GM is trying their hand at EV charging infrastructure
GM thinks that they can help solve the EV charging station problem in the USA with their new branded chargers, Ultium. The company will start selling these Ultium chargers and also supply 40 000 between its over 4000 franchised dealers around the country.
While this is a US thing only, as a country that is well behind in the EV game, there is a lot we can learn about how other countries are creating charging solutions.
GM Ultium charging.
General Motor said their goal is to expand the access to charging stations, particularly where charging stations are typically not found. To do this, the company has created three variants that each vary in features and power. They can include touchscreens and camera and offer some of the highest power capabilities of 11.5 to 19.2 kW.
Each one has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity which will allow GM to monitor and aggregate charging data which you can apparently opt out from. We hope that process is an easy one. However, while that could be a problem, there are two stand out issues with these Ultium chargers.
First of all, GM implies that these chargers will be available for non-GM cars, but they also don’t say that this is the case. Tricky wording could make GM’s incentive a lot less grand if this turns out to be true.
Another issue is that these chargers have what GM calls “dynamic load balancing”. What this actually is is a way for GM to reduce the energy that gets delivered to these chargers when they deem it necessary. This is in the name of promoting off-peak charging which in one sense is great, but it also means you will be waiting longer to get to work if you forgot to charge overnight.
Dealer Community Charging Program.
So those 40 000 chargers will not be given to the GM dealers of the USA. Instead, those dealers will need to work with community leaders to find ideal locations around the community. This is both to make charging available in more locations, but also to advertise in locations where EVs are not as supported.
Each one of these stations will be named Ultium Charge 360.
We doubt that this kind of marketing will be helpful to the community as a whole. It would honestly be much better if EVs all shared the same charging cables and brands could help support the creation of those chargers. Otherwise, we can quickly see their being 10 different charging stations all in the same area and non of them will charge your car.
Source: Car and Driver | General Motors | Jalopnik
