EVgo Inc., a public fast-charging network for electric vehicles, has made several significant network enhancements through EVgo ReNew, the company’s program created to elevate the customer experience.
Besides network advances, EVgo has debuted the Canary Model, a performance monitoring tool designed to automatically identify and analyze patterns and support diagnostics, augmenting EVgo’s maintenance responses with data from actual charging sessions.
“As the EV industry expands from early adopters to mass market consumers, EVgo’s commitment to delivering a best-in-class charging experience is more important than ever,” says Dennis Kish, EVgo president. “EVgo’s new performance monitoring tool, software updates and ongoing equipment replacement and upgrade efforts are just some of the ways we are future-proofing our fast-charging network to satisfy customer demand and prepare for the growing number of EV drivers hitting the road.”
The ReNew program encompasses six pillars — Resilience, Prevention, Diagnostics, Rapid Response, Analysis and Continuous Customer Service — that define the company’s approach to reliability and customer experience:
- Resilience
- ReNewed equipment: Since the start of 2022, EVgo has upgraded, replaced or decommissioned legacy equipment at more than 500 stalls across over 20 states to better serve customers. The company plans to remove or replace legacy equipment with the most advanced models, installing higher-power chargers where possible, at up to 150 additional EVgo-owned stalls in 2024.More high-power stalls: EVgo continues to deploy high-power fast charging, with the network seeing a more than 115% increase in the number of stalls served by 350-kW chargers over the past year.Larger stations: EVgo has increased the number of sites capable of serving at least six vehicles by over 80% compared with 2023 and continues to identify more locations capable of serving up to 10 vehicles at a time.
- Prevention, Diagnostics and Rapid Response
- New performance monitoring tool: EVgo launched the Canary Model, an automated, data-driven tool, to expedite field service response time and enable the company to address root cause issues more rapidly.
- Reduced repair timelines: EVgo reduced the mean time to repair chargers by 67% since the first quarter of 2023.
- Cable signal detection: EVgo updated charger software across its network to include round-the-clock cable signal monitoring. If a cable signal is lost — whether due to a drop, cable breakage or intentional damage — the company is automatically notified within seconds.
- Connectivity upgrades: EVgo upgraded charger antennae across its nationwide network, reducing internet connectivity downtime by almost half in the first two quarters of 2024.
- Extensive vehicle interoperability testing: To date, EVgo has performed interoperability testing on more than 70 EV models, including passenger vehicles, motorcycles and light- to heavy-duty trucks. This continued focus on interoperability is critical to ensuring a flawless “handshake” between the vehicle and charging equipment, and the delivery of a seamless customer experience.
- Continuous Customer Service
- On-screen assistance: Earlier in 2024, EVgo updated its charger firmware to start rolling out step-by-step charging instructions and progress bars on most charger screens to help new EV drivers successfully navigate their first fast charge.
- Enhanced language support: Over 10% of calls to the EVgo’s customer support team are handled by Spanish-speaking representatives.
- More charging successes: Since January 2023, EVgo has seen a significant reduction in the percentage of charging sessions requiring call center assistance as more customers are successfully powering up on their first try.
Besides progress achieved through the ReNew program, EVgo is also working to develop a next-generation charging architecture designed to deliver new cost efficiencies and further elevate the customer experience with enhanced firmware. EVgo recently passed critical internal milestones for this development and expects to deploy this new architecture in the second half of 2026.