Current and prospective electric vehicle drivers have longed for the day when charging their vehicle at a public location is as quick and convenient as filling up an internal combustion vehicle tank at the local gas station.
That day may be soon at hand. New York-based Gravity Inc., which does business as Gravity Technologies, announced last month it is bringing ultra-fast charging stations to eight locations across greater Los Angeles, starting later this year. These 500-kilowatt charge dispensers are capable of charging vehicles to a range of 200 miles in as little as 5 minutes – roughly half the time as a Tesla Supercharger dispenser that can provide 200 miles of charge in less than 15 minutes. The actual charging speed can vary with the battery characteristics of electric vehicle models.
Gravity Technologies was founded four years ago to bring this next-generation electric vehicle charging technology to market; it is backed by Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc. with about $10 billion in assets under management
Gravity’s technology uses “distributed energy access points” that function as electric vehicle chargers but also can both tap and send power to electrical grids. This allows for the charging dispensers to draw on more power as needed, in most cases eliminating the need for costly infrastructure upgrades. It also allows for excess power at the station location to be sent to the electricity grid at times of high demand.
In and around L.A. County
In March of last year, Gravity launched its first station on its home turf in the New York metro area. While open to all electric vehicle drivers, it targeted fleet operators.
Now, Gravity is bringing this technology to six locations in Los Angeles County and two in neighboring counties. The in-county locations will be in Brentwood, unincorporated East Pasadena, Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, North Hills and Pacific Palisades. Other stations are planned for Thousand Oaks in Ventura County and Huntington Beach in Orange County. All are being designed by Berkeley-based architectural firm Rangr Studio.
Some locations will open later this year, with the remainder opening next year. Gravity’s announcement did not give any further details on the locations or exact timing of the station openings.
“These new 500-kilowatt sites are going to be a game-changer for Los Angelenos,” Moshe Cohen, founder and chief executive of Gravity, said in the announcement. “They will be far faster and more reliable than anything drivers and fleet operators have experienced, with autonomous vehicle engineering and vehicle-to-grid equipment that will make them the most advanced sites in the nation.”
Cohen added that now that its technology has been validated at its New York station, “we are focused on blanketing several of the country’s most important urban markets – and we are delighted to begin our L.A. expansion.”
Other electric vehicle charging companies are also working to deploy ultra-fast-charging stations. Tesla has announced it will roll out its version of 500kw charging stations later this year. Detroit-based General Motors Corp. and Campbell-based ChargePoint Inc. are also collaborating to deploy 500kw chargers, with the first of these in place by the end of this year. Sawtelle-based EVgo Inc. is deploying 350kw charging dispensers in a partnership with General Motors, with about 3,250 of these charging stalls expected to be in place by yearend. A 350-watt charging stall can provide up to 150 miles of charge in as little as 8 minutes. EVgo has not yet announced the deployment of 500-kilowatt chargers.
