Gravity New Charger Trees
There is an EV charging company in America called Gravity. They are going to build charging stations.
We’re talking charger trees on American streets all across America. They’re going to grow this network bigger than Tesla’s.
Concept and Design of Charger Trees
But these charging stations will charge your electric car twice as fast as what Tesla’s charging stations do today.
I’ve got to say this stuff does really excite me because this is game changing.
New York-based startup EV Infrastructure Specialist Gravity has launched a new line of universal EV charger trees that it says will bring convenient charging sessions to curbside city streets.
Advantages Over Traditional Charging Stations
Now, of course, there’s a lot of Americans who do live in apartment blocks for them, charging their EV is a bit of a pain in the ass.
It is a bit of a pain in the butt, but that’s going to change now.
People started to see in Australia and in Europe, charging stations being built into curbs, into gutters, into power poles.
You wouldn’t even know the charging station’s there because it just basically looks like a PowerPoint almost.
That’s what’s going to happen in America. The deployment Environment will start slow at first.
Comparison with Tesla’s Superchargers
Gravity is targeting a street charging network that is more expansive than Tesla’s current supercharger network, and a lot faster.
When I say faster, I mean 500 kilowatt charging speeds. You might be thinking, Well, what EVs charge at that speed? Well, there’s quite a few in China that do already.
And considering they charge at that speed using CATL’s Lithium Ion Phosphate Shensing battery? Well, that’s going to end up being the most commonly-produced battery in the world.
Technological Advancements in Charging Efficiency
Currently, the most commonly-used battery across the entire EV sector, it’s got a very big market share—is CATL’s second-generation lithium-ion phosphate batteries.
But this is basically the third generation. It’s only a matter of time before this third-generation battery pack is used across a huge sector of the automotive industry.
Gravity Inc. Is a startup which is focused on sustainable fleets and the infrastructure required to operate them efficiently.
Mustang Mach E taxi-camps
In 2021, Gravity began rolling out a fleet of all-electric Mustang Mach E taxi-camps in New York City.
They were partnering with building owners and parking operators to implement electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support drivers and EV fleets.
Now, apparently, Gravity was already teasing plans to open the only true fast charging site in Manhattan to support the taxis and local EV owners.
In October 2023, Gravity released a range of 500 kilowatt EV chargers, which, well, they work, and they’re insanely fast.
This technology caught the eye, apparently, according to Electric, of Google Ventures or GV.
That meant the company was able to get a whole bunch of seed funding from Google.
Market Implications
Since then, Gravity has been able to roll out dozens of UL-listed EV charges in the US and made good on its word to open access to 24 500 kilowatt EV charges at a new Gravity charging center in March.
I’m saying these are the fastest charges in America that are currently operating. What does this boil down to? This boils down to Google.
They’re going to get hundreds of millions in funding from Google. Well, Google don’t have much of a game.
They don’t have much going on in the EV sector, in the charging sector, in the EV world. Clearly, Google want to get into this space.
I mean, you can’t say Gravity is going to fund this themselves. These guys are a startup.
But it was when they got the funding from Google that everything obviously changed.
Partnership with Google Ventures
Will there be more funding from Google? Well, clearly there is. There’s no way Gravity could say, We’re going to make our charging network bigger than Tesla’s, unless Google was saying, the money will be coming. It’s an interesting little situation here.
This is like Google’s way to in and be a legitimate Tesla rival in one very important sector, which is going to make a lot of money.
A lot of experts are saying that there’s billions of dollars to be made in the charging sector.
Gravity Future
The charging center that Gravity have right now, the 500 kilowatt charges, is apparently in a Manhattan parking garage.
The Gravity mounted its 500 kilowatt distributed energy access points to the ceiling above existing parking spaces.
So they just stuck them on the ceiling. Gravity has announced it has adapted its DEAP EV charges into trees that can be easily installed in curbside.
It’s like a pole that just looks like a light pole, almost, a lamppost, that sits on the side of a street and has multiple charging cables just popping out of the top of it.
How cool is that? That’s such a rad idea. This will enable people to charge while they’re just parked at home.
Details on Charging Speeds (200 kW and 500 kW)
The startup has shared details of its latest EV a charger rollout, which includes 200 kilowatt and 500 kilowatt distributed energy charging points as part of a universal on-street cable and mounting system.
These EV charging trees have a hinged swing arm that houses a cable that pivots down for curbside sessions.
This offers local drivers easy access from the street no matter their make, model, or port location.
When a charging session is completed, the arm raises automatically and the EV connector latches back onto the pole out of sight and out of the way.
What a rad idea this is. I mean, this would enable you potentially eliminate sabotage. Now, we know people are sabotaging Tesla’s charges.
They’re cutting the cables. That could be they hate Tesla. It could be they’re trying to steal the copper from the cables.
But this would enable this to be prevented potentially because in my mind, my thought is, you basically use your credit card, then the charger actually pops out of the top of the charging tree, and you can pull it down and use it.
Then, of course, if you want to damage it, the only way would be to basically steal someone’s credit card and to then pull it out then.
But obviously, it’d only be a matter of time before that credit card would be refused.
Now, one of the big things that we’re What is going to be changed, with 500 kilowatt charges is there will need to be utility upgrades.
Potential for Grid Stabilization
Obviously, these 500 kilowatt DC fast charges, they will need changes to the grid in certain areas. They won’t be available everywhere.
That’s why they have a 200 kilowatt version, which will require potentially no grid upgrades in certain areas.
Gravity’s engineers have worked alongside design firm, Ranger Studio, to develop the EV charger trees to alleviate issues some curbside chargers face.
Benefits for Apartment Dwellers
Now, Gravity is basically saying, if people see this, if they realize this is on their street, it’s another good reason to go out and buy an electric car.
This will be true for a lot of apartment dwellers.
If one of these was near your apartment block and in your apartment building or basically where you park your car, and you can use one of these regularly, easily.
I think that’d be a really comforting reason to go, it’s time to get an electric car.
So is it true that this charging network will eventually become bigger than Teslas? Well, it very well could. Who knows? I mean, American cities are possibly going to start deploying these charges in cities.
And this could mean that EV charging or EVs Not only will EV charging be much easier, much faster than it is today, but it could mean the EVs become the only real choice.
I mean, who the hell wants to go and fill up with gasoline or petrol if there’s a much, much easier option for you? Now, Gravity is saying that their EV charging trees do not require any utility upgrades for installation and can deliver up to 200 miles of range in 13 minutes.
Now, that would be true potentially for the 200 kilowatt charger, but the 500 kilowatt charger would definitely require some changes.
It’s probably not that likely that many streets would be capable of handling multiple 500 kilowatt chargers, and I think there need to be some cable changes in that street.
I think it’s more likely we’re going to see these 200 kilowatt chargers be deployed in most streets.
The 500 kilowatt charger, though, they’re saying, will increase your car’s range on average, if you can charge at these speeds, by 200 miles in five minutes, 200 miles that’s 320 kilometers.
EV Market Dynamics
Basically, that means you only need to do a five-minute charge when you stop your car. Apparently, both EV charger tree systems deliver 1,000 volts.
This could even enable trucks to charge on them as well. They’re also bi-directional ready, offering future opportunities to send energy back into the grid.
Future Trends and Predictions
A lot of people are saying this is the solution for the grid, basically, to use all these EVs, it’s going to be millions of EVs everywhere, They’re like, giant batteries everywhere, to ease stress on the grid, to make electricity prices much, much, much, much, much cheaper.
It’s what California are doing, in that peak period between 6:00 to 9:00 PM when energy becomes expensive because everyone jumps in at the same time.