FreeWire’s new program offers free, custom EV chargers and its first client may surprise you
FreeWire Technologies continues to bring out-of-the-box thinking to a vital segment of EV charging infrastructure. Today, FreeWire announced a clever new Accelerate Program that essentially installs and manages its EV charger technology at no cost to businesses, making profits elsewhere while speeding up the adoption rate on new installations. The program’s first business to sign up is surprising but encouraging.
FreeWire Technologies is an EV fast charging and energy management solutions company celebrating a decade of existence this year. We tend to give the company plenty of coverage because every time the FreeWire team reaches out, it’s with news of a fresh approach to charging programs – all with the goal of expediting the world’s transition to electric vehicles.
The company’s current portfolio includes Boost 150 and Boost 200 chargers, designed to support businesses and commercial fleets, which have recently been joined by a new Pro line of piles that support nascent technologies like bidirectional charging.
Those chargers are further supported by FreeWire’s proprietary Asset Management Platform (AMP), which uses AI to determine the ideal locations for installs and provides data and tools beyond deployment.
Up until now, FreeWire’s business approach has been to sell its charging technology directly to businesses, banking on their low grid dependency and ease of installation as huge selling points. However, to further entice businesses to adopt its charger technology, FreeWire has introduced a new Accelerate Program that offers the piles with zero upfront costs.
Chevron joins FreeWire’s new EV charger program
FreeWire explained how its new Accelerate program works as a new business model in which the charger company invests in the locations of its businesses who opt-in, owning and operating all the equipment.
This program offers businesses virtually zero upfront costs to have custom-branded FreeWire chargers installed. Those businesses are then empowered to collect payments from their charging amenities on-site. Furthermore, each FreeWire pile features a 24″ screen for marketing opportunities.
Essentially, FreeWire is paying businesses like Chevron, the first company to sign up for the Accelerate Program, for use of its property to install its charger technology. FreeWire, in turn, operates and maintains the equipment and takes the profits from EV charging sessions.
That said, FreeWire confirmed participating businesses will receive a share of charging session revenues and are protected by a guaranteed minimum payment for leasing parking spots to the charger company.
The program also allows participating businesses to fully own the charging station(s) after five years of operation. FreeWire founder and CCO Arcady Sosinov spoke about the unique, cost-heavy approach to its new program:
The Accelerate Program demonstrates our conviction in the improving economics of EV charging. We are investing our capital to promote our customers’ businesses enabling them to market an EV offering under their brand with zero upfront costs. This is an unparalleled opportunity for businesses to leverage the growing need for this amenity. At FreeWire, we envision a future where EV adoption is uninhibited by available charging infrastructure, and the Accelerate Program is a crucial step towards making that vision a reality.
In addition to the Accelerate Program, FreeWire says it will continue to offer businesses the opportunity to purchase its chargers outright for a larger portion of revenue for those sessions. By offering multiple pathways to installations, FreeWire hopes it can help accelerate the number of available piles to meet the impending demand EV adoption will put on infrastructure.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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