The man trying to fix EV charging in America

America's EV charging situation is a mess. So much so that eight automakers banded together to create a joint venture, dubbed Ionna, and try to fix the situation. It's an unprecedented move on multiple levels that shows the gravity of the situation, how seriously automakers take the future of electric vehicles, and an entirely new business venture that diversifies these companies beyond just building and selling vehicles: now they are selling the fuel too. Ionna has a big goal: build a reliable, high-powered electric vehicle fast-charging network across North America with at least 30,000 chargers and 2,000 stations in the U.S. by 2030 followed by Canada. The Drive's Editor-In-Chief Kyle Cheromcha and Director of Content and Product Joel Feder are joined by Ionna CEO Seth Cutler to discuss the where the landscape sites today, why chargers are placed where they are and look like they look, and future of EV charging in America. Stories referenced in today's episode: New Automaker Super-Alliance Plans to Nearly Double EV Chargers Across America Rivian’s Charging Network Is 4% of Tesla’s. Here’s RJ Scaringe’s Plan to Change That Unreliable Charging Networks Plagued 1 in 5 EV Owners Last Year: Study 00:00 - Intro 04:48 - Why is America's charging situation a hot mess? 05:41 - What's taking so long to get EV charging stations up and running? 09:14 - How many Ionna stations exist today? Status report 10:42 - The business model 19:44 - How are charging station sites chosen? 23:46 - Partnerships 27:25 - Software, reliability, broken chargers 34:20 - Eight automakers own Ionna 37:31 - Charging speeds, how fast is fast enough? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices