The Volkswagen Group and Siemens announced a $450 million equity investment in Electrify America to support the ambitious growth plans of the North American fast-charging network. With the Volkswagen Group’s original commitment of $2 billion through 2026, the total value of Electrify America increased to $2.45 billion. Thanks to the investment of a low triple-digit million USD amount, Siemens –through its financing arm Siemens Financial Services (SFS)– has become the first external investor in Electrify America and a minority shareholder with one seat on the board. The move very likely puts Siemens in a prime position to snap up contracts for new DC fast chargers for the Electrify America network, but not necessarily as an exclusive supplier (at least, there hasn’t been an official announcement about that). So far, Electrify America has relied on several equipment suppliers.

Electrify America: 10,000 chargers by 2026

Electrify America positions itself as North America’s largest open, ultra-fast electric vehicle charging network.

The company currently operates more than 750 stations with a few thousand individual DC fast chargers (usually rated from 150 kW to 350 kW) installed in the US and Canada (through Electrify Canada).

• Stations: 758 (+76 “coming soon”)
• DC chargers: 2,537 CCS, 743 CCS-CHAdeMO
• AC Level 2: 116

In 2021, the network delivered 41.4 GWh of energy through 1.45 million customer charging sessions (compared to 268,000 in 2020), which is nearly 29 kWh per session on average.

The map of Electrify America fast charging stations across the US, as of late June 2022.

By 2026, the company would like to double its charging network to 1,800 sites and 10,000 ultra-fast chargers. To achieve the milestone by the end of 2026, Electrify America will have to install up to 20 new stations per month. A single site, depending on location, might be equipped with up to 10 stations. High-traffic locations may even have dozens of chargers. Besides the general expansion of the network coast-to-coast and building bigger stations with on-site battery energy storage systems, Electrify America recently highlighted multiple other enhancements to make the stations better and more customer friendly. These include solar canopies and awnings, customer waiting areas with on-site security cameras and additional lighting, and other customer-focused services.  Volkswagen and Siemens’s investment in Electrify America couldn’t come at a better time.