Over the years, Charged has interviewed execs and engineers from companies covering almost every layer of the charging stack: hardware manufacturers, software developers, security specialists, utilities, standards bodies, and of course, charge point operators (CPOs) and charging-as-a-service (CaaS) providers. However, until now we haven’t heard from a provider of one of the most important parts of the stack—a company that actually builds the charging sites.

Yes, general contractors are still required, even in this new age of vertical integration. CaaS providers offer a turnkey package to EV fleet operators, but this doesn’t mean that their own employees handle every aspect of the complex process of building and operating charging infrastructure. A CaaS provider designs infrastructure, coordinates and oversees the process of installing it, chooses quality subcontractors, provides a single point of contact to the customer, and takes responsibility if things go wrong.

Likewise, CPOs may have a high degree of vertical integration, but they don’t do everything in-house. CPOs and turnkey charging providers use contractors to handle construction, and many of them turn to Kansas-based Osborne, which has been building commercial structures since 1976. Osborne has worked for all the biggies: Electrify America, IONNA, EVgo, Tesla and more. Charged spoke with CEO Stephen Osborne.

Charged: Osborne does all kinds of commercial construction, not just EV-related. How long have you been in the EV charging field?

Stephen Osborne: We’ve been in the EV space for about 10 years now. We’ve put in something like a thousand locations in the last 10 years.

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