General Motors has announced that it will build a charging network for electric cars in partnership with infrastructure engineering company, Bechtel.
GM will provide the data on where to build stations while Bechtel will engineer, build, and procure permits for the charging stations.
Using data from OnStar, the companies will decide where to build the charging stations based on where current drivers park and which routes they use most. That means that the stations won’t simply be placed along the nation’s many interstate highways.
“Our hypothesis around fast charging is that people charge where their cars [are] already spending time, right?” said Mike Ableson, GM’s vice president of EV infrastructure and charging. “And, thanks to this anonymized opt-in data, we have a lot of insight into that.”
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Together, the two companies plan on starting a new corporation to take on this project and invite other parties to invest in the operation.
GM is interested in the project because it has promised to build 20 electric new vehicles by 2020.
Bechtel draws its routes back to the turn of the century and has, over its lifetime, been involved in no shortage of major engineering projects. The company led the construction of the Hoover Dam (along with five smaller engineering firms), was involved in the engineering of the Chunnel, and counts among the engineering companies helping to maintain the confinement structure at Chernobyl.
From GMInsideNews.com