This is the one where I visit the Rove Charging Center with ReCharge by Gelson’s.
Rove is a brand that is planning to build out a small network of EV charging centers in Southern California. In this video we visited their inaugural center in Santa Ana, California which opened on October 15, 2024.
We got to speak with Hope Budman, Rove’s Marketing Manager to discuss the project, walk the site, and learn about the amenities Rove plans to offer at it’s EV charging centers.
Audio
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Read the transcript
Hey I’m Julius, the Green Car Geek and in this video we’re going to talk about Rove Charging.
Rove is an amazing new charging center built by EV enthusiasts for EV drivers.
Rove wanted to be the first public charging center that combines 40 DC Fast Chargers with staffed, well-lit amenities, a fresh market and a car wash.
Well, they have resoundingly hit that and target.
Rove’s origin start in 2020 when the founding team gathered together to solve the challenges of public charging.
In March 2023, Rove announced plans to open 10 full-service charging centers in Southern California by 2026.
Later in September of 2023, Rove broke ground on their first site in Santa Ana, California
At the same time, Gelson’s, a Southern California based upscale grocery chain joined the Rove project build a new concept for a fresh market on future Rove centers dubbed “ReCharge by Gelson’s”. These markets offer fresh food, exceptional customer service and serves both charging customers and the local community.
We got to visit Rove and ReCharge by Gelson’s. There we met with Rove’s Marketing Manager,
Hope Budman, who kindly gave us a tour of the site and sat down with us to discuss the project.
Interview with Hope Budman
Julius
Hey, it’s Julius the Green here and today we are Rove charging in Santa Ana, CA They’ve just opened the store and we’re speaking to Hope Budman.
Hi Hope.
Hope
Hey, how are you?
Julius
I’m good thank you.
Beautiful store, beautiful
location.
Want to just get an understanding
of Grove, where it all comes from and all started and kind of
what direction as you go.
Hope
Yeah, definitely.
So Rove is founded by early EV
adopters, so they experience the challenges of public Ed charging arriving and there’s broken plugs or, you know, as simple as like no trash cans or bathrooms nearby or charging at night in the back of a a shopping center. So they don’t feel safe, especially, you know, their families will be charging.
So they kind of took all those pain points to build Rove. So we call it a full service EV charging center.
So we paired 40 ultra fast chargers with on site attendants, a car wash that has brush and brushless washes, and the lounge. This is 24/7 with clean restrooms and then we have our market ReCharge by Gelson’s.
Julius
That’s awesome.
Yeah, just a matter if you need including a small dark park in the back. So if the doggy needs to relieve themselves, they have a place to go, which is wonderful.
Now this is the first of how many stories you guys are going to have this year?
Hope
Yes. So this is the first one in 2024. Next year in 2025, we’ll be opening up in Costa Mesa, Long Beach, Torrance, and Corona. I think it’s ten to eleven locations by 2026.
Julius
Now are you focused on just California, or are you looking to do national and this is just where your origin point is?
Hope
Yes, so we’re focused in the Southern California region right now on off major, you know access for your daily commuters and we’ll see where we go from freeways so very easy on and off there.
Julius
OK, so there’s no official planning on how far you can expand?
Hope
I know some of our teammates know where we’re expanding the future. We have other pipeline locations in the Southern California region, but I don’t want to speak too soon.
Julius
Understood.
Hope then gave us a tour of the site to highlight the many features available to both the EV and local community.
Our first stop was the “pup pad” where our travelling companions can take a relief break.
Next was the car wash which features both touch and touchless options. The latter to address the needs of those who’s cars have unique finishes, or those who just want to prevent swirls on their paint.
But the one thing the majority of us are most intrested in are the charging bays.
The Santa Ana site a total of 42 connections. That’s broken down with
-28 250kW nacs
-12 184 – 350kW ccs
- and 2 chademo
Of note is a fully accessible bay with plenty of room for a wheel chair or mobility scooter.
And remember, an assistant is always available.
Here now is Hope walking us through the charging process.
Charging at Rove with Hope
Julius
OK, so we’ve moved outside here to one of the local chargers and we’re going to ask Hope, Hope,how does one use the system
here?
They’ve just pulled up and they’re new to owning an EV..
Hope
Yeah, that’s a great question.
So there’s two ways to charge on here at Rove.
There is the tap to pay option. So you will just access tap to start and then you’ll tap your card. We really want the experience to be as easy as possible.
We also have an app as well. Now you don’t need the app to charge, but there are a handful of benefits.
So with the app, we’ll just scan the QR code, plug in and then you’ll have your credit card information. So then you can see all your previous charges. You can purchase car washes ahead. And something that is really exciting as well is that Gelson’s offers mobile order
ahead..
Julius
So you can place an order through the app online and then let them know what charger you’re at and they’ll bring it to you.
Talk about amenities. That is amazing!
That is not something you’re going to get in any EA from, but hopefully they too will take a hint and start working on building out It only helps the entire EV community by offering this service.
This is just amazing.
Quick note on ReCharge by Gelson’s ordering ahead feature, you do not need to a Rove account to use the feature. This to is avaiable from the app as a guest.
Speaking of ReCharge by Gelson’s…
This is this one amazing convenience store.
For those who don’t know, Gelson’s made its name for spacious, well stocked, and most importantly, well kept grocery stores here in Southern California (it means they have really clean restrooms!).
ReCharge by Gelson’s brings the same quality of their large stores to this small form factor.
The aisles are wide, as is the range of options available. The prepared selections are no different that what you’d find in their full size store. And unlike the sketchy sushi found in SNL’s Laguardia Airport, you’ll find only fresh sushi in the case – I know, I tried it, and a musical didn’t break out.
After our visit with Hope, we wanted to see how well lit the bays are in the evening. This footage was taken at dusk and they are well lit.
So there you go, Rove and ReCharge by Gelsons and with what IONNA is doing, EV charging is about to level up.