Local EV dealer Recharged in growth mode, snags extra Broad St. car lot next door

John Foley opened Recharged, a used electric car seller, at 8410 W. Broad St. in July 2023. (Jack Jacobs photo)

As it plots an expansion plan for new locations out of town, a local electric vehicle retailer is also growing the footprint of its Richmond home base.

Recharged, which sells used electric and hybrid vehicles both in-person from its store at 8410 W. Broad St. and through its website, recently took control of the former HoneyCar lot next door at 8406 W. Broad St.

Recharged co-founder John Foley said the added lot will become a “buying and consignment center” for the company’s inventory, while 8410 will focus on sales. 

New Recharged signage was set to go up at 8406 on Wednesday and will mark a homecoming of sorts for Foley and some of his staff.

The lot was previously the original location of CarLotz, a once-fast-growing used-car consignment concept for which Foley worked as chief operating officer for eight years before he left in 2022. The Broad Street property became a HoneyCar location in early 2023, after HoneyCar acquired the assets and lease when CarLotz was absorbed by the now-bankrupt Shift Technologies.

Recharged took over the lease at 8406 last July and subleased the location to HoneyCar for a few months as that business wound down its operations. The spot officially became part of Recharged in March, Foley said. 

Foley, who co-founded Recharged with Alan Shtraks in 2023, said bringing his own startup to the original CarLotz location carries some extra meaning.

John Foley, co-founder and co-owner of Recharged. Jack Jacobs photo

“Some of my current team are CarLotz alums, so it’s a bit of a homecoming for all of us, sitting back in that building,” Foley said. “It’s a little bit ironic that we’re calling that our buying and consignment center, given that consignment was the CarLotz model.” 

The expansion next door will give Recharged more room for inventory for in-person and online sales. Along with selling electric cars from brands like Tesla, Kia and Volkswagen, Recharged sells and installs at-home charging stations and provides educational resources about electric vehicles.

The original store site has about 45 parking spaces for Recharged cars; adding 8406 W. Broad St. as a Recharged-operated address adds 125 spaces, Foley said. The existing property has around 2,800 square feet of space in its building; taking on the lease at 8406 gives Recharged about 2,000 square feet of additional office space, he said. 

The expansion comes as Recharged is in growth mode fueled by added investor capital.

The company recently closed on a $2 million capital raise, according to an SEC filing June 3. 

The recent capital round was funded by New York-based Gutter Capital, of which Recharged is a portfolio company. Foley said Gutter took a stake in Recharged last year when it led an investment round of around $2 million. To date, Recharged has raised more than $5 million from investors since its launch, Foley said.

Other Gutter Capital companies include Tennessee-based food manufacturer operating system Allera and Delaware-based data collection platform Besample. 

The Recharged round that closed late last year was focused on building up Recharged’s technology, Foley said, including working on the company’s website, through which customers from across the country can purchase cars. This latest round, Foley said, will be focused on adding new locations, which Recharged calls its “experience centers.” 

Foley said the 11-person company is considering new locations in the Southeast, with a particular eye on the Charlotte, North Carolina, area for its second location. 

“What we would like to do is continue to grow through the Southeast and ‘mushroom cloud’ out from Richmond,” Foley said. 

When a second location does launch for Recharged, Foley said the company will plan to add car reconditioning and car servicing to the local EV car market on-site. Recharged currently hires out that work and does not have the space to do it at its West Broad Street location. 

Recharged could also look to establish a third location in Virginia that would be a sort of hub for car reconditioning and servicing. 

“We’re considering between Fredericksburg and Richmond so we can service both of those markets and more quickly deliver into the DMV and even up into Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where we do quite a bit of business today.”

Foley told BizSense that Recharged has about 175 cars in its inventory; at its advent, it had around 20. He said 70% to 80% of the company’s inventory gets sold month-to-month. 

With only around half of that inventory being sold locally, Foley said it’s important to the Recharged team to continue growth not only in physical locations, but also on its website. Much of the business Recharged does, even in the Richmond area, is done remotely with delivery, he said. 

“We’re continuing to build our online capability to buy and sell inventory very quickly and efficiently,” Foley said. “So, when you think about what the next six to 12 months looks like for us, we still see, just before the end of this year, a 100% growth rate from where we are today.”

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