterday (PDF). The plan details spending of $75.7 million that the state is eligible to receive under a settlement agreement with Volkswagen.

A draft plan for the VW settlement money was released by MDE on August 1, 2018. Public comments were solicited for the next 30 days and two listening sessions were held including one at MDE headquarters in Baltimore on August 20, 2018. Feedback received during the 30 day public comment period is said to be incorporated into this version.

The Plan will now be submitted to the Trustee overseeing the Volkswagen Mitigation Settlement funds.

Full Allowable 15% Going to EV Charging Infrastructure

The Settlement Agreement limits the amount of funds that can be used for Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure investment to 15% of the total funds allocated to the state. Maryland plans to use the allowed maximum, or about $11.3 million, to deploy EV charging infrastructure.
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