Written by Margaret-Ann Leavitt, CMO, National Car Charging & Aloha Charge.

At first blush, the future of EVs and farming may not seem interconnected; however, the future of agriculture, especially in the United States, is uniquely dependent on the rise of electrified transportation for its survival and that of the planet’s.

Agriculture and climate change.

Farming has long been at the mercy of Mother Nature. Even the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is the story of a tornado threatening the family farm. Those fears and weather uncertainties have only escalated over time. Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the release of vast quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere has altered the earth’s climate, and in turn, has greatly impacted our farming communities.

By Margaret-Ann Leavitt, CMO, National Car Charging

With gas prices soaring, 2022 is very quickly being dubbed the year of the electric car. However, while electric vehicles (EVs) can help save us money, reduce our carbon footprint, and protect our domestic energy independence, the transition to electrification is also a direct path to environmental justice, especially in our pollution-filled cities across the United States.

What is environmental justice?

Environmental justice embraces the idea that we all have a right to equal protection and equal enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. Studies have shown lower income neighborhoods, and specifically communities of color, are more likely to be situated near highways, high traffic areas, manufacturing plants, garbage dumps, and so on and as such, disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental deterioration or pollution. While housing may be cheaper in these areas, it comes at a high cost for residents including exposure to contaminated soil and polluted air.

Layering on, these communities also frequently experience the worst of climate-change provoked disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding—impacting their livelihoods, homes, health, and financial security.

Load balancing is more than just an efficient way to distribute power to charging EVs. It can enable charge point operators (CPOs) to use less-than-optimal power feeds by maximizing available power capacity, save on electricity costs, and help them charge more vehicles overall. Here’s how.

What is Load Balancing?

Tritium chargers use advanced load balancing algorithms to dynamically and efficiently distribute power among EVs in a charging hub. Load balancing provides the right amount of power to EVs at the right time. EVs don’t all charge at the same rate, and they don’t charge at the same rate over time from 0% to 100% battery capacity. EVs typically draw maximum power early in charging when they have a low state of charge to preserve battery health. Load balancing algorithms provide only the power each EV needs, leaving the rest of the available grid power to charge other EVs in the hub.

Seeing more electric vehicles (EVs) pulling into your lots? If you haven’t already, you will very soon. Global sales of passenger EVs are expected to surge over the next few years, rising from 10.5 million in 2022 to approximately 27 million in 2026, according to the 2023 BloombergNEF (BNEF) Long-Term Electric Vehicle Outlook report. BNEF predicts that in the U.S., thanks to a new round of federal incentives, EVs will make up about 28% of passenger vehicle sales by 2026.

These numbers mean parking lots will be filling up with EVs looking to get a charge. The new way to fuel will be more like plugging in your phone while you do other activities (in this case, shop, work, dine out, go to appointments and more) rather than making a special stop at a fueling station.

This new fueling movement gives parking operators — and other businesses — a big opportunity to stay competitive by offering an all-inclusive parking experience that includes EV charging. It’s also a way to generate a new revenue stream by attracting the growing number of EV drivers to your parking facility who are visiting shops, restaurants and offices nearby.

It's clear that EV charging will be desired by customers, but how do you get set up in a way that will have a positive impact on your bottom line? Let’s break it down.

It can be easy to think that deploying EV charging is as simple as putting stations in the ground, but focusing on hardware is asking the wrong question. When we talk to customers running the most advanced EV charging programs out there, supporting thousands of drivers every day, a key theme we hear over and over is that success in EV charging requires having the right hardware and the right software to manage it. That’s because it’s the software that gives you the power to build a best-in-class EV charging program and scale as your needs change and your driver base grows. No matter who is charging or what they drive, our software lets you meet their needs.

Whether you’re initially looking to serve employees, customers, residents or fleet vehicles, you’ll likely find that the audience you serve grows over time. Choosing a software-driven EV charging solution will give you the flexibility and power you need to address these changing requirements and manage stations, vehicles and drivers to make EV charging work for your business in a way that's easy to track and scale.

As Halloween approaches, we're all familiar with the age-old question: trick or treat? But when it comes to electric cars, the answer is clear – they are definitely a treat!

These eco-friendly vehicles are becoming increasingly popular among drivers looking to reduce their carbon footprint and save money on gas. And with advancements in technology, the convenience of electric car charging has made them even more appealing. So let's take a closer look at why electric cars are the ultimate treat this Halloween season.

