EVBox launches fast-charger production in Libertyville, as part of national push for widespread EV adoption

Netherlands-based EVBox, which opened its North American headquarters and plant in Libertyville, is rolling out a new public fast-charger it hopes will help get the U.S. on the road to widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

There is so much riding on the build-out of the national EV charging infrastructure that Gov. J.B. Pritzker and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin appeared on a pop-up warehouse stage Friday to witness the unveiling of the EVBox Troniq Modular charging station — the 21st-century equivalent of the gas pump — built entirely in the north suburban factory.

“Having one of the leading charging companies in Illinois, in Libertyville, making these newfangled charging stations, is going to not only create jobs, but also make it easier for people to adopt electric vehicles,” Pritzker said, after watching a demonstration of the high-powered DC fast charger.

The electric vehicle revolution, driven by federal and state incentives, climate goals and ambitious manufacturing targets, is continuing to gain traction in the U.S. But as the market expands beyond early adopters drawn to the advanced technology, there have been some speed bumps for the general car-buying public.

Topping the list is an inadequate and unreliable national public charging network, where the great American road trip can come to an unexpected halt in parts unknown for want of a working EV charger.

An August study by J.D. Power found that as EV market share increases, dissatisfaction with the lagging public charging network is also growing. Key concerns for EV owners included the time it takes to charge, location of the chargers and reliability issues, with 1 in 5 public chargers malfunctioning, according to the study.

“If you go to a gas station, you expect your fuel to flow,” EVBox CEO Remco Samuels, 46, said after the event Friday. “That’s the standard and that will also be the case for EVs.”

EVBox, which opened its Libertyville headquarters three years ago, has shipped over 500,000 chargers to customers in Europe and other regions of the world. The new DC fast charger, built in Libertyville and mostly sourced with American parts, can power up an EV in about 30 minutes, Samuels said.

Housed in a 50,000-square-foot plant tucked away in a sprawling technology park, EVBox has 42 employees building the new charger. The company expects to make 110 units this year and about 1,700 units next year as it ramps up production to meet anticipated demand.

At full capacity, the plant can produce between 20,000 and 40,000 chargers a year, if it adopts a two-shift schedule, according to Rob Ottley, 59, who heads up manufacturing for EVBox. The plant would also likely staff up to 120 employees to meet the high-end targets.

On Friday, dozens of charging units sat evenly spaced on the assembly floor in various stages of completion. Producing a quality charger — one that works when an EV owner plugs in — is more important at this stage than ramping up production to capacity, Ottley said during a factory tour.

If demand is there, Ottley said the plant can ramp up to full production capacity within 18 months, or perhaps faster.

“If the sales guys came to us tomorrow and said they’d sold 20,000, you’d be amazed how much quicker we do,” Ottley said.

EV charging infrastructure and EV sales are something of a chicken-and-egg conundrum — determining which comes first. The federal government is trying to boost both simultaneously.

The bipartisan infrastructure law, signed by President Joe Biden in November 2021, includes $7.5 billion to build out a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030. The Biden administration has set the goal of having EVs make up at least 50% of new cars by the time the network is built out.

Illinois expects to receive about $149 million in funding over five years to support the expansion of electric vehicle charging in the state. As of September, the state has been allocated $53.7 million through the law to build out its EV charging network in 2022 and 2023, according to a White House update published online.

Both the U.S. and Illinois have a long way to go to meet their EV infrastructure and sales goals.

The U.S. has 58,736 public charging stations, including 1,238 in Illinois, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s alternative fuels website. The network is far less developed for fast-charging stations, with 8,259 locations in the U.S. and 188 in Illinois.

Through nine months, EV sales in 2023 represent 6.8% of total vehicle sales, up from 5.2% in 2022, according to car shopping website Edmunds. Tesla leads all brands, with a 57.8% market share, followed by Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai and Illinois-built Rivian, all of which are in the single digits.

Pritzker has set the goal of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road in Illinois by 2030.

There are 85,870 EVs registered in Illinois as of Oct. 15, according to data from the secretary of state’s office. That’s up 61% from the same month last year. But EVs still represent less than 1% of the 9,852,449 vehicles registered in Illinois, according to state data.

Momentum for EV adoption seems to be slowing as traditional car buyers weigh taking the plunge and moving on from their old gas guzzlers to a slew of new electric offerings, according to Ivan Drury, director of insights for Edmunds.

“We’re trying to sell vehicles to consumers who are just walking the lot, and a lot of people are walking away and just going straight to what they know,” Drury said.

The days when early adopters bought EVs sight unseen, paid above suggested retail and waited for months to take delivery are gone, Drury said.

A sign of slipping demand is the amount of time it takes to sell EVs at dealerships. In September 2022, new EVs sat on dealer lots for an average of 20.6 days, according to Edmunds. Last month, new EVs averaged 65.2 days before they sold — far above the 37-day industry average for all vehicles.

Drury said dealers are discounting EVs and creating attractive lease deals to try to get them moving, something that would have been unheard of just a year ago.

While inflation and higher interest rates have slowed the EV market, demand for similarly priced internal combustion vehicles has not waned, he said, pointing toward the lack of a robust public charging network as the likely deal-breaker for many would-be EV buyers.

“It’s these other logistical challenges that come with owning an EV that are starting to rear their ugly head,” Drury said. “It’s just something that people don’t want right now, because there’s so much uncertainty in your life when it comes to things like employment, going back to the office. These other things take precedence over dabbling in new technology that might completely upend the way you travel, or the way you get to work.”

While the spotty public charging network has created range anxiety for many EV owners, market leader Tesla’s proprietary network of nearly 18,000 Superchargers has fared much better, ranking highest among DC fast-charging brands, according to the J.D. Power study.

In February, Tesla agreed to make its charging network accessible to other manufacturers, enabling it to participate in the $7.5 billion federal funding and accelerate the expansion.

Since then, a number of EV manufacturers, including Rivian, Ford, BMW and GM, have announced plans to convert their charging ports to the Tesla system to make the transition more seamless. Most EVs use Combined Charging Standard (CCS) ports, which need an adapter to connect with Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) connectors.

EVBox is using a CCS connection in its new fast chargers, at least for now, Samuels said.

“I think having this (NACS) standard in the U.S. market is a good move,” Samuels said. “And we will definitely make sure that our chargers are compatible with that.”

rchannick@chicagotribune.com