Beginning July 12, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations in Southern California will be able to sign up to participate in Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready program, the largest electric passenger vehicle charging infrastructure program in the nation run by an investor-owned electric utility company.

The $436-million program, approved by the state last year, will add approximately 38,000 new electric car chargers throughout SCE’s service area over the next five years.

Through Charge Ready, SCE installs and maintains the supporting EV charging infrastructure while site hosts, who are non-residential SCE customers, typically own, operate, and maintain qualified charging stations.

“As SCE is preparing its electric grid to serve the increase in transportation electrification, more charging equipment is needed to give EV drivers and fleet operators the peace of mind they will be able to charge whenever they want,” said Carter Prescott, SCE director of eMobility and Building Electrification.

The large-scale program introduced at a virtual event July 12 is modeled after a much smaller pilot that concluded in May, in which SCE partnered with businesses, local governments, and other organizations to add more than 2,700 charge ports at nearly 150 sites.

SCE will continue to focus on providing charging infrastructure at workplaces, public parking lots, schools, hospitals, and destination centers, with an added emphasis on condominium and apartment complexes.

In the interest of making EV charging available to all Californians, Charge Ready sets a target to locate 50% of the chargers in state-designated disadvantaged communities, or economically-impacted communities that suffer most from the negative effects of air pollution.

In addition to Charge Ready for passenger EVs, SCE launched a program last year for larger trucks, buses, and off-road industrial equipment called Charge Ready Transport, which aims to add charging to support at least 8,490 medium- and heavy-duty EVs over a five-year period. The $356 million program is also modeled after the Charge Ready pilot.