How GM and EVgo Will Make Towing With an EV Easier

Kristin Shaw has worked in the automotive industry as a freelance writer since 2012. Her first review was about a Ferrari F430, which is a great place to start for a lifelong enthusiast. She has tested and reviewed hundreds of vehicles over the past decade, and some of her favorites include the C2 and C8 Corvette, Lamborghini Aventador S, BMW X5 and Toyota GR86. Her dream car is a restomod 1957 Chevy Bel Air in turquoise. She's competing in her first Rebelle Rally, an all-female off-roading competition, in the fall of 2022 in a lifted Hyundai Santa Cruz. Her work has also been seen in The Drive, AutoWise, GearJunkie, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes Wheels, Today, The Washington Post and more.

Cameron Rogers has worked in the automotive industry since 2013. He has tested and reviewed hundreds of vehicles over the course of his career. Today, he leads the news team in developing cutting-edge news articles, opinion pieces and sneak peeks at upcoming vehicles. Favorite cars that he's driven during his tenure at Edmunds include the 991-era Porsche 911 Turbo S, Rolls-Royce Ghost and several generations of Honda Odyssey (really).

GM and EVgo are building improved charging stations.
The partnership will yield 400 new chargers starting in 2025.
These high-end charging stations will look more like a traditional gas station, with canopies and pull-through spots.
Most flagship stations include up to 20 stalls, with some providing even more.

Rivian built a "rest stop of the future" for its customers at the entrance to Yosemite National Park, complete with a lounge area, pet watering station, gift shop and free coffee. Mercedes is in the process of building out a high-end charging network, with 2,500 individual chargers promised by 2027.

Now it's GM's turn, and the company announced today that it's expanding its partnership with EVgo to provide 400 fast-charging stalls at locations across the country. These stations will feel more like a gas station experience in some ways, featuring canopies to protect drivers from the elements, adequate lighting, and pull-through charging setups. The latter will be a boon for EV trucks towing a trailer. Many existing stations are pull-in stalls, so when you're towing, drivers have to unhook from a trailer off-site before charging in a parking spot.

Consumers have been clamoring for better access to charging stations and have called for change to the available existing chargers that are secreted behind big-box stores in inconvenient locations. This approach brings more options to metropolitan areas and boosts the overall charging network, which should improve EV acceptance rates. Automakers like Ford have recently pulled back on EV plans to build more hybrid vehicles as EV sales growth has plateaued. While suburban areas and transit corridors are expected to be a challenge for quite a while, adding charging stations to city centers can only improve EV adoption.

We've put the infrastructure to the test in real time. For example, Edmunds Editor-in-Chief Alistair Weaver participated in a towing challenge, driving a Ford F-150 Lightning. His strategy was to find a working fast charger in Mojave, a desert town popular with off-roaders. Ultimately, charging took about an hour longer than planned, which is an exercise in frustration for any EV driver trying to go about their normal day or even taking a long road trip. If he had access to a pull-through stall like GM and EVgo are planning, he would not have had to disconnect the trailer every time he needed to charge up, and that alone is a big deal.

Together, GM and EVgo plan to build a total of 2,850 DC fast chargers, and they're well on their way: The 2,000th fast-charger is expected to be installed by the end of this year.