Stories You May Have Missed This Week: EV, Charging & Intelligent Electrification Roundup

If you only skimmed the headlines this week, you probably saw “EV slump” takes and a few flashy product launches. Under the surface, though, there’s a much richer story: solid EV demand, new procurement tools for the public sector, microgrids and batteries getting very real for CRE, and private 5G quietly becoming core campus infrastructure.

Here’s a curated set of 16 stories—each with a 2–3 sentence summary and link—that you can mine for intelligence you can use.

EV Demand & Market Signals

1. Media ‘slump’ narrative vs. actual EV sales (Electrek) - Despite a wave of negative headlines, global EV sales are up ~23% year-to-date, with Europe and China leading and North America still growing modestly. Electrek walks through the data and concludes that what’s really slowing is Tesla, not EVs overall, and that a lot of commentary simply ignores the math.  Read more: EV sales still have not fallen, cooled, slowed or slumped

2. Argonne’s monthly U.S. plug-in sales snapshot Argonne National Laboratory’s dashboard shows plug-ins reaching 13.6% of U.S. light-duty sales in September 2025, with over 1.5 million plug-ins sold in 2024 and a generally upward trend despite month-to-month noise. It’s a useful “truth serum” for anyone writing about U.S. demand.  Read more: Light-Duty Electric Drive Vehicles Monthly Sales Updates Argonne National Laboratory

3. China’s overheated EV industry and price wars (Futurism + others) - China’s EV sector looks booming on the surface, but behind the scenes price wars, overcapacity, and thin margins have analysts warning of an eventual shakeout. Futurism’s piece explains how aggressive discounting and subsidies distort the market and why this matters for global pricing and exports.  Read more: China’s Electric Car Industry Is in Deep Trouble

4. America’s EV charging boom in one chart (Visual Capitalist) - Visual Capitalist maps how U.S. public charging locations have exploded from about 15,000 in 2013 to ~193,000 in 2024, more than a 12x increase. The piece is short but highly visual—great fodder when you need a chart to show that infrastructure is following vehicles, even if not evenly. 

Read more: Charted: America’s EV Charging Boom Visual Capitalist

Policy, Procurement & Business Models

5. Sourcewell contracts: Easier public-sector charging with ChargePoint & The Mobility House - Sourcewell has awarded new cooperative purchasing contracts covering ChargePoint and The Mobility House, giving 50,000+ public agencies a faster route to buy chargers, software, and services at pre-competed prices. For cities, schools, and transit agencies, this drastically cuts procurement friction for both depot and public charging.  Read more: Sourcewell contracts ChargePoint & The Mobility House in North America

6. EV Charging as a Service: Amenity plus recurring revenue (North Penn Now) - This explainer walks property owners through EV Charging-as-a-Service models where a third party owns and operates the hardware, and the site host earns a revenue share or lease payment. It cites NYSERDA data on charging as a driver of visits and outlines how each additional port can be both a tenant amenity and a new income stream. 

Read more: EV Charging as a Service: A New Secession of Revenue for Property Owners

7. EV Realty doubles down on truck-charging real estate (ChargedEVs) EV Realty is expanding its portfolio of “Powered Properties” for medium- and heavy-duty fleets—sites near freight corridors and industrial centers that are prepped for high-power DC fast charging. The strategy treats truck charging hubs as a distinct logistics-focused asset class, with site control and interconnection as key sources of value. 

Read more: EV Realty expands its portfolio of real estate for electric truck charging hubs Charged EVs

Networks & Vehicle Access

8. Volkswagen EVs get Tesla Supercharger access (electrive) ID.4 and ID. Buzz owners in North America will soon be able to charge at Tesla Superchargers using a NACS-to-CCS adapter, with partial rebates for some 2025 models. It’s another step toward NACS as the de facto standard, and a reminder to site hosts that connector flexibility is now table stakes.  Read more: Volkswagen EVs gain Supercharger access

Microgrids, Storage & the New Rate Reality

9. Bridge Power, Without the “Temporary”: Why DG Matrix’s Vision Matters - DG Matrix’s bridge power vision lines up with the reality many developers and operators face: demand outpacing grid timelines. Need power now. The benefits—speed, optionality, and resilience—are compelling, and the technology is far enough along to take seriously for near-term programs. But what happens when you connect to the grid? 

