SIMI VALLEY, CA – As the electric vehicle (EV) industry prepares for a massive deployment push in 2026, the “civil works” phase of site development is getting a significant speed boost. Precon Products, a leader in American-made precast concrete solutions, has announced a major expansion of its EVEZ portfolio, now offering a 30-day lead time or less for standard prefabricated EV charger foundations.
The announcement comes at a critical juncture for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. With federal funding deadlines approaching and global supply chains remaining volatile, developers are increasingly looking for ways to remove infrastructure from the “critical path” of project timelines.
Accelerating EV Site Deployment
Traditional “cast-in-place” concrete methods are often subject to the whims of weather, labor shortages, and lengthy curing times—typically requiring 7 to 28 days before a charger can even be bolted down. By contrast, EVEZ foundations arrive at the site fully cured and ready for immediate installation.
“Project deadlines aren’t waiting for global supply chains to catch up,” said Dan Zarraonandia, Vice President of Precon Products. “By ramping up our inventory to a 30-day lead-time, we’re ensuring that even if the hardware is delayed, if the site is built and the civil work is closed out, the project is ready to go the moment the chargers arrive.”
Buy America & NEVI Compliance
For developers tapping into federal corridor funding, the origin of materials is as important as the speed of delivery. Manufactured entirely in Simi Valley, California, the EVEZ portfolio is fully “Buy America” compliant. This domestic footprint allows Precon to bypass international shipping delays while supporting the expansion of federally funded charging corridors across the United States.
Future-Proof Design and Durability
One of the standout features of the EVEZ system is its modularity. Each unit utilizes a universal precast vault paired with custom aluminum adapter plates. This design allows site hosts to upgrade or swap charger brands in the future without the need for additional trenching or demolition—a critical consideration as charging technology continues to evolve.
Key Technical Features of EVEZ Foundations:
- Universal Compatibility: Works with all major EV charger brands.
- Structural Excellence: Factory-controlled curing prevents cracking and shifting over a 20-year lifespan.
- Site Protection: Optional add-ons include bollards, wheel stops, and light pole bases.
Q&A: Inside the Strategy for 2026 EV Infrastructure
An Interview with Dan Zarraonandia, Vice President of Precon Products
Q: Quantifying the Impact: You’ve mentioned that concrete foundations shouldn’t be a bottleneck. On average, how many weeks does switching from traditional “cast-in-place” to EVEZ precast solutions typically shave off a standard site’s construction timeline?
A: For a typical commercial charging site, switching to Precon Products’ EVEZ precast concrete foundations can shave two to four weeks off the project timeline. With traditional cast-in-place methods, site developers are at the mercy of concrete curing time, which can take a full 7-28 days before charger installation. Additionally, a single rainy day can delay pouring and impact the entire project schedule.
Our EVEZ foundations arrive at the site fully cured and ready for immediate installation. A crew can set the foundations into place with a loader, excavator, or crane, pull the conduit, and backfill in a single afternoon. By removing the pouring bottleneck, we turn what can be a month-long sequence of scheduling subcontractors and waiting for inspections into a predictable, one-day event.
Q: NEVI & “Buy America” Compliance: With 100% California-based manufacturing, how has the “Buy America” requirement impacted your production strategy for 2026, and are you seeing a significant uptick in demand specifically for federal corridor projects?
A: The “Buy America” requirements have solidified our position as a key domestic manufacturer. Because our production is 100% California-based, our supply chain was already built for this and didn’t require major pivots or reworking.
Our 2026 strategy centered on scalability and regional availability. We are seeing an uptick in inquiries for NEVI-funded corridor projects due to updated guidance announced in August 2025. We are currently positioning our inventory to support the influx of NEVI build-outs expected over the next 24 months, ensuring that federal projects aren’t stalled by long lead times for compliant civil materials.
Q: The Mechanics of Future-Proofing: Can you explain how the custom aluminum plate system works? Specifically, how does it allow a site host to swap or upgrade charger units in the future without the need for additional trenching or concrete work?
