All the news about EV charging in the US

Since announcing earlier this year that it was on the cusp of a major battery breakthrough, Finnish startup Donut Lab has faced a lot of questions, and plenty of skepticism, about its production-ready, solid-state battery. Could the company really make a fast-charging battery at scale while avoiding some of the theoretical production headaches that have stymied past efforts? Today, Donut Lab sought to dispel some of the doubts with the release of the first independent test of its battery, evaluating its charging speed and the “thermal behavior” of its pack.

The test, which was conducted by state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, concludes that the battery is able to be charged significantly faster than a traditional lithium-ion battery. In several tests, the battery was able to charge from 0–80 percent in around 9.5 minutes, while retaining 100 percent of its capacity. In other tests, 0–80 percent was achieved in about 4.5 minutes while retaining 99 percent capacity.

It seems clear at this point to say that Donald Trump does not want to spend a single dime on EV charging. He tried to freeze $5 billion in funding for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which was approved as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. And when a federal judge ordered the government to unfreeze the funds, his administration came up with a new tactic to stall the plan.

EV chargers must now be built in the US, with components that also originate in the US, in order to receive federal funding, the US Department of Transportation said today. Under the proposal, EV chargers would need to boost their US-made parts from 55 percent to 100 percent in order to be eligible for NEVI funding. But industry and environmental groups say the new requirements would essentially stop EV charging build-out in its tracks.

Look, I sympathize. When General Motors said it would adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its electric vehicles back in 2023, we knew this meant adapters. But we never could have imagined how many adapters we would get.

Today, GM announced three additional adapters to help EV owners charge at home or in public. And while I’m sure that GM thought it was presenting the information as clearly as it could, I can’t help but wonder what normal, non-EV owners must think of all this.

ChargePoint is ramping up the power for its next-generation DC fast charging architecture to 600 kW for passenger vehicles, and up to 3.75 megawatts (3,750 kW) for heavy-duty trucks — enough to power an entire football stadium.

Most EVs on the road aren’t able to accept more than 350 kW of power while charging, but ChargePoint CEO Rick Wilmer said the idea was to future proof its charging infrastructure in anticipation of the arrival of higher powered EVs. Another consideration is China, which is beginning to roll out EVs with higher-voltage battery architectures that can handle increased power levels. But while China continues to set the standard for ultra-fast EV charging, the Campbell, CA-based charging company said it’s important for America to keep pace.

Revel is shutting down its ridehail business, citing heightened competition from rideshare leaders like Uber and Lyft. The company, which began as an electric moped business before shifting to rideshare, plans to pivot to electric vehicle charging.

“At the end of the day, rideshare is a very competitive market and asset-heavy,” Revel CEO Frank Reig said in a statement to Bloomberg. “It’s low margin. We have made the difficult decision that the best way we can keep the EV transition moving forward is by ending our rideshare service and focusing on building the fast-charging infrastructure our biggest cities need to keep going electric.”

Honda has launched a new EV charging adapter that will allow its all-electric Prologue and Acura ZDX to power up at over 23,500 Tesla Supercharger stations. The $225 adapter lets vehicles equipped with Combined Charging System (CCS) plugs use Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) stations, buying Honda some time before it officially builds an NACS into an EV.

Honda first announced that it was working on the new adapter in March, and now drivers can purchase it from the automaker’s website, as well as from Honda and Acura dealerships. In addition to launching the adapter, Honda announced that it will now let EV owners use their vehicles’ built-in Google Maps app to find Tesla Superchargers.

Tesla’s long-in-the-works 1950s-inspired diner and drive-in Supercharger station in Los Angeles is expected to officially open today – and the company may build more of them down the line.

The Tesla Diner lets people grab comfort food like burgers and fries (served in boxes shaped like Cybertrucks) and milkshakes while charging their vehicles. The Diner has giant screens so people can watch things like movie clips while charging their cars, though watching from the screens in your Tesla is apparently an option, too. One of Tesla’s Optimus robots was even spotted serving popcorn at a recent soft launch event.

The Cadillac Optiq may be the newest addition to the automaker’s electric lineup, but it’s already getting its own V-series performance variant.

Nearly five months after the 2025 Optiq first arrived at dealerships, Cadillac is revealing the Optiq-V, with 519 horsepower, 650 lb-ft (880 Nm) of torque, and a 0–60 mph acceleration of 3.5 seconds in Velocity Max mode. (That includes a metric called “Initial Vehicle Movement,” which is when the vehicle starts moving rather than when the green light goes off.)

Soon you’ll be able to charge your electric vehicle at Waffle House diners while chatting up truckers and dodging flying chairs. Starting in 2026, BP Pulse will be equipping America’s all-night breakfast place with 400kW DC fast chargers fitted with a mix of CCS and NACS connectors.

Participating Waffle House diners in Texas, Georgia, Florida, “and other locations in the South and Southeast” will each see six BP Pulse charging bays installed. There are over 2,000 Waffle Houses in 25 states, many of which are conveniently located near highway exits. BP Pulse chargers can already be found in over 8,000 retail locations in 46 states.

Kia is the latest automaker to be granted Tesla Supercharger access, allowing owners of the company’s EVs to connect to over 21,500 stalls across North America. Kia EVs were originally supposed to get access to Superchargers in January, but it was delayed until March, and now it has finally gone through.

