TLDR
Minnesota opened its NEVI Round 3a RFP on August 26 with up to $41.18 million available across 74 potential charging clusters, proposals due November 2, while Kansas closed its own NEVI RFP round on August 28 against a total five-year federal allocation of $39.5 million, two more states moving formula money now that the 30C charger credit is gone. Schneider Electric launched Schneider Charge on August 25, an 11.5 kW Level 2 home charger with built-in dynamic load management that the company says can let many homeowners skip a panel or service upgrade that would otherwise cost thousands. Driivz, a Vontier company, announced on August 25 that it has integrated WEX fleet payment cards and its DriverDash app into its charging network software, letting fleet drivers charge at Driivz-managed stations without a separate account, with the first live integration at a heavy-duty electrification hub in California. Hyundai and Genesis EV owners got an automatic 10% discount at every US IONNA fast-charging station starting August 19, with a bonus 10% on top through September 30 for a temporary 20% total. And bp pulse's US network joined the ChargeHub app on August 24, the second charging network in as many weeks to fold into a third-party aggregator rather than push its own app.
Minnesota and Kansas Keep Federal Charging Money Moving
The Minnesota Department of Transportation opened its Round 3a Request for Proposals on August 26 for up to $41.18 million in National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula funding, spread across as many as 74 potential charging clusters statewide. The RFP stays open through November 2, and MnDOT plans to publish submitted questions, along with its answers, every Tuesday through October 13.
Kansas closed its own round two days later. The Kansas Department of Transportation's latest NEVI RFP accepted proposals only from sponsors who had already filed a Project Interest Form earlier this year, with submissions due August 28. Kansas's total NEVI formula allocation over the program's five years runs to roughly $39.5 million, funding fast chargers along the state's designated alternative fuel corridors.
What this means for property owners. Neither round is open to a general applicant showing up today, but the pattern matters more than either single RFP. Federal NEVI dollars keep landing on state DOT calendars, state by state, more than a year after the program's funding freeze was resolved and two months after the residential 30C charger credit expired. If you're weighing a corridor-adjacent commercial site in Minnesota, Kansas, or anywhere else, your state DOT's NEVI page, not the federal program itself, is where the next opportunity will show up.
A New Home Charger Manages Its Own Power Draw to Dodge a Panel Upgrade
Schneider Electric launched Schneider Charge on August 25, a Level 2 home EV charger rated up to 11.5 kW (48 amps) with built-in "SmartAmp" dynamic load management, sold with either a NACS (SAE J3400) or J1772 connector. The charger continuously reads a home's real-time electricity use and automatically scales its own output down when other appliances are drawing power, then scales back up when they're not. It's ENERGY STAR certified, rated for outdoor installation down to negative 30 degrees Celsius, and carries a three-year warranty.
The pitch is squarely about avoiding a panel upgrade. Schneider says dynamic load management can let many homeowners add a Level 2 charger within their existing electrical service instead of paying for a panel or service upgrade the company estimates can run $9,000 or more in some cases.
What this means for homeowners. This newsletter has covered the same load-sharing logic at commercial scale, most recently Denver Public Schools' bus depot. Schneider Charge is the residential version of that idea: software that manages when and how much power a charger draws, instead of assuming your home's electrical service has to grow every time your needs do. If a panel upgrade quote has been the thing stopping you from installing a Level 2 charger, a dynamic-load-management charger is worth pricing out as an alternative before you call an electrician about a service upgrade.
Fleet Drivers Get One Less Card to Carry at Driivz-Managed Chargers
Driivz, the charging network software arm of Vontier, announced on August 25 that it has integrated WEX's fleet payment system, including the WEX DriverDash app and WEX RFID cards, directly into its platform. The integration uses the Open Charge Point Interface standard, so a fleet's WEX-enrolled vehicles can charge at any Driivz-managed station and have the session billed straight to the fleet operator, without the driver needing a separate charging network account or card. The companies' first live deployment is at an electrification hub in California serving light, medium, and heavy-duty fleet vehicles.