A: This is the core of how our precast concrete charger bases deliver future-proofed success. Traditionally, if site hosts need to swap one brand of charger for another, or install an upgraded version, they’d need to break up the old concrete if the bolt patterns and conduit entries don’t match.
Our EVEZ system uses a universal precast vault topped with a modular, heavy-duty aluminum adapter plate. The vault provides a massive internal pull box for cables, and the aluminum plate is precision-machined to the specific footprint of the chosen charger. If a site host decides to upgrade to a more powerful unit in five years, they don’t need to factor in demolition. They simply unbolt the old charger and the old plate, and bolt down a new plate configured for the new hardware.
Q: Climate and Durability: Beyond installation speed, what are the primary structural advantages of factory-controlled precast concrete compared to on-site pours, particularly for sites facing extreme weather conditions?
A: When you pour concrete on-site, you’re fighting variables like humidity, fluctuating temperatures, and soil contamination. Our factory-controlled environment maintains optimal conditions for mixing, casting, and curing, which means the concrete is fundamentally more resistant to freeze-thaw cycles, corrosive salts from rain and snow, carbonation, and alkali-silica reactions that degrade structures in harsh climates.
We can customize mix designs with corrosion-resistant additives and verify every aspect before shipping – proper air entrainment, consolidation without aggregate segregation, and zero honeycombing or voids. These quality factors are nearly impossible to verify in field conditions. We also engineer for worst-case scenarios including zero backfill and poor soil bearing pressures of 1,500 psf. For a site host, this means a foundation that won’t crack or shift over a 20-year lifespan, protecting the high-value charging electronics on top of it.
Q: Scaling for Heavy-Duty: With the rise of electric truck corridors (like the Greenlane project), are these standard foundations sufficient for the larger footprints required by high-power fleet chargers, or is a different architectural approach required?
A: Megawatt Charging Systems require larger conduit runs for thicker cabling and handle different physical stresses than standard fast chargers. Our EVEZ form system adjusts to the charger dimensions. We engineer each foundation with calculations for maximum weight, seismic zones, and high-wind conditions. Our EVEZ-5060 foundation handles chargers up to 1,700 lbs, and we can scale the design further when needed.
The megawatt charging market is shifting weight away from dispensers and into power cabinets. We’re seeing power cabinets over 2,600 lbs while dispenser weights range from under 800 lbs to over 1,200 lbs depending on the manufacturer. Each foundation gets engineered for the specific equipment configuration, so when a customer selects their charging hardware, we already know the foundation will support it structurally and meet local code requirements.
Q: 2026 Outlook: From Precon’s perspective, what is the biggest remaining “hidden” hurdle in the civil works stage of EV deployment that the industry still needs to solve?
A: The biggest hurdle for 2026 is the acute shortage of specialized civil labor. As NEVI and fleet projects scale, we’re seeing record site volumes with fewer qualified crews available to manage complex construction.
Traditional cast-in-place methods require multiple trades to coordinate over several weeks. When one subcontractor is delayed, the entire site timeline shifts and costs escalate. Precast foundations solve this by separating manufacturing from field installation. We produce the foundations during your planning and permitting phases. When your site is ready, installation becomes a single-day event instead of a multi-week coordination effort. A typical crew can set dozens of foundations in the time it would take to pour and cure just a handful on-site, which means you’re not paying crews to wait for concrete to cure or for trades to show up.
Building the Foundation for the 2026 EV Boom
As NEVI deadlines loom, the industry focus is shifting from charger availability to civil speed. Precon’s EVEZ portfolio is designed to bridge that gap:
- Speed: 30-day lead times eliminate the “curing delay” found in traditional pours.
- Compliance: Fully “Buy America” compliant for federal funding.
- Agility: Modular designs that future-proof sites for evolving hardware.
The winners in the national charging corridor race are those innovating below the hardware. EVEZ proves that the ground matters just as much as the grid.
