History of the Station
EV fast-charging company, QuikCharge, launched its first site in Weymouth, MA in 2024. Since its launch in August, the site has enjoyed remarkable growth and delivered highly reliable fast charging to countless customers averaging around 50% usage each month.
Partnership With Electric Era
Shawn Ward, the station owner, chose to partner with Seattle-based Electric Era thanks to their reputation for industry-leading reliability and proven ability to deploy stations quickly. Electric Era's track record includes deploying a charging site for Costco in under seven weeks—an extraordinary feat for the EV charging industry. Given station development can often take years and that some elements of station deployment—like securing requisite electrical infrastructure or grid connection—live outside of key stakeholders’ control.
From site inception to deployment and operation, QuikCharge has seen the benefits of working with Electric Era, as their site now delivers reliable, fast charging and launched in less than 6 months. Drivers seek out reliable charging stations they can trust.
Site Economics and Reliability
The development of the site required a total investment of $300,000, with approximately 45% funded through a subsidy program run by the utility, National Grid. Still, the remaining $165,000 represents a significant upfront capital commitment. Given the scale of this investment, achieving a strong return on investment (ROI) is not only desirable. It’s essential. Moreover, an optimal outcome would involve realizing a substantial return within a shortened timeframe to release working capital.
Since its launch, the station has experienced strong and growing utilization, surpassing initial expectations and positioning the company on a clear trajectory toward profitability. While some of this success can be attributed to the "build it and they will come" phenomenon—where a well-placed charging site “naturally” attracts EV drivers in need of reliable infrastructure—the station's rapid adoption is not purely incidental. Rather, it is the result of a well-executed strategy that prioritizes optimal site selection, ensuring proximity to high-traffic areas and key amenities, as well as a commitment to maintaining high station reliability.
The station, located on Washington Street next to a popular shawarma restaurant, saw immediate usage with 110 charging sessions in its first month of operation. Over time, its popularity surged, reaching an impressive 450 sessions per month, with station utilization (the % of time at least one car is charging) now at 50%. Over the same time period, daily revenue has increased from $240 in the first few days of operation to $340 currently.
QuikCharge benefits from Electric Era’s proactive and responsive support team. When problems do occur, they are swiftly addressed to minimize downtime and ensure continued service. The station boasts an uptime of over 99%, and as importantly, session reliability—meaning the likelihood of a driver successfully initiating a charge on the first attempt—exceeds 92%. Both of these statistics are industry-leading; a 2022 study found that around 72.5% of DCFC chargers were available at any one time.
EV drivers are in need of more fast charging stations that actually work, both in general and because poor charger reliability has plagued the industry; EV drivers consistently call out broken chargers as a pain point and they are often cited as a key barrier to mainstream EV adoption. Conversely, over 50% of drivers who have used QuikCharge have returned for additional charging sessions, a clear indicator that the station is consistently delivering the reliability drivers crave.
Future Expansion
Given the explosive growth and high charging station utilization, the company is actively evaluating plans to double the number of charging ports from two to four at this location.
Fortunately, the site is equipped with a battery energy storage system, meaning that an expansion will not require a costly and time-consuming grid upgrade. This reduces both costs— a transformer upgrade can cost upwards of $50,000—and deployment timelines, ensuring a faster and more economical expansion.
Additionally, the expansion would include support for the North American Charging Standard (NACS), broadening the station’s appeal to an even larger portion of EV drivers. As demand for fast, reliable EV charging continues to grow, QuikCharge is proactively positioning itself to stay ahead of the curve and further solidify its reputation as a trusted charging provider.
What does QuikCharge Think?
“Electric Era made it easy to get our charging station up and running fast. Their technology and support have kept our uptime at 99% and session success at 92%, which means drivers trust our site and keep coming back. That reliability has been key to our growth”
— Shawn Ward, Owner, QuikCharge
Key Takeaways
QuikCharge's success highlights the importance of getting to market quickly and delivering fast charging with superb reliability, outcomes that its partnership with Electric Era helped unlock. Now, with an operating station that delivers exceptional reliability—99% uptime and 92% session success rate—and is attracting repeat customers who trust it, QuickCharge is ready to invest in expanding the station. With station utilization at 50%, well above the 20% industry benchmark for expansion, QuikCharge is well-positioned to double its charging ports, both because it achieved validation of market demand quickly and as upgrades on top of the existing infrastructure won’t require costly grid upgrades, thanks to the same battery energy storage systems from Electric Era that cut initial deployment timelines.
Interested in working with us to provide drivers with highly reliable charging? Electric Era offers all of the hardware, software, project management services and financing products you need. Let's chat.