The news comes as Kia announced a refreshed Kia EV6 model for 2025 this week, which will come standard with a Tesla-style NACS port. Kia will also include the port on the upcoming 2026 EV9 three-row SUV.

ChargePoint is ready to speed things up.

On Thursday, the EV charging company revealed new AC Level 2 EV chargers that it says effectively double the speed of typical Level 2 chargers. The new architecture also supports bidirectional charging, so owners can use their EVs to power their home or business if the need arises. The first new models are expected to arrive in the US later this year.

In their quest to build a coast-to-coast EV charging network, GM, EVgo, and Pilot announce they have installed electric vehicle chargers at 130 locations across 25 states. The partnership, which launched in 2022, aimed to install 2,000 DC fast chargers at 500 Pilot and Flying J truck stop locations nationwide. In a press release, the companies say the expanded charging network will make road trip plans easier as EV adoption grows and drivers prepare for spring and summer travel.

Pilot says its charging infrastructure now stretches along I-75 between Michigan and Georgia, as well as highway routes between Minneapolis and Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland, San Antonio and Houston, and Dallas and Nashville. Locationally, the GM-backed charging network project is a little over a quarter of the way towards its goal. At the end of 2023, the companies had 25 EV station locations with around 100 charging stalls.

Honda and its luxury brand Acura are getting access to more than 20,000 Tesla Superchargers in North America starting in June for their Prologue and ZDX EVs. Both brands will also sell their own EV charging adapters for an undisclosed price through dealerships.

The new Honda and Acura branded adapters that convert their vehicles’ existing CCS1 port to Tesla’s NACS connector have a design identical to Ford’s Lectron-built offering. But unlike Hyundai and Ford, Honda hasn’t said it will provide the adapters for free. Without one, you can still charge at some Tesla Supercharger stations as long as they have built-in Magic Dock adapters.

There’s an unbelievable amount of work going on right now to boost the performance of lithium-ion batteries. PhDs around the globe are, at this very moment, furrowing their respective brows, trying to eke out a few percentage points of extra energy density, shave a few minutes off of charging times, or add a few months to a given cell’s effective lifespan.

And then along comes a startup called Breathe Battery Technologies with an algorithm that promises to boost charging speeds by upward of 30 percent, all while preserving the lifespan of those cells. It’s part of a software package light enough to run on ancient embedded systems and small enough to be deployed via over-the-air updates. Best of all, it’s not theoretical: Volvo will feature this tech on the company’s upcoming ES90 sedan, and you can already find it on some smartphones.

Ford is making some changes to how it handles its EV charging accessories.

The company was the first to announce its plans to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector for its EVs, and was also first to distribute NACS adapters to its EV customers free of charge. But now that grace period is over, with Ford announcing that it has finally shipped adapters to all 140,000 customers that reserved one.

Kia EV9 owners can soon take advantage of the SUV’s “Vehicle to Home” power backup capabilities with the availability of a bidirectional charger coming in June. The new Wallbox Quasar 2 electric vehicle charger is the first home EV power connector in the US that works with the EV9 and is now up for preorder for owners and lessees of the vehicle.

The Quasar 2 can feed power to the EV9’s battery to charge it or draw from it to keep your home’s lights on during a blackout. You’ll need both the charger and a special Power Recovery Unit to interface with your home power panel to make the home generator features work. EV9 owners get first dibs on the Quasar 2 but will need to register with Wallbox to preorder both items. According to Kia, they will be available “on a first-come, first-served, while supplies last basis.”

Tesla is planning to install dozens of Supercharger sites at Steak ‘n Shake locations across the country, according to an exchange between the companies on X. The companies have signed an agreement for over six sites, with over 20 more to come. And if Steak ‘n Shake gets its way, possibly 100 restaurants will see future Supercharger installations.

The way the news trickled out was a little weird, yet typical of how Elon Musk likes to use his social media platform, X, to publicize new information about his various companies.

Electric vehicle charging network EVgo changed its terms of service Thursday to include new language explicitly prohibiting the use of high-speed DC extension cables and breakaway adapters at the company’s stations. The terms, which go into effect March 8th, are another bump in the road for enterprising companies looking to cash in on EV charging accessories.

EVgo added the following terms in bold to the Authorized Charging Adapters section of its Terms of Service: “EVgo prohibits the use of all other adapters, including break-away adapters and DC extension cords (“Unauthorized Equipment”) on EVgo’s network and Charging Stations.” The company continues to authorize “automaker-manufactured charging adapters” (such as J3400 “NACS” to CCS1) and have UL2252 certification.

The General Services Administration (GSA), which manages buildings owned by the federal government, is planning to shut down all of its electric vehicle chargers nationwide, describing them as “not mission critical.” The agency, which manages contracts for the government’s vehicle fleets, is also looking to offload newly purchased EVs.

The GSA currently operates several hundred EV chargers across the country, with approximately 8,000 plugs that are available for government-owned EVs as well as federal employees’ personally owned vehicles.

The Trump administration’s war on electric cars continues with the halt of a national program that sends money to states to install EV charging equipment. It was the latest move by President Donald Trump to reverse Biden-era EV policies — even as those policies have personally enriched his top ally, Elon Musk.

According to a memo from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program will be put on pause while it is retooled to align with the new administration’s priorities (those priorities being more gas guzzlers and fewer EVs). The agency said it is “immediately suspending” the approval of plans to deploy new EV chargers “for all fiscal years” and will no longer approve new funding requests until a new plan is implemented.