Industry News: Pilot / Flying J and General Motors Partnership Opens Their First 17 High-Speed Charging Locations

[Drew Dowdell]

Pilot-Flying J and General Motors opened the first seventeen locations of their partnership for high-speed charging across the U.S., with twenty-five total targeted to be open by the end of the month. The chargers are part of the EVgo network and can deliver up to 350 kW charging.  The partnership is targeting an additional 175 locations open by the end of next year.

The newly opened locations are spread across 13 states and feature round-the-clock staff, food and restroom amenities, and free wifi.  The charging stations themselves will be pull-through to allow for the charging of EVs that are towing, and for vehicles equipped with it, will feature plug-and-charge compatibility for a seamless charging process.  The locations will appear natively in GM's onboard navigation apps, the Pilot myRewards app, the EVgo app, Plugshare, and others.  Pilot will offer extra discounts on charging for GM EV drivers, plus the ability to reserve a charger in advance. Other EV drivers using Pilot's myRewards app will receive additional discounts on food and merchandise.

Once complete, the project will include 500 locations with up to 2,000 fast chargers.  Pilot's and Flying J's locations on rural interstate routes makes them especially attractive to EV drivers on a long-distance drive.

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[G. David Felt]

Have to say that this is AWESOME. 

Pointing out the fact that many folks who are against EVs always point out slow charging. Public charging needs to always be the fastest possible IMHO.

The fact that these companies are coming together to have 350kW fast charging for road trips is a great start to add to the NACS Supercharging stations and others.

I am very hopeful that this will drive EV adoption as with the new year the instant rebate credit will help folks reduce costs immediately at the dealership.

[Drew Dowdell]

Except for a little blank spot in Georgia, that covers almost my entire route from Pittsburgh to Florida.  As long as I fill up in Columbia SC, where I usually overnight, it's less than 300 miles to Jacksonville, so I'd have plenty of range if I did it solely on this network in the EValanche, but there's still Chargepoint and Tesla on I-95 in between if I really had to stop.

[G. David Felt]

Same here, for me going from Seattle WA to the greater LA area to visit relatives/family. I am totally covered in all the spots I usually stop to eat, refuel, take a break, etc. 

The next few years will be great for the EV road trip getting easier and easier.

[ccap41]

I'm pretty sure nearly the entire country has been covered, as far as road trips are concerned, for a little while now. Obviously, the more the better but, both of your road trips have been covered for awhile now with fast chargers. 

[smk4565]

Good news to see more chargers.  People see gas stations on every corner, but they don't see EV charging everywhere, so I think part of getting more people to buy EVs is having more chargers to go to.  I don't think range anxiety is the problem it is lack or charger anxiety that holds people back.

[Drew Dowdell]

2 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I'm pretty sure nearly the entire country has been covered, as far as road trips are concerned, for a little while now. Obviously, the more the better but, both of your road trips have been covered for awhile now with fast chargers. 

Not with chargers at this speed unless you count Tesla only. Even then, those are almost all 150kw/250kw chargers. 350kw chargers are the game changers time wise. 

[Drew Dowdell]

23 hours ago, ccap41 said:

I'm pretty sure nearly the entire country has been covered, as far as road trips are concerned, for a little while now. Obviously, the more the better but, both of your road trips have been covered for awhile now with fast chargers. 

 

20 hours ago, Drew Dowdell said:

Not with chargers at this speed unless you count Tesla only. Even then, those are almost all 150kw/250kw chargers. 350kw chargers are the game changers time wise. 

To expand on this:

• 2022 Hummer EV Pickup (350 kW)
• 2024 Genesis GV60 (350 kW)
• 2024 Genesis GV70 (350 kW)
• 2023 Genesis G80 (350 kW)
• 2022 Lucid Air (300 kW)
• 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV (300 kW)
• 2022 Audi E-Tron GT (270 kW)
• 2022 Porsche Taycan (270 kW)
• 2022 Tesla Model S (250 kW)
• 2022 Tesla Model X (250 kW)
• 2022 Tesla Model 3 (250 kW)
• 2022 Tesla Model Y (250 kW)
• 2022 Kia EV6 (240 kW)
• 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6 (235 kW)
• 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 (235 kW)
• 2022 Rivian R1S (220 kW)
• 2022 Rivian R1T (220 kW)
• 2022 BMW iX (200 kW)
• 2022 Mercedes-EQ EQS (200 kW)
• 2022 BMW i4 (195 kW)
• 2023 Cadillac Lyriq (190 kW)
• 2023 Mercedes-EQ EQE (170 kW)
• 2023 Volkswagen ID Buzz (170 kW)
• 2022 Polestar 2 (155 kW)
• 2022 Volvo C40 Recharge (155 kW)
• 2022 Volvo XC40 Recharge (155 kW)
• 2022 Audi E-Tron (150 kW)
• 2022 Ford Mustang Mach E (150 kW)
• 2023 Toyota bZ4x (150 kW)

This is a (mostly) complete list of the EVs with a charge rate of 150kw or higher. The reason I picked 150kw is because that's the base charge rate for the V2 version of the Tesla Supercharger and that seems like a minimum standard for vehicles to meet today.  Keep in mind that well over half of Tesla's Superchargers are V2 with probably around 30% being V3 (250kw). V4 (350kw) Super Chargers are brand new and only one is installed in the U.S. as of October of this year... and even then, the Cybertruck is the only Tesla that can suck juice that fast.

Additionally, the Kia and Hyundai models on this list and coming in the future have the hardware in them for 350kw charging that will be enabled in a software update in the future.

I should also note that it seems like only the big truck-based Ultium products from GM appear to get 300kw+ charging. I know the EValanche will have it as will the Escalade IQ. The Ram REV 1500 is getting 350kw charging as well. The Lyriq is 190 kw as are the Blazer EV and Equinox EV. I think this is shortsighted on GM's part, and they need to bump these to at least the 250kw range.

So you can see the list of cars that will charge at a higher speed than a Model 3 at a V2-150kw charger at these new Pilot stations will have a pretty good advantage, and if the driver opts for a 250kw charger on the Tesla network, they'll still get decent speed.

It also matters for vehicles with a shorter range.  Of the three Genesis models on the list, only the GV60 can get over 300 miles, and only on the RWD model. The GV70 range is only 235, which is pretty low these days. But if I were buying one, I would be less concerned about the overall range as long as I can go from 10% to 80% (~165 miles) in 18 minutes, as their website claims.

This will really fill out the network for state-to-state EV driving.