Wow, Tijuana Taxi to me was a musical reference, bringing back recollection of an album cover with a young woman covered in whipped cream, an adolescent dream evoked. Thank you, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. Probably could not currently have either the band name or the album cover.
Rest easy, this is simply NRG settlement money (remember EVGo is owned by NRG, and is the entity administering settlement money). The settlement requires NRG/EVGo to invest $102.5 million to deploy EV charging infrastructure across California: $50.5 million to public fast charging "Freedom Stations" (one DC 100kW port + one level 2, or two 100kW ports), $40.0 million to install infrastructure to support at least 10,000 stubs at existing facilities, $1.9 million to stationary storage, $2.12 to high-power EV charging demonstrations (your 150kW stations), $1 million to UCSD for EV storage accelerator (EVSA), and then $4.0 million on projects in "Under-Served Communities. $3.48 of which goes to develop seven EV charging hubs in disadvantaged communities (each hub will have at least four 50kW DC), and finally, amazingly specifically mentioned in the settlement agreement is the "Green Raiteros of Huron", with their $519,400. What a boondoggle for Huron. About 1/2 the budget is fed back into the community organizer networks, and about 1/2 for infrastructure. No vehicles were purchased by NRG money. The single most expensive item is "Energy Storage" of $75,000, footnote 23/24 (there is typo on copy) indicates batteries are added to manage grid load and mitigate cost, so $42,500 for 80kWh Nissan 2nd life battery, $30,000 for EPC coverter, with $2,500 for shipping/commissioning and $2,500 controller license cost share.
Once again, it appears the press release information provided to the media was incomplete, and assumptions made. And I thought those farmworkers had pulled a fast one, or that actual taxpayer money was involved. Boy, was I wrong.
