Gravity opens fastest US EV charger to public in New York

Bengaluru — Google-backed electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure start-up Gravity Mobility has opened the fastest charging solution in the US to the public, as it looks to attract fleet customers.

Major fleet operators will have access to 24 of Gravity’s 500kW chargers in New York, it said on Monday. The devices can charge at a rate of 3,860km of range per hour or 320km in five minutes.

The company has the capacity to manufacture and deploy thousands of chargers a year and more sites are already in development, apart from the first in Midtown Manhattan, it said.

“If you look at how many (Tesla) Superchargers are added per year, we can add that many or more to grow our network. There’s nothing blocking that,” Gravity CEO Moshe Cohen said.

Tesla has signed a large number of agreements with Ford, General Motors and a slew of other carmakers to allow vehicles across brands to access its more than 15,000 strong charging network. Scaling to this level could be challenging.

Gravity plans to raise more funds this year to expand its network of high speed chargers across the US.

“We will do more fundraising, of course, our goal is to expand nationally immediately, and so we have quite a bit of interest,” Cohen said.

Gravity’s chargers are the size of a carry-on suitcase, compared with large stands deployed by vehicle makers and other EV charging network operators.

However, most EVs have a charging speed cap of 350kW, with future models expected to be able to take advantage of faster chargers.

Late in 2023, EV charger maker ChargePoint announced its Express Plus Power Link 2000 product, which is capable of charging two vehicles simultaneously at speeds of up to 500kW, while Tesla’s Superchargers have a limit of 250kW.