EVgo, the nation’s largest public EV fast charging network, has added four new EV fast chargers to the company’s Baker, CA station, enabling all-electric road trips between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
The launch of these new chargers makes six total EVgo fast chargers under a solar-powered canopy at the World’s Tallest Thermometer, just off of I-15—two 50 kW fast chargers, new super-fast 150 kW and 175 kW chargers, and an ultra-fast 350 kW charger, all backed up with second-life batteries for energy storage.
By offering all EV drivers both CCS and CHAdeMO options on all its chargers – fast, super-fast, and ultra-fast – EVgo’s Baker fast charging hub enables all fast charge-capable EV drivers to make the 270-mile trip between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The expansion of EVgo’s Baker site makes it a technology showcase offering the widest variety of charging speed options available at a single public EV charging location in the US.
The newly expanded Baker fast charging hub builds on the two 50kW fast chargers EVgo previously deployed in order to enable EV drivers to travel the critical Las Vegas to Los Angeles route. Even though no EV available today at commercial volumes is able to charge at 350 kW, EVgo has grown both the number and throughput of fast chargers at Baker in order to test a variety of charging speeds and future-proof customers’ fast charging experiences on this corridor. Since the vehicles themselves guide how fast a particular car can charge, in most cases, today’s EV drivers will find that their EVs will charge at around 50 kW even on the new 150kW, 175kW, or 350kW chargers.
The wide array of charging speeds, solar canopy, and BMW 2nd Life Battery storage system at the Baker Station was developed in partnership with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) as a technology demonstration fast charging hub. Supported by a 20 kW solar system and a 60 kW / 88 kWh energy storage system, the station is effectively testing the use of different levels of power and storage at the same site.
EVgo, in conjunction with its technology partners and the University of California San Diego (UCSD), debuted a similar station architecture on a smaller scale in the controlled environment of the UCSD microgrid in June 2016. The Stationary Storage Plus Electric Charging (SSPEC) station went on that same year in November to win the Mobility Innovation Award at Energy Storage North America.
Uniquely, the charging station’s energy storage system utilizes second-life batteries from BMW i3s. There are four BMW i3 batteries packaged into two separate energy storage systems at the Baker station, each rated at 30 kW / 44 kWh and controlled by a site level controller for demand charge management. EVgo has deployed the same energy storage solution at its charging station located in Union City, CA.
