The California Energy Commission (CEC) issued “stop work” orders earlier this year against Recargo, the parent company of PlugShare, for non-performance on two major DC fast charging installation grants, according to commission staff. One of those grants has now effectively expired while the future of the other grant remains unclear.

Roughly 30 Electrify America locations have been experiencing a problem with chargers shutting themselves down for CCS charging due to a problem in their liquid-cooled cable system within the charging dispenser. The sites use charging equipment supplied by Efacec and are primarily located in the southeastern region of the U.S. Some 200 other sites remain online using equipment from different suppliers.

Good progress is being reported on the joint effort by the predominantly Japanese CHAdeMO Association and China’s State Grid utility operator on their new common connector plug design for future vehicles from both countries.

Electrify America says that a new mobile app will become available later this month along with a new pricing strategy that will drop basic prices by about 20 percent. A new discounted subscription plan and a new 3-tier pricing model based on vehicle charging capability are also being introduced.

After having spent a year installing over 140 DC charging sites, Electrify America is now in the process of rolling out updated software and services for users of its expanding nationwide network. Altogether, the company has said a total of around 500 DC charging sites along highways and in 17 metro areas are planned to be operational by the end of this year.

The chargers, branded as the ChargePoint Express 200, are made by Tritium of Australia which itself brands them as the Veefil-RT. They have been made since 2013 and support CHAdeMO and CCS with dual cables. The problem seems to involve recently manufactured units.

The move entails some 14,000 layoffs and buyouts in the US and Canada related to the planned closure of three assembly plants and two transmission plants. Of those, about 8,000 are North American salaried or global executive employees, according to the Detroit News.

Recargo has officially opened its first DC charging location in time for Thanksgiving Day drivers. It becomes the first public site in California to support charging at power levels of 150 kW or more. All six charging spaces are now open and available for use.

Tesla is switching to use the CCS fast DC charging standard in Europe, according to a report by Electrek. The European version of the Model 3 will come with a CCS charging inlet. European Superchargers will get additional CCS charging cables.

Overall, the company is planning to install over 600 DC chargers at approximately 160 charging locations in California by June of 2019.

It is one of two highway charging locations initially being added to the Bay Area by Electrify America and is among the first of the new urban-style Tesla Supercharger locations as well. The other Electrify America location is nearing completion in Novato.

Electrify America proposes to heavily invest in ultra-fast DC charging in 9 metro areas of California between July, 2019 until the end of 2021, according to a plan recently submitted for approval to the California Air Resources Board (CARB).