Unmasking the Myths: Debunking Common Misconceptions About Electric Cars.

Electric cars have been shrouded in mystery and myth for far too long. It's time to unmask these misconceptions and reveal the truth about these innovative vehicles.

Nothing gets ChargePoint as excited as talking about the EV revolution and they are obsessed with ensuring people have the freedom to roam wherever they choose. The ChargePoint app puts the EV universe in the palm of your hand – literally. As a company founded by and for EV drivers, they designed their app to make the EV driver experience as simple, affordable and convenient as possible. Being connected to the largest EV charging network in the world doesn’t hurt either.

Learn more about some app features that put the EV driver front and center:

1. Check pin colors and shapes for station status and type

Did you know that our app uses color coding and shapes to show info about stations? Green means a station is available to use, blue means a station is currently in use and gray means a station doesn’t have an available status (probably because it's not part of the ChargePoint network).

Electricity versus hydrogen: 4 reasons electrification is the right choice for fleets

Owing to its higher energy density and lower weight, hydrogen has been touted as a potential alternative to electricity for powering zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks for long-haul fleets. However, transitioning to hydrogen as a potential fuel source for these types of vehicles faces challenges that may outweigh any potential benefits.

Here are some of the reasons electricity is a clear winner for fleets.

1. Availability

Electricity is everywhere. With the rise of charging infrastructure in cities, along highways and at depots, motor pools and even drivers’ homes, access to charging is becoming increasingly more convenient for fleets of all types and sizes.

Hydrogen infrastructure is not yet in place. There are currently few hydrogen refueling stations in operation (nearly all are in California), and the cost of building and managing them is high. It would take a significant investment to build out a nationwide hydrogen refueling network, and it isn’t clear there is enough demand to justify the investment.

More and more hotel and resort guests drive electric vehicles (EVs), and many guests rent EVs to get around while they’re in town. Soon EV fast chargers will be standard at many hotels and resorts, but today adding a charger or two to your property can set you apart from the competition, attracting EV drivers and guests who want to drive EVs during their stay. Here are some benefits to installing a charger at your hotel or resort.

Offer EV Charging to Guests

About 12 percent of cars in Europe and about 5 percent of cars in the United States are electric and more people are buying EVs than ever. EVs will become more common and eventually ubiquitous as many governments around the world enact bans on the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered cars.

By providing a DC fast charger, hotels and resorts can offer a valuable service to guests who drive electric cars, helping them recharge their EVs quickly and get back on the road. Many hotels also provide EV charging as a concierge service, parking the guest’s car and charging it up for their next adventure.

Owing to its higher energy density and lower weight, hydrogen has been touted as a potential alternative to electricity for powering zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty trucks for long-haul fleets. However, transitioning to hydrogen as a potential fuel source for these types of vehicles faces challenges that may outweigh any potential benefits.

Here are some of the reasons electricity is a clear winner for fleets.

1. Availability

Electricity is everywhere. With the rise of charging infrastructure in cities, along highways and at depots, motor pools and even drivers’ homes, access to charging is becoming increasingly more convenient for fleets of all types and sizes.

Hydrogen infrastructure is not yet in place. There are currently few hydrogen refueling stations in operation (nearly all are in California), and the cost of building and managing them is high. It would take a significant investment to build out a nationwide hydrogen refueling network, and it isn’t clear there is enough demand to justify the investment.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a law that provides nearly $370 billion in climate change investments to help reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030. It provides significant tax breaks for businesses that purchase new medium and heavy-duty electric vehicles (EVs) and new chargers.

These include:

• A Clean Commercial Vehicle Credit for 30% of the difference between the cost of the clean vehicle and its gas-powered counterpart – up to $40,000 per medium/heavy duty commercial EV

• An Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit for 30% of total costs of purchase and installation of charging equipment—up to $100,000 per charger

• A renewal of the existing $7,500 Clean Vehicle Credit for passenger and light-duty vehicles

• A Previously-Owned Clean Vehicles Credit of $4,000 or 30% of the vehicle sale price (whichever is lower) for used EVs

The IRA tax credits will start after December 31, 2022, and end after December 31, 2032. Businesses can use the credits after receiving other grants or rebates like NEVI funding. These credits, along with many other grants and programs, make electrifying your fleet in the US more affordable than ever.

