The city of Detroit has installed four public fast-charging stations for electric vehicles near DTE Energy's headquarters downtown.
The project is a collaboration among DTE Energy; General Motors; Planet M, which is the state of Michigan's mobility initiative; and Blue Energy, the supplier of the stations.
Fast chargers can get an EV battery about 60-80% charged in roughly 20 minutes.
Gary Bulluck is deputy chief of mobility innovations with the mayor's office. He says these chargers are accessible to anyone, unlike others that have been installed by corporations.
"So you don't feel like you have to go in to Trader Joe's to buy something because you're using the charger," he says. "When it's in a private parking lot there's kind of a barrier to use."
Drivers can charge up with a credit card at a pay station. It will cost about the same to use the fast charger as filling up a regular car with gas.
Home chargers can charge an EV at a significantly lower cost, although not as fast.
DTE Energy and Consumers Energy are planning to subsidize the installation of other fast chargers along major highways across the state.
Currently, a handful of public access fast chargers are only available in southeast Michigan.
Tesla has installed its own fast chargers in many places in the state, but they're designed for use only by Tesla vehicles.
