USA’s Largest Public EV Fast Charging Plaza Now Open For Charging
The largest public EV fast charging plaza opened for business last week in Pasadena, California.
It has 44 chargers in total — 24 Tesla Superchargers and 20 Tritium RT50/50kW fast chargers.
All charging is currently free, and you have 20 minutes after finishing charging to move your car, so that you don’t have to rush to get food from a take-out restaurant at the plaza — Marengo Charging Plaza, 155 E. Green Street, if you’re in the area.
My favorite thing about the station is that it’s not just big — it’s a combo station that brings electric vehicle drivers of all kinds together.
“Pasadena is focused on placing EV chargers at central locations throughout the city’s 23 square miles that will help drivers support their daily commute and extend their electric range to reach further destinations,” Green Car Congress reports.
As someone who has lived with no home charging and an electric car for a couple of years, I appreciate the focus on putting the stations at places you want to be. I have a decent selection of charging stations in my area, but the ones that are most convenient (even if further from home) are the ones at shopping centers or grocery stores I’d be visiting anyway, or at least enjoy visiting with the excuse of charging. You’re never going to have 100% of the population having access to home or workplace charging. But if you put charging stations in places they’d visit anyway, that works almost as conveniently.
The project is part of Pasadena’s “PowerUp Pasadena” program, which was launched in 2018. Other initiatives in the program have been financial incentives (rebates) for people who buy or lease new or used electric vehicles, and city utility Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) doubling the number of public EV charging stations in the city in the past 18 months. Reportedly, PWP has the highest percentage of its residents driving EVs of any Southern California electric utility, and Southern California is certainly one of the leading regions in the world for EV adoption.
Regarding this public EV charging plaza, it was a joint effort that pulled together the resources of both public and private organizations. “With the help of grants from the California Energy Commission and Southern California Air Quality Management District, and revenues from the Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, the city was able to construct the entire project without the use of rate payer dollars.” Residents of Pasadena must be proud. Other cities around the state and the world should take a note or two about this initiative and lead in a similar before it’s too late, while projects like these are still noteworthy rather than completely expected.
If any of our readers have already used this station, please pass along pictures in the comments below!
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