A local startup is taking steps to build an electric vehicle charging station on Nations Ford Road in Charlotte.
Koulomb, a company that produces fast-charging EV stations, filed a petition on April 4 to rezone 0.38 acres at 6001 Nations Ford Road from residential to neighborhood services, according to city planning records.
Justin Taylor, Koulomb co-founder, said the plan is turn the vacant property into a lot outfitted with 12 individual charging stalls that he described as twice as fast as Tesla Superchargers.
The stations will be able to charge up to 360 kilowatts and will take 15 to 20 minutes for a full charge. The cost per kilowatt will be about 43 cents, with a typical charge taking about 50 kilowatts, Taylor said.
Taylor said they chose the site on Nations Ford because of its proximity to major highway exits.
"We’re looking at the major interstate routes within a half-mile of an exit so it’s convenient for people to get in and out, as well as commuter routes in and out of the city," he said. "That area also has a lot of multifamily and a lot of hotels where people don’t have a place to charge their car."
Koulomb is in the process of purchasing the property for $150,000. Taylor said they're in the due diligence phase and plan to close in May. He said the rezoning petition will likely not go before Charlotte City Council until November, with construction to begin next year.
Eventually the startup, which launched in January, plans to build a similar charging station in Rock Hill before expanding to cities like Raleigh; Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia.
"If we can get through this rezoning and approval process we’ll learn a lot, and it’ll drive how we design these in the future," he said.
