#60: Monta’s AI strategy

EV charging automation, Colorado expands EV incentives, defining and managing utilization

Author

Steve Taylor
November 08, 2025

The Business and Policy of Charging Infrastructure

The 3 big stories

  • Casper Rasmussen, CEO of Monta, shares company’s AI strategy

  • Colorado supercharges its EV incentives; what are other states doing?

  • PlugIn President, Chris Kaiser, discusses why utilization is king

Plus, featured jobs and news.

Steve

Automation Strategy

The next phase of electrification will not be operationally managed by people. It will be run autonomously. However, most of today’s AI tools sit on the surface, assisting people rather than operating systems on their own. 

I believe that the EV industry’s current model for running charging networks will not scale. Many networks still rely on human teams to monitor and fix chargers, creating cost, delay, and inconsistency. The future of operations will be autonomous, powered by AI that can learn, diagnose, and act without constant human intervention.

Across the EV landscape, many operators still run networks with limited visibility. They discover problems only after drivers do. That is not sustainable nor scalable. 

Casper’s take

AI can interpret network data in real time, diagnose issues before they cascade, and optimize operations continuously. And it can do so much more: this is only the beginning! 

Want to adjust your tariff strategy? How about asking AI for recommendations on dynamic pricing options based on utilization and location? 

Or you’re doing a bit of site scouting as part of your expansion projects. You could run a prompt to find underserved areas for 100kW DC charging in one state or city where EV adoption is soaring or expected to. 

If you’re going into solar charging, an AI audit of the optimal locations based on sunshine duration, EV adoption and average utilization can guide your strategy. 

You have a network of  installers? They’ll be able to troubleshoot on site with AI instantly, allowing you to deliver more, in less time. 

Energy management? AI can preventively adjust the capacities of the network based on past peaks. 

The future charging network will plan, price, and balance itself. Systems that learn, self-correct, and optimize in real time. Human oversight will always matter, but its purpose should evolve from fixing failures to designing smarter infrastructure.

That shift is already underway. In Q3, we introduced an AI tool to analyze failed charger sessions and recommend fixes within seconds. In one case, it raised a charger’s success rate from 31.2% to 98.3% after identifying a firmware mismatch. 

Every industry reaches a point when automation moves from optional to essential. For EV charging, that moment is now.

(Casper Rasmussen is CEO & Co-founder at Monta)

Power and Policy

This week, in the wake of last month’s expiration of federal EV tax incentives, Colorado announced the expansion of its Vehicle Exchange Colorado (“VXC”) electric vehicle rebate program. According to the Colorado Energy Office:

“VXC rebates increased from $6,000 to $9,000 for new EV purchases and leases and $4,000 to $6,000 for used EV purchases and leases…eligible Coloradans can still get up to $15,000 off the upfront cost of a new electric vehicle with state incentives alone.”

Additionally, according to the Governor’s office, Colorado’s EV incentives have made the state the No.1 in the nation for EV sales. In the third quarter of 2025, EVs made up 32.5% of new car sales in the state, the highest ever EV market share recorded in the country to date.

Colorado is not alone, though.  The Tax Foundation reports that, as of late summer 2025, 17 states still offered some additional EV purchase incentive beyond the federal program—ranging from modest rebates to multi-thousand-dollar credits—though amounts and eligibility vary widely and several programs are in flux.

Rob’s Take

With the federal credit gone, nationwide the average EV transaction prices jumped and lease deals cooled in October, after a massive Q3 for EV sales. This clearly underscores how much pricing had relied on federal support, with automakers recently announcing a wave of layoffs to their EV workforce. It will be important for states to continue to take up the slack around EV rebates and for automakers to keep experimenting with dealer-finance programs to imitate the lost benefit on leases, at least temporarily. It will be interesting to watch as the sales and uptake numbers even out over the next few months and give us a better picture of where the EV market will really be for 2026.

Utilization

Before we can measure DCFC utilization, we first have to define what we’re measuring! Defining DCFC utilization remains challenging because the industry still lacks consistent terminology for what constitutes a “station”, or “port,” or “energized charging space” or “utilization rate.” To bring clarity, adding utilization descriptors like time-based, energy-based, and session-based can help standardize how utilization is measured and discussed. 

Among these, energy-based utilization—measured as kWh per unit per period—is the most meaningful metric since it directly reflects how much energy (and therefore revenue) flows through the charging network. As EV batteries get bigger and as EV charging acceptance rates and EV charger delivery rates get faster, time-based or session-based utilization may go down but energy-based utilization may go up! As EV adoption continues to rise, tracking energy-based utilization will be key to evaluating the performance and investment potential of charging networks.

Chris’s take

As Loren McDonald has pointed out, as the Tesla Supercharging network opens up to more non-Tesla EV’s, many charging stations located near a Tesla Supercharger station may see flat to potentially declining utilization rates — despite a growing number of EVs on the road in the US.

And luckily - as Michael Greenberg pointed out in a recent  post - we have a data source to measure Tesla’s Supercharger expansion - and other - impacts on utilization: EVgo’s quarterly earnings reports!  Their Q3 report is due out next week and the two metrics he highlighted in his post to watch are: 

  1. EV to Fast Charger Ratio: EVgo’s guidance on the ratio of Vehicles in Operation (VIO) to DCFCs in 2030 had dropped, from 177 in 3Q24 to 158 in 1Q25 to 138 in 2Q25.

  2. EVgo’s estimate of average utilization (time-based utilization) in 2029 is the same as it is today. Throughput (kWh-based utilization) is projected higher so they are getting more revenue per plug despite flat utilization which explains the higher gross margin in 2029.

It will be interesting to see what the Q3 results demonstrate!  Despite all this presenting challenges for CPOs seeking profitability to navigate, the good news for EV drivers is there are more locations to charge outside the home!  

(Chris Kaiser is President at PlugIn)

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⚡️Steve and Rob

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