Electric vehicles (EVs) are beginning to replace gasoline-powered cars, but America’s patchwork charging infrastructure remains a significant hurdle for many buyers. General Motors has come up with a solution.
Even in areas where EV chargers are becoming common, drivers can struggle to find one, reserve time on it, then download an app and sign up for a membership and payment system to use it.
GM’s new Ultium Charge 360 platform allows owners of GM EVs to use chargers from seven different charging companies through a single app. The system pools together charging stations from EVgo, ChargePoint, EV Connect, Blink Charging, FLO, SemaConnect, and Greenlots into a single network.
In a statement, GM says that Ultium Charge 360 will “provide an even more intuitive mobile experience that makes navigating to a charging station, plugging into a charger and paying for charging simple.” GM EV chief Travis Hester says the system’s “major functions” should be operational by September.
The system is named for GM’s Ultium platform, a modular EV architecture that will power the GMC Hummer EVs, Cadillac Lyriq, and many future GM electric cars.
The system doesn’t work with every charging point in America. Electrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group of America, is notably absent from the platform. Tesla’s supercharger network works for every Tesla, but only some non-Tesla EVs, and is not part of Ultium Charge 360. But the GM network supports more than 60,000 chargers today, with plans to expand.
Should it help you decide which EV to buy?
Ultium Charge 360 is a convenience for EV buyers that not every automaker can claim, though it isn’t clear whether this will prove the best system or that other automakers won’t have something similar very soon.
Tesla’s supercharger network offers more than 20,000 charging points of its own, all owned and operated by the automaker itself. Ford offers a similar system patched together from multiple charger operators, the FordPass Charging Network. But it claims fewer charging stations, though both companies are working to grow their charging networks.
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