Skycharger, one of the nation’s leading developers of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, has been awarded a lease to develop a fast-charging hub at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously at its June 10 meeting to approve the lease with Skycharger, which will build the EV Hub to serve electric rideshare vehicles, such as Uber and Lyft, as well as EV-driving airport customers and the general public. Skycharger’s lease agreement was also approved unanimously by the SFO Airport Commission in April.
“We are grateful to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and the SFO Airport Commission for selecting Skycharger to build a state-of-the-art EV charging experience at the airport. Skycharger’s EV Hub will be a next-generation facility that reflects the steadfast, bold leadership of SFO, San Francisco, and California in clean transportation technologies.”
– Andy Karetsky, CEO of Skycharger.
Skycharger’s EV Hub will support and align with SFO’s sustainability work, advancing its zero net carbon operations goal and delivering extensive benefits to the region. It will also help meet the expected surge in charging demand from rideshare vehicles in response to California’s Clean Miles Standard, which requires ninety percent of Uber and Lyft miles to be traveled by electric vehicles by 2030. Based on expected utilization, Skycharger estimates that the EV Hub will result in the avoidance of more than 200,000 tons of CO2 equivalent in its first ten years of operation.
Skycharger’s EV Hub, to be built with the support of Burns & McDonnell, an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) firm, will minimize charging times for drivers by deploying high-capacity chargers that provide rapid, industry-leading rates of charge. The 400 kW charging ports will future-proof the site for vehicles being designed to enable higher rates of charge and will support larger vehicles with large battery packs that demand high power to keep dwell times on par with smaller batteries. The EV Hub will also include a convenience store.
To support this advanced charging experience, Skycharger has selected Kempower to supply its EV charging hardware for the project. Kempower, a leader in scalable fast charging solutions, will provide 12 power cabinets and 24 satellite dispensers, enabling dynamic power distribution and high reliability across the site.
“We’re moving quickly to bring this hub online. Kempower’s flexible, high-performance charging technology is the right fit for this mission-critical deployment at one of the busiest airports in the country.”
– Johannes Copeland, COO of Skycharger.
Skycharger’s SFO EV Hub award builds on its recent $10 million grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) to design, construct, and operate two publicly accessible electric truck stops along I-5 in Southern California. Last August, Skycharger was selected by the Port of San Diego (POSD) to construct a 70-port electric truck charging hub (eHub) on port property, which will be paired with a 1.75 MW solar array, 2 MW battery energy storage system, convenience store, and a robust community benefits program.
Skycharger, a wholly owned subsidiary of Skyview Ventures, owns and operates a growing network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Established in 2013, the company owns and operates charging stations for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles and has stations operating in seven states. The network includes the West Coast Highway Corridor (WCHC) DC Fast Charging Network located at highway exits throughout California. The WCHC is the fourth-largest DC fast-charging network in California. The company recently began operations at its first fleet charging hub for medium- and heavy-duty trucks and is running over 100 trucks out of that hub.