By Tritium

In June 2023, Ford and GM announced they’d be switching from the Combined Charging System (CCS) to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connectors for their future EVs. Less than a month later Mercedes-Benz, Polestar, Rivian, and Volvo also announced they’d support the NACS standard for their US vehicles in the coming years. The switch to NACS from CCS seems to have complicated the electric vehicle (EV) charging landscape, but it’s a great opportunity for charger manufacturers and charge point operators (CPOs). With NACS, CPOs will be able to charge more than 1.3 million Tesla EVs on the road in the US.

What is NACS?

NACS is Tesla’s previously proprietary direct current (DC) fast charging connector standard—formerly known simply as the “Tesla charging connector.” It has been used with Tesla cars since 2012 and the connector design became available to other manufacturers in 2022. It was designed for Tesla’s 400-volt battery architecture and is much smaller than other DC fast charging connectors. The NACS connector is used with Tesla superchargers, which currently charge at a rate of up to 250kW.

What is the Tesla Magic Dock?

The Magic Dock is Tesla’s charger-side NACS to CCS1 adapter. About 10 percent of Tesla chargers in the US are equipped with Magic Dock, which lets users select a CCS1 adapter when charging. EV drivers need to use the Tesla app on their phones to charge their EVs with Tesla chargers, even when using the Magic Dock CCS1 adapter. Here’s a video of the Magic Dock in action.

Aloha Charge, a National Car Charging company based in Honolulu, announced today that it will be providing all the DC fast charging hardware and software for the first round of the State of Hawai’i’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program funding.

In September 2022, the Federal Highway Administration approved Hawai’i’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan, granting the state access to $2.6 million of NEVI funding in FY2022. As part of their NEVI deployment plan, HDOT is utilizing its existing contract with Sustainability Partners, a public benefit company mandated to form reliable and enduring partnerships with public institutions for the advancement of their critical infrastructure.

“Hawai’i is recognized nationwide and around the world for its commitment to sustainability and has long been at the forefront of the e-mobility transition,” said Tritium CEO Jane Hunter. “We’re not surprised to see the state act so quickly to ensure their community benefits from the emissions reductions that a rapid technology transition to electric vehicles secures. The NEVI funding is designed to ensure this transition occurs quickly and equitably, and Tritium is pleased to partner with the state and its representatives to bolster Hawai’i’s EV charging infrastructure.”

HDOT is using the initial round of NEVI funding to procure eight Tritium NEVI systems, totaling 32 PKM150 (150kW) chargers and 16 power units. The chargers were procured for HDOT by Sustainability Partners from the National Car Charging subsidiary Aloha Charge and will be equipped with software developed by EV Connect, an EV charging management solutions provider. These fast chargers are expected to be the first funded and installed under the NEVI program.

By Margaret-Ann Leavitt, Chief Marketing Officer at National Car Charging & Aloha Charge

As we usher in the July 4th holiday, I can’t help but wonder why electric mobility is so often viewed as a political issue when there are so many patriotic reasons to support the transition to electric transportation.

In looking through my Facebook feed this weekend, it was hard to miss the numerous posts encouraging us all to remember the lives lost in the name of the freedom we all enjoy today. Those reminders took me back to my recent visit to the American Cemetery on the shores of Normandy where many served their final mission to protect our rights. Without question, we should honor those sacrifices this July 4th, on all of our patriotic holidays, and frankly, everyday.

But does this have to do with driving electric cars?

In my mind, anything that does better by our citizens is patriotic - whether it’s adding real tangible economic benefits or making us less dependent and less susceptible to other nations' power whims – especially if it keeps our soldiers out of harm’s way.

By Margaret-Ann Leavitt

Nation’s Largest EV Charging Reseller Strengthens Rapid EV Charging Technology Through Partnership

The nation’s largest and most experienced EV charging station reseller and installer, Denver-based National Car Charging (NCC), announced at the International Parking and Mobility Conference (IPMI) Conference & Expo in Fort Worth, TX, and at EVS36 in Sacramento, CA, that it is adding Kempower rapid EV charging technology to its portfolio of EV charging solutions.

“We’re incredibly excited to be partnering with Kempower,” shared Jim Burness, CEO and founder of National Car Charging. “They’re known globally for their uptime stats, reliability and durability. Kempower is exactly what the American market has been waiting for.”

