This CEO wants to challenge Tesla's charging dominance. He's teaching dealerships how to make the EV pitch.

The person selling you an EV may need a crash course in how to charge one.

The company expects to target dealers in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Dallas, San Francisco, San Jose, and Raleigh. The program, expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027, will operate at dealers that sell cars made by Ionna's investors: Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Jeep-maker Stellantis.

He said the industry has spent years improving EVs themselves — range, performance, and charging speed — while reliable public charging, especially along highways and in urban environments, has remained a stubborn barrier.

It all comes as Ionna's attempts to become a contender in the electric-vehicle charging race that Tesla has dominated. This year, Ionna has more than doubled its charging stations across the US — jumping from 90 active stations in January to 191 at the start of October. Cutler expects to cut the ribbon on the 200th location this month.

Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters.

Ionna has focused on pairing its charging stations with amenities. Several charging sites come with window-cleaning squeegees, trash cans, all-day bathrooms, lounges, and, in some cases, convenience stores with Amazon's Just Walk Out tech. JD Power ranked its stations the best fast-charging in the country during its 2026 test.

Cutler isn't worried. He compared EVs with early flat-screen TVs: initially expensive products with limited appeal that became cheaper and more capable as production scaled globally.

"I think this idea of whether the future is electric — five, ten years ago, that was an interesting question to ask philosophically," he said. "I think it's a foregone conclusion; it's just a question of that percentage of sales."