Electrify America opened a new large-format electric vehicle (EV) charging station in Santa Barbara, California on June 17, expanding access to fast, seamless, and centrally located EV charging in the city’s downtown core and close to U.S. 101, a major north-south state route.

Located on the site of the former Greyhound Bus depot at 36 West Carrillo St., this station offers 20 hyper-fast chargers. Each charger is capable of speeds up to 350 kilowatts (kW), which can add up to 20 miles of driving range per minute for EVs that accept high-power charging.

The new station also has a 1.9-megawatt (MW) battery energy storage system (BESS), which is Electrify America’s largest public BESS deployment to date.

The BESS stores energy from the electrical grid during low usage periods and when abundant solar energy is available. It then discharges this energy during high demand periods, helping to expand charging capacity, reduce stress on the grid and maximize use of renewable energy.

“This large-format station showcases the next evolution of charging infrastructure, combining high-power charging with integrated battery energy storage to deliver reliable capacity at scale,” said Rob Barrosa, Electrify America President and CEO, in a June 17 news release. “By incorporating advanced storage technology, we’re able to bring hyper-fast charging to locations that have traditionally been difficult to serve, while making it easy for customers to integrate charging into their daily routines in the heart of downtown Santa Barbara.”

The Carrillo Street location is the company’s second in Santa Barbara, with the first station located at 3790 State St. It’s also one of Electrify America’s four large-format stations in California, joining locations in Santa Monica, San Diego and San Francisco. These large-format stations with 20 or more chargers are part of Electrify America’s strategy to reduce wait times and increase charging capacity in line with growing demand.

At opening, the station will offer 20 chargers with CCS connectors. Later this summer, Electrify America will convert some of these CCS connectors to NACS as part of its ongoing NACS pilot program.

Electrify America LLC, one of the largest DC fast charging networks in the U.S., is investing more than $2 billion in Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure and access. Its hyper-fast network currently operates in 47 states and Washington, D.C.