Volkswagen unit Electrify America stated on Monday that it prepares to set up 2,800 electric vehicle charging stations in 17 of the largest U.S. cities by June 2019.
The charging stations will be found at approximately 500 sites, with around 75 percent of them at work places and the rest at multifamily dwellings such as apartments.
The automaker has agreed to invest $800 million in California and an overall of $2 billion across the country on clean car facilities as part of its contract after admitting to diesel emissions cheating.
“Among the biggest barriers to the mass-market adoption of electric vehicles is access to chargers,” stated Mark McNabb, chief executive officer of Electrify America.
Significant automakers such as General Motors and Ford Motor have announced strategies to release whole families of electric vehicles in the upcoming years in a direct challenge to Tesla Inc which is having a hard time to obtain its more cost effective, high-volume Model 3 launched and recently reported its largest-ever quarterly loss.
One issue the auto market need to conquer for mass adoption of electric vehicles is a lack of national charging infrastructure for use by customers.
Electrify America stated it has picked charging station companies SemaConnect, EV Link and Greenlots to install them.
“There hasn’t been a considerable catalyst yet for increasing the amount of charging stations,” stated Scott Fisher, Greenlots’ vice president of market development, informed Reuters. “This is an extraordinary opportunity to help develop the electric vehicle infrastructure we need across the United States.”
The diesel emissions scandal has until now cost Volkswagen as much as $30 billion.
