Spectrum News: SoCal Company Looks to Meet Growing Need for EV Charging Stations

Recently, our CEO and co-founder, Gustavo Occhiuzzo, was featured in a Spectrum News 1 segment titled “Inside the Issues” with Alex Cohen. He was able to not only convey the challenges we face as we work toward a more electric future, but also the strides EVCS has already made in addressing those challenges as well as some of our most significant achievements. Examples include our deal with LADOT to install DC fast chargers at 57 city-owned lots, our doubling of non-Tesla chargers in LA since last year alone, and the fact that EVCS has become one of the largest and fastest growing installers of EV charging stations on the West Coast in less than three years. See the interview clip and accompanying article below to learn more.

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https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/news/2021/05/10/socal-company-looks-to-meet-growing-need-for-ev-charging-stations?cid=id-app15_m-share_s-web_cmp-app_launch_august2020_c-producer_posts_po-organic#

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Los Angeles, CA – May 10, 2021 (Spectrum News 1)

At a city parking lot on Los Angeles’ Westside, Gustavo Occhiuzzo helped make its fast chargers a reality.

A native of Argentina, Occhiuzzo founded Green Commuter, an environmentally friendly car sharing business in 2014, but he soon realized there was a big problem: not enough charging stations.

What You Need To Know

EVCS has partnered with LADOT to install fast charging stations at 57 city-owned parking lots
Installations can run upwards of $400,000, which is why Gustavo Occhiuzzo says incentive programs are crucial
Part of President Biden’s infrastructure plan would establish grant and incentive programs to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030
EVCS says it has more than doubled the number of non-Tesla charging stations in the city within the last year

“In order to support out fleet of electric vehicles, we decided to also start working on the infrastructure, Occhiuzzo said.

That led Occhiuzzo to co-found the sister company EVCS, now one of the largest and fastest growing operators of EV charging stations on the West Coast.

“We also do installations at hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, office buildings, multi-family buildings, so really anywhere you park a car,” he said.

In 2019, EVCS partnered with LADOT to install fast charging stations at 57 city-owned parking lots. So far, 16 have been built.

“[The city] pretty much allows EVCS to own and operate the charging stations, and we secure the funding again from both public and private sources to do the installations,” Occhiuzzo said.

While they’ve come down in cost, installing them is still pricey.

“On average an installation like this will run about $400,000,” Occhiuzzo added.

It also takes about a year to complete, including design, permitting and construction, and is why he welcomes President Joe Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan, which sets aside billions of dollars to create a national network of a half a million EV chargers by 2030.

“We do need the support of the government and the public entities to kind of fund these construction through different programs, such as rebates or grants or subsidies,” Occhiuzzo said.

That public funding in California has helped Occhiuzzo more than double the number of non-Tesla charging stations in the LA area in the past year, crucial to ensuring electric vehicles have the power they need.

“You already don’t want to spend 30 minutes charging your car, let alone waiting 30 minutes for somebody else to charge before you can charge,” he said.

Occhiuzzo explained how LA is already miles ahead, but as demand grows, these charging stations — which were once an amenity — are now a necessity in Southern California and beyond.

“This feels like internet in 1993 when the future was unknown, but at the same time, the potential was unlimited,” he said.

For Occhiuzzo, building that future is nothing short of electrifying.

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2020: A Year in Review

Two thousand twenty has been a year of undeniable adversity, but also one of remarkable achievement. A year of firsts and hopefully a few lasts. A time of toil and tribulation, but also of triumph. For genuine success is partly defined by our ability to hurdle those implacable obstacles that make the result so noteworthy in the first place. Now, as the EVCS team looks back on this unusual year, we take stock of our unique achievements that made 2020 one for the books.

Electrification Progress in the Age of COVID

It’s pretty clear that vaccine or no, COVID will be here for a while, and with it the new normal of face masks, social distancing, telecommuting and (consequently) less road travel. While some might view this with trepidation, we see it as an opportunity. Since the earliest weeks of the pandemic, major metro areas like Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago – those with large reductions in automobile traffic – immediately began seeing improvements in air quality, according to articles in the New York Times and Washington Post. More recent, an NPR story noted ozone pollution has decreased as much as 15% in many of these places. It seems an unintended consequence of the lockdown has been to accelerate the transition to responsible mobility by demonstrating its positive effects on the environment.

Commentary on Geotab’s 2020 EV Fleet Trends Article – Part II

Two weeks ago, we published part one of our commentary on Geotab’s in-depth article, “Electric Vehicle Trends 2020: Top 6 Factors Impacting Fleet Electrification” (https://www.geotab.com/white-paper/electric-vehicle-trends/). Again, the idea was to assess whether each of the trends were evolving as Geotab predicted and, if so, how EVCS was responding to them in the marketplace. Below are the final three trends referenced and our thoughts on each.

Commentary on Geotab’s 2020 EV Fleet Trends Article – Part I

At the beginning of this year, Geotab published a very interesting white paper titled “Electric Vehicle Trends 2020: Top 6 Factors Impacting Fleet Electrification.” (The piece can be found in its entirety here: https://www.geotab.com/white-paper/electric-vehicle-trends/) Now that we’re approaching the end of 2020, we thought it might be useful to go back through the assertions made in the paper to determine (1) whether the trends are evolving as Geotab predicted, and (2) if so, how EVCS is able to address those trends, including the targeting of customer pain points. Below are the first three trends referenced out of the six and our thoughts on each.

How a Biden Administration Helps EVCS

For EV enthusiasts generally and EVCS specifically, the election results are cause for great optimism. Joe Biden has shown himself to be a true friend to the electric mobility industry, so we thought we’d outline a few ways a Biden presidency will likely benefit our company, our mission and our customers.