Electric vehicle chargers could do for retailers what Wi-Fi did for Starbucks. Or so says Chris Thorson, vice president and chief marketing officer of electrical charging station provider Flo.

He's betting that adding electric vehicle chargers near stores could generate the same retail magic that free Wi-Fi service brought to the Starbucks coffee shop chain years ago.

“Before everybody had internet data on their devices, Starbucks was the first to say ‘We are going to offer free unlimited Wi-Fi.' And it helped bring people in,” said Thorson. “Now a retail owner might say, ‘if someone has to spend 30 minutes sitting around waiting for their car to charge, they need something to do. They can come shop at my place.’”

Thorson’s job with Flo entails increasing the Canadian company's presence in the United States. Founded 14 years ago in Quebec City by CEO Louis Tremblay, Flo took its first steps towards growing its American market after receiving US$3 million from the state of Michigan to open a 45,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at 1270 Pacific Drive in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills. The move was part of the company's quest to extend its Canadian market dominance into the United States by producing charging stations for the American market.

Flo says that its internal surveys demonstrate that a large majority of electric vehicle drivers want to see more chargers installed near such locations as restaurants, retail outlets and places with bathrooms. Company representatives consult with owners of retail properties and other potential customers to maximize government incentives and grants that can be made available to pay for the machines. The company now has over 100,000 public and private electric vehicle chargers installed at homes, parking lots, streets and other places mostly in Canada.

The latest manufacturing site to extend that push was previously inhabited by Sears and Kmart and more recently by Inalfa, which makes roofs for automotive vehicles, according to Colliers broker Patrich Jett, who oversaw Flo's move into the facility.

Flo signed a lease last year for the 29-year-old structure that was previously inhabited by Sears and Kmart and more recently by Inalfa, which makes roofs for automotive vehicles, according to Colliers broker Patrich Jett, who oversaw Flo's move into the facility.

Flo intends to start production at the facility early in 2024. The plant sits about 20 minutes north of downtown Detroit and Flo aims to eventually employ 700 workers and produce 50,000 chargers annually when it gets up and running. The new U.S. plant will complement Flo's Canadian factory in Shawinigan, located midway between Montreal and Quebec City, which the company doubled its size in 2021.

Thanks to its Michigan plant, Flo is eligible for funding from the United States government’s US$5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program, which offers states up to 80% of eligible project costs for electric vehicle charging stations.

The competition for U.S. federal dollars has created a big race to install EV charging stations from companies such as Tesla, Electrify America, EVgo and ChargePoint, among others. However, adding a single EV charger to a public space can be a complex undertaking.

“There’s a lot of money out there but it can take a long time to make a charger happen. We have to work with the utility company, there needs to be power in that location and you need permitting, so adding a charger can sometimes take nine months or more," Thorson said.

Flo has already won a deal to supply EV chargers in Alaska and Thorson believes that Ohio, Michigan and other states, mainly in the U.S. Northeast. will soon become customers. Michigan is set to receive $110 million over the next five years as part of the federal funding program for the state's goal of installing 100,000 chargers by 2030.

Flo has actively sought to develop a reputation as the most reliable charger brand, as broken car chargers can lead to much frustration, which was the topic of a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

“Charging a vehicle is not like finding a gas station where you can drive 2 miles or across the street,” said Thorson. “We don't have a high density of chargers yet, so if the software doesn’t work on an electric vehicle charger or the handle is broken, you’re stuck and don’t have a lot of options.”

Flo builds the machines and also services them, which allows the company to maintain what Thorson said is a rate of 99% uptime, which has allowed for a total of 1.5 million charging sessions per month.

By early next year, Flo plans for the Michigan plant to start producing powerful Flo Ultra chargers, which can charge plug-in vehicles to 80% capacity in about 10 to 15 minutes. The machines carry so much power that the pistols need to be cooled by liquid in the system, which can make them heavier to lift while plugging and unplugging. The company has created a cable management system to the systems to offset the weight.

Meanwhile, Flo continues to sell chargers to a variety of users, including chargers to power fleets owned by public utilities and private companies, as well as private homes, where about 80% of all charging is done. Flo has also teamed up with its Auburn Hills neighbor General Motors to add chargers to GM dealerships. Around 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a GM dealership, according to Thorson, so the locations will be handy for all involved.

“In the past, the automakers were able to sell cars but never had to worry about fueling them, that was somebody else’s problem and now it's their problem, too," Thorson said.