Kempower, PowerUp Open First of 12 SE EV Charging Sites
SkimNews Take
Building DC fast charging in the lower-adoption Southeast inverts the typical demand-pull model, with the rural Kentucky debut suggesting an interregional corridor strategy rather than dense urban deployment.
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- Kempower and PowerUp America opened their first DC fast charging station in Manchester, Kentucky — the inaugural site of a planned 12-station rollout across the Southeast.
- PowerUp America confirmed the Manchester station at 425 KY-80 is the only Kentucky project in the rollout, with the remaining 11 sites currently under development in Georgia.
- The site uses four Kempower Flex Satellite chargers with both NACS and CCS1 connectors, delivering up to 800 kW of available power, plus pull-through spaces for larger vehicles and covered canopies.
- Manchester, Kentucky sits in a region where public fast charging has historically been more limited than along the state's major interstate corridors, with KY-80 serving as a key east-west route.
- Monil Malhotra, president of Kempower North America, framed the launch as expanding fast-charging access across what he called "a critical region for EV adoption."
Why it matters: Rural southeastern Kentucky — long underserved compared to the state's interstate corridors — now has a 24/7, 800 kW-capable charging site with both NACS and CCS1 connectors, while Kempower locks in a multi-state Southeast footprint with 11 Georgia sites already in development.
