EVgo adds second-life batteries to fast-charging system

EVgo has added second-life BMW i3 batteries to its Union City fast-charging station in California to store energy during peak solar hours and reduce strain on the grid. This energy is then used to deliver a fast charge to EVgo customers’ electric vehicles during periods of high demand. The second-life battery system integrates two BMW i3 battery packs into a single housing. Evgo says each battery pack has a capacity of 22 kWh which combines with a 30 kW inverter to offer a 30 kW/44 kWh energy storag
July 18, 2018 Read time: 1 min
EVgo has added second-life BMW i3 batteries to its Union City fast-charging station in California to store energy during peak solar hours and reduce strain on the grid. This energy is then used to deliver a fast charge to EVgo customers’ electric vehicles during periods of high demand.


The second-life battery system integrates two BMW i3 battery packs into a single housing.

Evgo says each battery pack has a capacity of 22 kWh which combines with a 30 kW inverter to offer a 30 kW/44 kWh energy storage system.

Princeton Power Systems provided the inverter hardware and integrated it with the battery packs. Meanwhile, technology company Kisensum developed software controls for the battery system and managed software integration.

The EVgo Union City site began operating earlier this summer and currently has two 50 kW DC fast chargers.

Related Content

  • Single system simplicity for smarter city transport
    February 23, 2017
    All encompassing, city-wide transport monitoring and control systems are beginning to make their way onto the market, as Colin Sowman hears. The futuristic vision of cities where everything is connected and operated with maximum efficiency by a gigantic computer remains a distant prospect but related sectors and services are beginning to coalesce: transport monitoring and control for instance.
    Read More
  • Cost benefit: Toronto retimings tame traffic trauma
    July 11, 2018
    Canada’s largest city reckons that it is saving its taxpayers’ money simply by altering the way traffic lights work. David Crawford reviews Toronto’s ambitious plans to ease congestion. Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis (and the fourth largest in North America), has saved its residents CAN$53 (US$42.4) for every CAN$1 (US$0.80) spent over a 2012-2016 traffic signal retiming programme, according to figures released by its Transportation Services Division. The programme covered 1,275 signals (the city’s to
    Read More
  • Reversible express lanes and open road tolling combat congestion
    March 2, 2012
    Teri England, Diamond Consulting Services, details the construction of construction of a world first - reversible express lanes with cashless multi-lane ORT - on the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway
    Read More
  • Keeping people on track is RATP’s raison d’etre
    June 14, 2018
    In Paris, RATP Group’s autonomous Metro Line 1 is carrying 750,000 people a day across the city. Ben Spencer is invited into the control room to take a look at how the system works Paris is visited by millions of tourists each year, keen to see for themselves stunning attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Seine and all the rest. But while the best-known sites of the City of Light tend to be on the surface, there is a lot going on below those iconic grand boule
    Read More

Highlighted Content