GM, Flo Partner to Bring EV Charging to Rural Drivers

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GM has selected Flo as the company to supply its new “Dealer Community Charging Program” coming to Chevrolet dealerships in Wisconsin and Michigan, an early step towards the company’s stated goal of putting 40,000 Level 2 chargers in the ground in underserved communities.

“GM is a long-term valued collaborator, and we are proud to support this extraordinary effort to grow access to public EV charging in thousands of local communities across North America,” said Louis Tremblay, FLO’s president and CEO. “Together, FLO, GM, and [participating] GM dealerships will bring reliable charging to drivers from curbside to countryside.”

Deliveries of the Flo 19.1 kW “CoRe+ MAX” chargers (which can charge an EV up to 2.7x faster than a typical Level 2 charging station) have officially begun, with Wheelers Chevrolet GMC in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and Young Chevrolet Cadillac in Owosso, Michigan, being the first two dealers to officially install the provided chargers.

While GM itself is responsible for working with FLO to source and send the chargers out, it’s the dealers themselves — who have strong local ties and an “insider’s look” at their communities — that get to choose the charger locations in GM’s program, which means that a number of these chargers will end up in hospital parking lots, near parks, and at libraries. Places the dealer feels its EV buyers are the most underserved. Flo, meanwhile, will monitor and be responsible for the stations’ maintenance and upkeep.

“With FLO’s collaboration and the support of our dealer community,” said Hoss Hassani, vice president of GM EV Ecosystem, “we’ll significantly expand reliable and convenient infrastructure across the U.S. and Canada and manifest our all-electric future.”

FLO’s first US manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills will be the main production location for the program’s charging stations, according to the Detroit Free Press. FLO announced its plans to complete the new factory by Q3 of 2023 last summer. The facility will cost several million dollars and is expected to create more than 130 clean tech jobs.

Sources: Autoweek, Detroit Free Press, Flo.


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