9.5. Microgrids as a resilience play for CRE (Fast Company Executive Board) - This op-ed argues that microgrids are moving from niche pilots to a core strategy for commercial landlords facing volatile prices, grid outages, and new load from EVs and AI. It frames microgrids as a way to simultaneously hit emissions targets, control long-term energy costs, and differentiate buildings in competitive markets. Read more: Increase energy resilience in commercial real estate

10. Battery Energy Storage for commercial buildings 101 (Leoch Lithium) - Leoch’s piece is part product marketing, part practical guide to BESS in commercial buildings, covering demand charge reduction, peak shaving, backup power, and pairing storage with EV chargers and solar. It also touches on AI-driven control systems and changing tariff structures—exactly the ingredients for “finance-ready” electrification projects.  Read more: BESS for Commercial Buildings: Optimizing Energy Use, Ensuring Resilience & Supporting Sustainability Leoch Lithium America

11. AI data centers and the $2,700 question for Kansas City bills (Medium) A Kansas City–focused analysis uses machine-learning models to estimate that unchecked AI data center growth could push household electric bills up by roughly $2,700 a year by 2035 under business-as-usual policies. It’s a detailed case study in how big loads, tariffs, and infrastructure planning intersect—highly relevant for any region courting data centers while trying not to crush ratepayers. 

Read more: Your Electric Bill Could Jump $2,700 Annually by 2035

Connectivity as Critical Infrastructure

12. Private 5G for safer, more connected campuses (Ataya & The Thacher School) This case study shows how a 200+ acre boarding school campus deployed private 5G to extend connectivity beyond buildings, improving coverage for cameras, safety systems, and outdoor learning spaces where Wi-Fi struggled. It’s a concrete example of connectivity as part of a property’s operating system, not just an IT line item. 

Read more: Transforming Campus Connectivity with Private 5G – The Thacher School

13. The campus connectivity gap: students and faculty expect more (Boldyn) - Boldyn’s 2025 report, based on thousands of student responses, argues that reliable, everywhere connectivity is now “the new foundation of campus life.” It makes a strong case for neutral-host DAS, Wi-Fi, and private networks as invisible infrastructure that directly affects academic performance, wellbeing, and staff productivity. 

Read more: The Campus Connectivity Gap: Students and Faculty Expect More Boldyn

14. 20+ of the best private 5G installations (RCR Wireless) - RCR Wireless profiles more than 20 private 5G deployments across manufacturing, logistics, energy, and campuses, highlighting measurable gains in productivity, safety, and automation. For property owners and operators, it’s a menu of real-world use cases that show how connectivity upgrades can support electrification, autonomy, and digital operations.  Read more: Private 5G installations and impacts – 20+ of the best RCR Wireless News+1

Next-Gen Power Architectures & EV Lifestyle

15. DC microgrids for commercial buildings (NerdVolt) NerdVolt breaks down how DC microgrid architectures can streamline the integration of solar, storage, and high-power loads like EV chargers by reducing conversion steps and losses. For new builds and deep retrofits, it previews a future where buildings are AC on the outside but increasingly DC on the inside. Read more: Charge Forward: DC Microgrid Architectures for Commercial Buildings

16. Pebble Flow “Magic Pack” electric RV trailer (InsideEVs) - Pebble’s Flow “Magic Pack” trailer adds a 45 kWh LFP battery and dual motors that can assist the tow vehicle and even recharge it, while undercutting rival electric trailers by about $15,000. It’s a fun glimpse into how bidirectional charging and mobile storage are blurring the line between vehicle, charger, and off-grid microgrid.  Read more: New RV Trailer Boosts EV Range While Undercutting Competitors