Electric vehicle charging stations coming to Annandale

An EVgo charging station.

 Owners of a Tesla, Leaf, Bolt, or other all-electric vehicle will soon have more charging options.

Twenty to 40 electric vehicle charging stations will be over the next year and a half or so in locations throughout Northern Virginia, including the parking lots at Barcroft Plaza and the Annanale Shopping Center, both on Columbia Pike. Other locations haven’t been announced.

These charging stations are part of a statewide network being constructed by the EVgo company, which was awarded a contract by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in August 2018.

There was a groundbreaking for the first electric vehicle charging station May 14 at Pike 7 Plaza in Tysons.

Virginia is using about $14 million from its share of the Volkswagen settlement fund to create the network of charging stations. That fund was created to resolve the VW cheating scandal; the company had installed software in its diesel vehicles that turned off the emission controls except during emissions tests.

The EVgo groundbreaking at Pike 7 Plaza. [Daren Shumate]

EVgo will install 80 to 100 electric vehicle charging stations across Virginia by September 2021, says Marcy Bauer, director of operations at EVgo. “Fast chargers,” delivering 50 kilowatts or higher, will be concentrated in Northern Virginia, Richmond, Hampton Roads, and the areas around Charlottesville/Culpeper, Salem, and Lynchburg.

Slower chargers will be in installed in places like parks and public lots where people can spend more time waiting for their cars to charge, Bauer says.

Anyone with an electric car can use an EVgo station, Bauer says, but EVgo members can get significant discounts, can use the chargers for longer periods, and can use a mobile app to access them.

A charge can cost $10 to $20 or more, depending on how much of a charge is needed. Membership is $7.99 a month.

A 50 kW charger can provide a range of 75 to 80 miles in 30 minutes if a car’s battery is nearly depleted. “That’s the perfect amount of time to get some shopping done or have a bite to eat,” Bauer says.

EVgo is also installing some 150-kW “superfast chargers” that will take 15 minutes to produce enough energy for a range of 125 miles.

The amount of charge a car can accept depends on several factors, such as how full the battery is, the type of car, the condition of the battery, and extreme weather conditions.

The number of all-electric vehicles on the road is climbing – especially as they are becoming more affordable and the cost of batteries is declining – but they still represent a small percentage of all vehicles sold, Bauer said. In Northern Virginia, there’s a growing number electric vehicles used in fleets and ride shares.