CPS Energy celebrates Electrify America EV Charging Station Opening at North East SA Walmart

San Antonio's first DC fast chargers offer speeds of 150 and 350 kilowatts, the fastest chargers available

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May 13, 2019, 14:54 ET

SAN ANTONIO, May 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Powered by CPS Energy, Electrify America is offering its most updated and high-powered electric vehicle charging stations for the San Antonio community installed at the Walmart Supercenter located at 4331 Thousand Oaks.

Paula Gold-Williams, CPS Energy's President & CEO, addresses attendees at the ribbon-cutting event.

CPS Energy celebrates Electrify America EV Charging Station Opening at North East SA Walmart

The Electrify America station features six 150 kilowatt (kW) and two 350kW chargers. The EV charging station is operational and ready for customers to use. These are the first direct current fast chargers (DCFC) installed in San Antonio, which are the most high-powered available on the market today. An official ribbon cutting of the new installations took place on Monday, May 13, 2019.

Following a simple "plug-pay-charge-go," users of the Electrify America chargers are guided through their experience by a 15-inch touchscreen.

After plugging in their EV, users simply insert or swipe their credit or debit card to begin charging.
Users are also given the option to provide their mobile phone number to receive information about their charging session, as well receive their receipt.
The charging station's touchscreen will display various vehicle information if the user's electric vehicle is able to synch with the charger.

CPS Energy operates 150 Level 2 public charging ports at stations located throughout the municipal utility's service territory. A charging station has one or more ports to plug in EVs. These Electrify America charging ports will join numerous charging stations already being made available in the San Antonio area.

"While we currently own and maintain our own network of approximately 150 EV charging stations, in order to address our customers' growing interest in this technology, we are encouraging more of these investments in our community," said Paula Gold-Williams, CPS Energy's President & CEO. "We now have a great new partnership with Electrify America and one of our many passionate community businesses, Walmart. In fact, Walmart is a great local partner because their employees are always interested in improving their customers' shopping experience. Going forward we will continue to pursue similar partnerships. These efforts will certainly help to get more EVs on the road and encourage the launch of other beneficial products and services in our growing San Antonio metropolitan area."

CPS Energy aims to be experts in EVs with the launch of its education program for early adopters in 2011 and the installation of a network of Level 2 public charging stations at more than 30 locations in 2012. Since then, the utility has installed charging stations with multiple ports in VIA's newest and largest park & ride facility located in far north San Antonio and launched an EV educational website to help customers navigate this fast-growing industry.

"Electrify America is delighted to bring ultra-fast electric vehicle charging to the San Antonio area," said Rob Barrosa, director utility strategy and operations. "Our mission is to not only expand the electrify vehicle charging infrastructure in the U.S., but to also help increase the awareness of the advantages of zero emission vehicle transportation."

Nationwide, Electrify America plans to install, or have under development, 484 charging stations with more than 2,000 DC fast chargers by the end of 2019. The stations are located in metropolitan areas, and along high-traffic corridors in 42 states and the District of Columbia.

The EV expansion program is part of Walmart's commitment to use its size and scale for good and do business in a way that aims to enhance economic opportunity, encourage sustainability, and strengthen local communities.

"Walmart values working alongside Electrify America and CPS Energy to provide more choice and convenience for customers with electric vehicles," said David Drastata, Walmart Market Manager. "We are proud to help bolster the charging infrastructure in San Antonio and across the country."

About CPS Energy
Established in 1860, CPS Energy is the nation's largest public power, natural gas and electric company, providing safe, reliable, and competitively-priced service to 840,750 electric and 352,585 natural gas customers in San Antonio and portions of seven adjoining counties. Our customers' combined energy bills rank among the lowest of the nation's 20 largest cities – while generating $7 billion in revenue for the City of San Antonio for more than seven decades. As a trusted and strong community partner, we continuously focus on job creation, economic development and educational investment. True to our People First philosophy, we are powered by our skilled workforce, whose commitment to the community is demonstrated through our employees' volunteerism in giving back to our city and programs aimed at bringing value to our customers. CPS Energy is among the top public power wind energy buyers in the nation and number one in Texas for solar generation. www.cpsenergy.com

About Electrify America
Electrify America LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group of America headquartered in Reston, VA, and with an office in Pasadena, CA, is investing $2 billion over 10 years in Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure, education and access. The investment will enable millions of Americans to discover the benefits of electric driving and support the build-out of a nationwide network of workplace, community and highway chargers that are convenient and reliable. For more information, visit www.electrifyamerica.com.

About Walmart in Texas
In Texas, we serve customers at 596 retail units and online through Walmart Grocery Pickup, Walmart.com and Jet.com. We are proud to employ 168,000 associates in Texas. Walmart supports local businesses, spending $52.4 billion with Texas suppliers in FYE18, which supported 285,000 Texas supplier jobs. Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are active in the communities where we live and work and invest in communities through local grants, customer engagement and associate volunteer efforts. In FYE18, we contributed more than $113.6 million in cash and in-kind donations to local nonprofits in Texas. Learn more at the Walmart Today blog, and our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram channels.