August 28, 2025 - Chargepoint Cranks Up the Power

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for August 28, 2025, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research for Telemetry.

ChargePoint was one of the early entries in the public EV charging space in the United States and has one of the largest networks with nearly 83,000 chargers in place. Out of those, only about 4,500 are DC fast chargers, and of those, only a little over 700 have more than 150 kW power output. ChargePoint has an unusual business model since it doesn't actually operate the chargers. Chargepoint manufactures and sells the charging equipment to site owners and provides the backend services to connect the chargers and manage payments and authentication. 

Site owners who want to provide charging as an amenity for EV drivers, such as retailers, will often choose to install one or more of Chargepoint's Level 2 AC chargers in front of a store. As the operator, the site owner sets their own pricing for charging, which can range from free to sometimes quite exorbitant. We've heard of sites with Chargepoint level 2 chargers that only provide 6.6-kW, that charge a connection fee of up to $5 in addition to a time or kWh-based metered fee. Even for those sites that opt for DC chargers, they are often slower chargers of 50-125-kW, and reliability can be problematic because the site owner is responsible for maintenance and service. 

Despite this, Chargepoint has been rolling out interesting innovations recently, such as its Omniport adapter that enables charging either CCS or NACS-equipped vehicles. The most recent is an effort to remain competitive with the EV market leaders in China. Both BYD and CATL have launched megawatt charging systems in China, 3 times the power of the best chargers in the US. ChargePoint has announced its next-generation DC charging architecture that will support up to 600 kW for passenger vehicles and 3.7 MW for heavy-duty vehicles. The new chargers are designed to be 30% less expensive to install and operate and require 30% less space. They are designed to be "pre-built" and delivered on a concrete slab for easy installation. Of course, chargers at this power level require sites with sufficient electrical supply from the grid, so they won't be able to be installed just anywhere in the near future. 

While there aren't any EVs currently available in North America that charge at more than 350 kW, that is expected to change in the coming years as a result of competition from China. Thus it's critical to have systems that can scale up as the demand develops. Despite the challenges from the current administration in Washington, the EV industry is not entirely giving up on the electric transition and is continuing to push forward. 

Thanks for listening.