Electrify America, the entity created by Volkswagen to fulfill the requirements of the U.S. Federal court settlement as punishment for the diesel-cheating scandal, will be installing the first ultra-high-speed DC Fast charge station in their network this Wednesday, in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

The Chicopee Marketplace will be, as Electrify America states: "The first-ever certified cooled-cable 350 kilowatt (kW) charger in the United States". Ultra-high-speed DC Fast chargers require liquid-cooled cables to prevent overheating from the intense amount of power flowing through them.

Electrify America claims these stations will have the ability to charge electric vehicles at a rate of up to 20 miles per minute. While still not quite as fast as ICE refueling, it is getting the speed of EV charging very close and minimizing the inconvenience of charging times while on long-distance trips.

Electrify America fast charging network

These stations are part of Electrify America's "Cycle One", which under the settlement guidelines requires EA to invest $500 million to install, or have under development EV charging infrastructure at US highway, retail, workplace, multi-unit dwellings (MUDs), and other locations by June 2019.

While this is definitely great news for the EV community, Electrify America's infrastructure plans have not been without controversy. As reported by our own Mark Kane, Electrify America's stations will favor CCS, the standard used by the Volkswagen group.

Although all stations will support both CCS and CHAdeMO, the CCS side will charge at a higher rate than CHAdeMO. The CHAdeMO side will be limited to 50 kW at launch, with a promised upgrade to 100 kW in the future, while the CCS side will charge at much higher rates of 150 kW to 350 kW.

To celebrate the event, Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos will be on hand, as well as other Massachusetts State Representatives and Electrify America reps. We've posted the event details below in case you're in the area and would like to witness this historic event in person.

Where:

Chicopee Marketplace (Between Home Depot & Mattress Firm)

591 Memorial Drive

Chicopee, MA 01020

When:

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018 @2:15 pm