A company devoted to creating a nationwide network of electric vehicle charging stations has signed on two key contractors to manage design, permitting and construction of ultra-fast sites.
Electrify America announced Thursday it has contracted with Black & Veatch and SAI Group to head up the project constructing the zero-emission infrastructure throughout the U.S. The work totals more than 2,000 direct-current fast chargers across 484 sites.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Black & Veatch will handle site design and construction of ultra-fast charging stations in 24 states from the Pacific Northwest to the southeast U.S. The company also will build charging sites in California.
SAI Group, based in Salem, New Hampshire, was awarded design-and-build work for Electrify America’s charging stations in 16 states within the northeast, mid-Atlantic, south-central and southwest regions of the country.
“Black & Veatch and SAI Group have exemplary safety records and a consistent history of completing complex projects,” said Brendan Jones, chief operating officer of Electrify America, in a statement. “We’re confident that they are the right firms to help us construct a state-of-the-art fast-charging network.”
By 2027, Electrify America hopes to have invested about $2 billion in ZAV, including $1.2 billion in California alone. The company is a unit spun off by Volkswagen Group of America in early 2017.
“Electrify America has designed a high-power, national-scale EV charger network to promote clean transportation and enhance the adoption of electric cars across the United States,” said Maryline Daviaud Lewett, director of business development for Black & Veatch’s Transformative Technologies business. “Our expertise in the engineering, permitting, and construction of DC fast-charging infrastructure allows Electrify America to rapidly deploy this ground-breaking network providing EV owners with more zero-emission freedom and flexibility in less time.”
In April, Electrify America announced it had signed on four suppliers—ABB, BTC Power, EFACEC and SIGNET—to work together in the nationwide ZAV deployment. The company’s first ultra-fast charger—a 350-kW unit which can charge about 20 miles of range per minute—was installed last month at a marketplace in Chicopee, Mass.
