Electrify America gets $450m investment from VW, Siemens

In order to speed up the installation of charging infrastructure in the US, Electrify America and Volkswagen and Siemens revealed that they had raised $450 million.

If the US government is “punishing” you by making you invest in infrastructure for electric vehicle charging, you might as well maximise the situation, go all in, and turn it into a resource. In essence, that is what Electrify America is accomplishing.

The business was established as a result of VW’s $2 billion settlement with the US government for the Dieselgate issue. VW has to establish a company to invest the funds in EV charging stations and other initiatives to hasten the uptake of EVs.

This turned out to be a wonderful bargain for VW since its punishment was essentially being forced to invest in a company that is likely going to be the future of supplying energy for transportation. Anyone who had a good knowledge that electric vehicles were the future anyway found this to be the case.

Six years after the agreement and four years after the first station’s opening, Electrify America has placed 3,500 ultra-fast chargers at 800 stations, and business is booming. Electrify America declared today that it is officially accepting new donations for the first time.