GM Triples Its EV Charging Locations With Focus On Employee Vehicles - Will Management Be Plugging In?

GM has been pushing its "All-electric future" program hard as of late. Despite not introducing a single a new batter-electric vehicle to its lineup while introducing multiple new generations of huge gas guzzlers with standard V8 engines. One easy way GM can greenwash its present situation is to add new charging locations for its employees.

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GM Adding Chargers At Work
The newest announcement is that GM will triple the amount of charging locations that GM currently provides. These will mainly be located at GM facilities and are primarily intended to be used as chargers for employees who are driving EVs to and from jobs at GM. “This is another step down the path to making EV ownership easier for everyone, especially for our own employees,” said Mark Reuss, GM president. “Charging infrastructure is crucial to the wider acceptance of EVs, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to improve it, both for our employees and for all our customers. We encourage other companies to do likewise.”

EV Owners Have A Hard Tine Charging At Work
GM says that workplace charging is a primary charging source for many EV drivers, but points out that 900,000 out of 1 million EV drivers are not able to charge their vehicles at work. GM feels that the availability of workplace chargers will encourage EV adoption, and says that drivers are six times more likely to drive an EV when charging capabilities are provided at their workplace. “Over 90 percent of EV owners charge either at home, at work or a combination of both,” said Rick Spina, vice president of EV/AV commercialization and infrastructure. “We have new EVs from GMC for the 2022 model year and from Cadillac planned for the 2023 model year, and we want to make it as convenient as possible for our employees to enjoy the rewards of EV ownership.”

GM said in a press release today that the company hopes to show other companies the value of investing in workplace charging, as it is an affordable employee benefit, supports talent attraction and retention, and showcases the company’s commitment to sustainability. GM's plan is to prioritize charging installation sites based on employee needs and will work with charging infrastructure companies to begin installing the charging locations starting in late 2020. The plan is for employees to have access to Level 2 charging. A Level 2 charger can charge the current Chevrolet Bolt EV model at a rate of as high as 25 miles of added range for every hour it is plugged in. GM did not add any details regarding whether employees will be allowed to leave their workspace and rotate their vehicles out of the charging spot after it is fully charged.

Related Story: GM and LG Partner To Build 30 Gigawatt Capacity Battery Plant For EVs In Ohio

What Do Top GM Managers Drive?
Torque News reached out to Jordana Strosberg,GM's EV, AV and Sustainability Communications manager and asked what vehicles company CEO Mary Barra and Mark Reuss presently drive to and from work. Both are provided a company vehicle as a part of their compensation package.The last time we had information on what CEO Barra drove it was one of GM's largest and most thirsty vehicles. The V8-powered Cadillac Escalade. We will update this story if we obtain the requested information.

John Goreham is a life-long car nut and recovering engineer. John's focus areas are technology, safety, and green vehicles. In the 1990s, he was part of a team that built a solar-electric vehicle from scratch. His was the role of battery thermal control designer. For 20 years he applied his engineering and sales talents in the high tech world and published numerous articles in technical journals such as Chemical Processing Magazine. In 2008 he retired from that career and dedicated himself to chasing his dream of being an auto writer. In addition to Torque News, John's work has appeared in print in dozens of American newspapers and he provides reviews to many vehicle shopping sites. You can follow John on Twitter, and connect with him at Linkedin.