Electric vehicle drivers in Orlando’s busy tourist corridor have a new option for high-speed charging.
The OUC ReCharge Mobility Hub at the Orange County Convention Center is now open. The Hub is located near the center’s North Concourse at 8500 Tradeshow Boulevard, close to the intersection at Universal Boulevard, and across from new hotels being built for Universal’s Epic Universe theme park.
Powered by NovaCharge’s ChargeUp network, the hub features six 240-kW direct current fast-charging (DCFC) ports, which support the CCS standard and includes three NACS adaptors for Teslas. CHAdeMO is not supported at this time.
These high-speed ports, also known as Level 3 chargers, can charge a typical EV to 80% in about 30 minutes. Depending on the vehicle, that can add up to 245 miles of range.
This is OUC’s second high-speed EV charging hub. The first, at 129 W. Robinson Street in downtown Orlando, opened July 2023. The Robinson ReCharge Mobility Hub features 21 DCFC ports and, in July 2024, had its busiest month yet, with 5,663 charging sessions. In its more than a year in operation, the Robinson Hub has seen more than 29,000 charging sessions in all. It’s also been responsible for avoiding 1,360 metric tons of CO2 emissions.
Future hubs are set for strategic locations around town. OUC is committed to building eight ReCharge Mobility Hubs in Central Florida by 2030, with the next planned for the 4Roots Campus in the Packing District in Parramore. The 4Roots organization is involved in bringing healthful food choices to underserved communities.
The hubs are part of OUC’s efforts to enhance EV infrastructure in Central Florida, which also include the Charge-It and Own-It programs that offer businesses cost-effective options for customer, employee and fleet EV charging station installation.
With the Charge-It program, OUC installs, maintains and owns the charging station. Customers pay a fixed monthly fee. With the Own-It program, the customer pays for equipment and installation provided by OUC but then the customer owns the charging station and handles all maintenance and repairs.
OUC owns or maintains more than 300 charging stations around the region. There is also an incentive program for customers who test drive or lease EVs from participating car dealerships.
Creating this robust charging infrastructure is more important than ever due to the accelerating rate of EV adoption in the region.
As of the end of June 2024, there were more than 50,000 EVs registered in Orange and Osceola counties. Of those, 34,784 were in OUC’s service territory, which is a 152% jump from June 2023. There were 4,500 EVs registered between April and June 2024 alone.
EVs are seen by OUC as a key element of its goal to reach Net Zero CO2 emissions by 2050, with interim targets of 50% reduction by 2030 and 75% by 2040.
