Four new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations have been completed in the far corner of the parking lot at Best Buy in the MarketPlace at Birdcage shopping center and should soon become operational for public use by the end of November. That’s according to Kathilynn Carpenter, executive director of the Sunrise MarketPlace (SMP) shopping district. Photo by Thomas J. Sullivan

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Four new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations have been completed in the far corner of the Best Buy parking lot in the MarketPlace at Birdcage shopping center and should soon become operational for public use by the end of November.

That’s according to Kathilynn Carpenter, executive director of the Sunrise MarketPlace (SMP) shopping district.

The charging stations were installed by Electrify America, LLC, an electric vehicle direct current (DC) fast-charging network subsidiary of Volkswagen (VW) of America, which has more than 950 stations and more than 4,250 DC fast charging connectors in the United States as of August 2024.

“Electrify America has finished their construction but it takes around 60 days for the utility company (SMUD) to energize the site,” Carpenter said. “These 360 KW vehicle chargers will then be available to plug in and use.”

Additional Electrify America charging stations in the greater Sacramento area include a location on Folsom Boulevard in Folsom and on Galleria Boulevard in Roseville

Charging infrastructure located around each of the four charging stations is also complete. Temporary fencing along Birdcage Drive remains in place at the site and the area around the charging station has been repaved and re-striped for ready use, once operational.

“We’re going to actively promote the locations of all our electrical vehicle (EV) charging stations throughout Sunrise MarketPlace, which offer convenient charging options to encourage their use,” Carpenter said.

The new charging station in the parking lot adjacent to the Best Buy store joins additional vehicle charging stations in Sunrise MarketPlace. 

Other charging stations are located behind the Citrus Heights Pet Hospital at 8099 Greenback Lane, near the corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Macy Plaza Drive in the parking lot of the former Sears building in Sunrise Mall and in the parking lot in front of Starbucks in the Sunrise Village Shopping Center at the corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Madison Avenue.

Specific charging rate pricing information for the new Electrify America charging station located in the Best Buy parking lot was not available from the provider who did not respond to a request for further comment.

The city of Citrus Heights in California has 32 public charging stations, 10 of which are free electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The city also has a total of 14 direct current (DC) fast chargers, according to plugshare.com

Top rated charging locations in the city were previously reported by plugshare.com as Summerhill Plaza – Raley’s on Lichen Drive with 140 check-ins, and the Citrus Heights City Hall with 70 check-ins, according to recent monthly reporting data from Electrify America LLC, an open hyper-fast charging network in the U.S. is investing more than $2 billion in Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure and access, according to the company.

The California Energy Commission announced in March that the state now has 178,549 public and shared private electric vehicle chargers installed, which exceeds an estimated 120,000 standard gasoline nozzles statewide.

About a quarter of all new cars registered in California in 2023 and in 2024 were electric cars, according to a recent CalMatters article.