The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office announced on Oct. 3 a conditional commitment to EVgo Swift Borrower LLC for a loan guarantee of up to $1.05 billion to expand public electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The loan guarantee, if finalized, will support EVgo’s deployment of approximately 7,500 charging ports at roughly 1,100 charging stations across the United States. The first deployments will include high-power 350kW fast chargers capable of charging two EVs simultaneously, and EVgo plans to continue installing power sharing equipment over the 5-year deployment timeline.
EVgo would deploy the charging stalls across the country, including in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The chargers would be compatible with all new EVs capable of fast charging, including those that use NACS and CCS connectors.
EVgo aims to support future EV growth with its public charging services, particularly in areas expected to experience the fastest growth, such as metropolitan areas, noted Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office, in a post about the announcement.
EVgo plans to deploy 7,500 charging stalls, equipped with high-power 350-KW chargers that can serve two cars at once, in a variety of high-traffic locations, including some of the nation’s leading retail centers and grocery store chains. With a DCFC, drivers can reach 80% charge from empty in as little as 20 minutes (though charging speed may vary based on vehicle and battery conditions).
The EVgo DCFC rollout would also feature the use of an innovative technology called dynamic power sharing, which optimally allocates the power output of the charging location among all vehicles that are connected to the station at one time, Shah noted.
Dynamic power sharing more efficiently uses available utility power and power conversion equipment than non-power sharing equipment. With this technology, any unused power from adjacent stalls is given to vehicles that are charging so they can receive the full requested power, allowing the vehicle to refuel as quickly as possible. The chargers funded through this project would also feature Autocharge+, a payment system that allows users to initiate charging without a credit card or phone after they enroll.
LPO borrowers are expected to develop and ultimately implement a comprehensive Community Benefits Plan. CBPs ensure borrowers meaningfully engage with community and labor stakeholders to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of residents and workers, Shah noted.
One element of EVgo’s CBP is ensuring that its contractors source bids from a variety of companies; and further, EVgo intends to include union contractors as suppliers of prefabricated charging station “skids,” which decrease overall project costs and reduce construction cycles by pre-installing chargers on metal frames prior to delivery to the project site. Over half of the 7,500 charging stalls are expected to use these prefabricated skids.
Projects like the one announced Oct. 3 will benefit from the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Tax Credit, also known as 30C, which was created by the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. The credit is only available in rural areas and those that are disadvantaged relative to a given region. EVgo intends to install roughly half of its new charging stations in 30C-eligible Census tracts, bringing public charging infrastructure to lower-income communities to ensure equitable investment in transportation electrification, Shah said.
The loan guarantee would be offered through LPO’s Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, which includes financing opportunities for innovative energy and supply chain projects and projects that reinvest in existing energy infrastructure.
While this conditional commitment indicates DOE’s intent to finance the project, DOE and the company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions and DOE must complete environmental review before the Department decides whether to enter into definitive financing documents and fund the loan.