Home charging for take-home fleet vehicles works differently. Driivz's system can also route reimbursement for employees who charge fleet vehicles at home, keeping that separate from the direct-bill public charging sessions.
What this means for commercial property owners and fleet operators. If you host chargers that serve delivery vans, utility trucks, or other commercial fleets, payment friction, drivers juggling multiple cards or apps across networks, is one of the more common complaints in fleet charging. An OCPI-based integration like this one is a sign the industry is starting to solve that at the software layer rather than asking every network to strike its own one-off deal with every fleet card provider.
Hyundai and Genesis Owners Get a Temporary 20% Discount at IONNA
Hyundai began giving US EV owners an automatic 10% discount on every charging session at IONNA fast-charging stations starting August 19, applied through the MyHyundai with Bluelink app or Plug & Charge with no separate signup. A bonus 10% on top, for a combined 20% off, runs through September 30. Eligible vehicles include the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 5 N, Ioniq 9, and Kona Electric, plus the Genesis GV60 and Electrified GV70, with more models expected as Hyundai extends in-app charging to its lineup.
It's a manufacturer picking up part of the tab IONNA itself would otherwise charge. IONNA is the fast-charging network Hyundai co-owns with GM, Honda, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Toyota, and Kia, so the discount is effectively one owner subsidizing its own customers' sessions on a network it also helps fund.
What this means for homeowners who drive a Hyundai or Genesis EV. With the federal 30C credit gone and no straightforward way to lower the sticker price of a public charging session, an automatic 20% discount through the end of September is real money back in your pocket on every road trip charge, and it costs you nothing to claim beyond opening an app you probably already have installed.
Another Charging Network Joins a Third-Party Aggregator App
bp pulse's roughly 840 DC fast chargers across 22 states, about a third of them equipped with NACS, became reachable through the ChargeHub app on August 24, letting ChargeHub's existing users start a bp pulse charging session without downloading a separate app or carrying an extra card.
This is the same trend as last week's Octopus Charge launch, from the other direction. Instead of one company aggregating many networks into a new app, an established network is folding itself into an aggregator that already exists. Either way, drivers increasingly reach a charger through software the network itself doesn't control.
What this means for commercial property owners. The specific charging brand on your site keeps mattering less to the driver actually pulling in. Reliability, uptime, and price are what an aggregator app surfaces and what keeps someone coming back, regardless of which network's cabinet they plugged into.
By the Numbers
$41.18 million: Minnesota's NEVI Round 3a funding, opened to proposals August 26, 2026, for up to 74 charging clusters statewide.
$39.5 million: Kansas's total five-year NEVI formula allocation; the state's latest RFP round closed August 28, 2026.
11.5 kW: Maximum output of Schneider Electric's new Schneider Charge Level 2 home charger, launched August 25, 2026, with automatic load management.
20%: Combined temporary discount Hyundai and Genesis EV owners get at IONNA fast chargers through September 30, 2026 (10% ongoing plus a 10% bonus).
294,000: Public EV charging ports across the US and Canada as of mid-August 2026, per the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center.
Sources: Minnesota Department of Transportation (NEVI Round 3a bulletin, August 26, 2026), Kansas Department of Transportation (NEVI program page and RFP notice, August 2026), Schneider Electric (Schneider Charge launch release, August 25, 2026), Charged EVs, The Globe and Mail, MobileSyrup, and StockTitan (Schneider Charge coverage), Driivz and WEX (partnership announcement via Yahoo Finance and StockTitan, August 25, 2026), EV Infrastructure News and Charged EVs (Driivz/WEX coverage), Hyundai Motor America (IONNA discount announcement via PR Newswire, August 19, 2026), electrive.com, Electrek, Automotive World, The EV Report, and evchargingstations.com (Hyundai/IONNA coverage), ChargeHub (bp pulse integration announcement, August 24, 2026), U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center (public charging port data, mid-August 2026) via GreenCars. evcharginghelp.com is editorially independent and receives no compensation from any company mentioned.
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