AUBURN HILLS—Flo Inc., the Quebec City, Quebec.-based electric vehicle charging network operator, announced the opening of its first-ever United States production plant in Auburn Hills.
The company also reported increases in charging events, employment numbers, and charging station deployments, as well as new collaborations with General Motors, Hydro-Québec and Imperial, and successfully sponsored new legislation that aims to improve access to reliable EV chargers for California drivers.
“We continue to see expanding EV adoption and have rapidly grown our operations to meet the increasing EV charging needs of drivers across North America,” said Louis Tremblay, Flo president and CEO. “This year was a pivotal year for Flo and I’m proud of the work we’ve accomplished. We will continue to grow and innovate, all while supporting EV charging done right – fast, reliable and convenient.”
Last week, Flo officially opened its assembly and testing plant in Auburn Hills. The company’s first-ever U.S. plant will help it bring 250,000 EV chargers to American drivers and support 730 jobs by 2028.
Flo’s network now includes more than 75,000 fast and level 2 EV charging stations at private, public, and residential locations. These charging stations now provide more than an estimated 1 million charging events each month to customers across North America. FLO maintains a leading uptime of 98% or more on its North American network.
Recently, FLO began supplying GM with CoRe+ MAX chargers, which will be installed in local communities across North America through GM’s Dealer Community Charging Program. This program will install up to 40,000 public Level 2 EV chargers. The chargers deliver a maximum power output of 19.2 kilowatts—the most power available to a Level 2 charger—and can charge up to 2.7 times faster than a typical Level 2 charging station. Depending on the size and specifications of the vehicle, these chargers typically can provide an 80 percent charge in four to six hours. The charging stations will then be installed in key public locations including workplaces, multi-unit dwellings, event venues, colleges and universities.
Flo has nearly doubled its number of employees in just the last 16 months from 250 to 500. This increase is driven by increased demand for reliable EV charging solutions throughout North America.
Also, Hydro-Québec, owner of the Electric Circuit EV charging network, selected Flo to supply the Electric Circuit with up to 7,500 Level 2 chargers between 2022 and 2026. Flo and Hydro-Québec have been collaborating since 2013. Of the 7,500 Level 2 chargers Flo will supply under the new contract, 3,000 will be public curbside chargers on the road, 2,000 will be for Hydro-Québec’s fleet, and 2,500 for other usages such as businesses and municipalities.
And Flo and the Canadian oil refiner Imperial also announced a collaboration that will support Canada’s net zero greenhouse gas emissions goals by expanding the Flo network, including jointly developing a charging service option for Imperial’s Esso- and Mobil-branded wholesalers, and an agreement to transfer credits under federal Clean Fuel Regulations.
On Sept. 16, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation into law to improve access to reliable EV chargers for California drivers. The EV Charging Reliability Transparency Act, sponsored by Flo and ChargerHelp!, will help policymakers and EV drivers understand the performance of California’s EV infrastructure and highlight inequities in driver access to reliable stations. This act has focused attention on EV charger reliability, and numerous other states are now considering enacting similar reliability requirements.
Read more on Flo’s 2022 developments here.