With the U.S. market rapidly expanding, Kempower is introducing its Kempower Satellite and Kempower Power Unit products in North America, marking a crucial milestone in its growth strategy. While the organization’s deep roots are in Lahti, Finland, its North Carolina production facility is scheduled to open by the end of this year . The U.S. facility will help meet the company’s goal to produce thousands of DC fast charging (DCFC) units by the end of 2024, which will focus on NEVI-complaint stations to meet the increasingly high demand.

By Jim Burness, CEO & Founder

The EV revolution is speeding towards us. In the last five years, electric cars have gone from being something you occasionally saw on the road to being everywhere. Last year, there were more than 750,000 new all-electric cars registered in the U.S. - a 57% increase over 2021. In total, EVs represented nearly 6% of all new cars sold last year, while gas cars saw a 11% drop in sales. And we’re seeing them on the roads. Just this morning while taking my daughter to school, I saw 15 Teslas, three (3) Rivians, two (2) ID4s and a Bolt - 20 electric cars in the span of a two mile round trip commute.

With this fast paced change comes new thinking around fueling and how that impacts businesses like parking. With smaller footprints and no EPA regulation, electric fueling can now really happen anywhere and parking lots and garages are a natural fit. However, with any exponentially growing industry, it’s hard to fully see the breadth and depth of what’s coming and how to plan, especially with legislation lagging.

With over 11 years of EV charging experience, we developed a comprehensive list of recommendations and best practices on how to best prepare and more importantly plan for the endless number of EVs expected to dominate the roads over the next few years. Why is this so critical? Although charging stations are not inexpensive, it's typically the installation and retrofitting (usually costing upward of 8x that of new construction) that assume the lion share of the budget. This is where a little planning and architectural shifts can positively impact your bottom line now and into the future.

By Margaret-Ann Leavitt, CMO at National Car Charging

With renters making up 36% of the nation’s 122.8 million U.S. households, two industry leaders present electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions designed to make electric driving a reality for rental residents.

The nation’s largest and most experienced EV charging station reseller and installer, Denver-based National Car Charging (NCC), announced it would attend the National Apartment Association’s annual conference Apartmentalize in Atlanta, GA this week (booth #3841). The reseller, who has a dozen years in the EV infrastructure industry, will be showcasing several products from ChargePoint, the leading U.S. manufacturer of EV charging solutions.

By Jim Burness, CEO & Founder of National Car Charging

Navigating monumental company growth in an emerging industry while balancing all the normal day-to-day business demands.

When I started National Car Charging (NCC), it wasn’t my first rodeo and I knew what I was getting into. Long hours, wearing multiple hats, and lots of juggling. As any entrepreneur will tell you, starting a company isn’t for the faint of heart.

Thankfully, I brought lots of experience to the table from other leadership roles at both my own and others’ companies. Some were big and others small, and each had their own challenges, so I had a handle on what kind of company culture I wanted to create and how I wanted to lead it.

What I wasn’t prepared for and what no one could have anticipated was the unprecedented growth in all aspects of the electric car industry - and the subsequent gold rush - and what that would mean for our startup, our five- and ten-year plans, and honestly, my personal life.

By Bhavik Dani

Amenities like hot breakfast, Wi-Fi, business centers, complimentary cocktails, and other perks attract business and help you remain competitive. EV charging is no different.

With soaring gas prices, electric car sales outpaced that of gas cars in 2022 and are on track to do the same in 2023, leading more and more travelers to book their next hotel stay based on where they can “fuel up.”

In 2023, there are EV options available from every automaker – including Tesla, Ford, Chevrolet, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, GMC, Nissan, Rivian, Polestar and more. In fact, throughout the last year, dealers couldn't keep EVs in stock. New gas vehicle sales fell 8% YOY in 2022 while battery-electric vehicles sales soared. Kelley Blue Book estimates an EV sales increase of 65% over 2021 and EV share of the total market increased 5.8%, up from 3.2% in 2021.

By Jim Burness

Denver, CO - The nation’s largest and most experienced EV charging station reseller and installer, the Denver-based National Car Charging (NCC), announced this week the promotion of Margaret-Ann Leavitt to Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and the full-time addition of Cheryl Alspach as Director of Operations. Both will report to Jim Burness, the founder and CEO of National Car Charging and Aloha Charge.

“Marketing and Operations are critically important to our company’s future success. We need the right talent in place to drive our vision and lead as we embark on our next phase of growth,” Burness shared. “I am thrilled to have such proven experience in these key roles and as part of my leadership team.”