Osborne Builds Charging Hubs for Tesla, IONNA and EVgo

Kansas-based general contractor Osborne Construction has built approximately 1,000 EV charging locations over the last decade, serving major charge point operators including Tesla, IONNA, EVgo, and Electrify America. The company’s work highlights the critical role traditional construction firms play in deploying charging infrastructure, even as the industry moves toward vertical integration.

What Happened

Stephen Osborne, CEO of Osborne Construction, stated in an interview with Charged EVs that the firm has been active in the EV space for about 10 years. The company has constructed sites for all the major industry players, including Tesla, Electrify America, IONNA, EVgo, Francis Energy, and ABB. Osborne noted that the company often handles large program rollouts for enterprise clients, typically aiming to secure 30 to 50 percent of a client’s projects. Recent work includes the renovation of a hundred-year-old building for the Transit Authority of River City in Louisville, Kentucky, where the firm stabilized the structure and installed ChargePoint charging systems for a bus depot.

Why It Matters

The reliance on specialized contractors like Osborne underscores that Charge Point Operators (CPOs) and Charging-as-a-Service (CaaS) providers do not handle every aspect of infrastructure deployment in-house. Even with high degrees of vertical integration, CPOs depend on general contractors for construction, site preparation, and installation. This dynamic is particularly relevant as the industry faces rapid changes; Osborne reported seeing more shifts in the last 18 months than in the previous seven or eight years. These changes include the adoption of all-in-one charging systems, which have significantly reduced site footprints from nearly an acre to approximately 2,000 square feet for comparable capacity. This reduction in physical space and copper wiring requirements allows for more flexible site selection and lower installation costs, addressing a key bottleneck in the expansion of public charging networks.

The Bottom Line

Osborne Construction’s decade-long track record of building nearly 1,000 EV sites for major operators illustrates the ongoing necessity of specialized general contractors in the EV charging ecosystem. As hardware efficiencies improve and site footprints shrink, the construction phase remains a critical component of scaling infrastructure for both passenger vehicles and transit fleets.