Nissan Linking Boston and Washington, D.C. With Electric Car Charging Stations

What Nissan calls the "I-95 Fast-Charge ARC" will include nine charging sites between Boston and Washington, D.C., with a combined total of 50 individual DC fast-charging stations between them. These stations can charge a Nissan Leaf to 80 percent in 30 minutes, as opposed to several hours with a Level 2 AC station. Construction is underway, and Nissan expects all charging stations along the 500-mile route to be operational this fall.

The sites will be located close enough to I-95 to keep things convenient for drivers. Each site will have enough plugs to charge at least four cars simultaneously. The stations will charge at 50 kilowatts initially, but they're pre-wired to charge at up to 150 kW, in anticipation of future advances in charging equipment and an influx of longer-range electric cars with larger battery packs.

Charging stations will be compatible with the CHAdeMO DC fast-charging standard used by Nissan (as well as Mitsubishi and Hyundai/Kia) and the Combined Charging Standard (CCS) used by the majority of U.S. and German automakers. Tesla uses its own proprietary Supercharger standard for DC fast charging, although it does sell adapters that allow its cars to plug into CHAdeMO stations.

While Tesla owns its charging stations outright, Nissan has chosen to partner with other entities to expand charging infrastructure. It previously partnered with both EVgo and BMW to install charging stations in California. Since the launch of the Leaf in 2010, Nissan claims to have helped install more than 2,100 CHAdeMO fast-charging stations, and 1,200 CCS fast-charging stations in the U.S.

The stations along the "I-95 Fast-Charge ARC" corridor will be incorporated into EVgo's network, which already includes more than 900 fast-charging stations at 600 locations across the country.