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Volkswagen to Install 2,800 EV Charging Stations Across US

Approximately 75 percent of them will be located at workplaces, with the remainder at apartment buildings, condos, and other multi-family properties.

 & Angela Moscaritolo Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

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Electric vehicle drivers in the US will soon have a lot more places to juice up.

Volkswagen subsidiary Electrify America on Monday announced plans to install more than 2,800 electric vehicle charging stations at 500 sites across the US by June 2019. The stations will be located in workplaces and multi-unit dwellings in 17 of the country's biggest metropolitan areas. They will provide up to 20 to 25 miles of driving range per hour of charging.

Electrify America, for the uninitiated, is the unit VW created this February as part of its settlement with the California Air Resources Board and the US Environmental Protection Agency over its use of emissions cheating technology. The unit manages a $2 billion investment program to support the increased use of zero emissions vehicle technology in the US over the next decade.

"One of the biggest barriers to the mass-market adoption of electric vehicles is access to chargers," Electrify America CEO Mark McNabb said in a statement. "Having chargers where people work – and live – will help them see that an electric vehicle can be their primary vehicle because charging is convenient and reliable at the places where they spend time."

The charging stations will be installed in six California cities: Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose and in Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, Raleigh, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Approximately 75 percent of them will be located at workplaces, with the remainder at apartment buildings, condos, and other multi-family properties.

"This aligns with one of the goals for the Electrify America program which is to increase charging infrastructure at the workplace, the second most likely place a vehicle spends time parked," the VW subsidiary wrote in a news release. "Employees with chargers at their workplace are six times more likely to drive a plug-in electric vehicle than the average worker, and chargers located at the workplace can potentially double an electric vehicle owner's daily driving range."

About Our Expert

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Managing Editor, Consumer Electronics

My Experience

I'm PCMag's managing editor for consumer electronics, overseeing an experienced team of analysts covering smart home, home entertainment, wearables, fitness and health tech, and various other product categories. I have been with PCMag for more than 10 years, and in that time have written more than 6,000 articles and reviews for the site. I previously served as an analyst focused on smart home and wearable devices, and before that I was a reporter covering consumer tech news. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade. 

Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

The Technology I Use

My little Florida beach bungalow is brimming with smart home tech. I have a smart speaker or display in every room, allowing me to control other connected devices by voice. The Nest Hub on my bedside table lets me set wake-up alarms, control my smart light bulbs, and set the temperature on my smart thermostat. I use the Amazon Echo Show 8 on my kitchen counter to browse recipes, reorder protein powder, check the weather, and watch the news while I do dishes. 

Because I suffer from allergies, air purifiers are essential. My favorite model is the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07, which doubles as a fan and continuously sends indoor pollution data to its companion mobile app. 

My pitbull Bradley sheds, so a good robot vacuum is a must. I currently use a premium Ecovacs Deebot that can both vacuum and mop, empty its own dustbin, and wash its own mop cloth. 

For fitness, I like to mix up my routine with cycling, indoor rowing, running, and strength training in addition to yoga. I take classes on the Tonal 2 smart strength training machine, I row indoors on an Aviron machine, and track my beach runs with an Apple Watch while listening to music on my Apple AirPods Pro. On the weekends, I love riding e-bikes like the rugged, beach-friendly Aventon Aventure for fun and fitness.

My job involves a lot of virtual meetings, so a quality webcam, microphone, and ring light are important. I use the Jabra PanaCast 20 webcam, the Elgato Wave: 3 microphone, and a Yesker tripod ring light. 

As for my preferred phone platform, I'm an iPhone person, but I've also extensively used Android for product testing.

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