Ultra-Fast Charging Stations

The automakers BMW, Daimler, Ford and the Volkswagen Group launched Ionity, a Munich-based joint venture that aims to put 400 ultra-fast charging stations for electric vehicles on the sides of Europe’s highways by 2020. Plans call for setting up a charging station every 120 kilometers in 24 European countries and equipping each of them with six 350 kW charging points that can provide the cars with 400 kilometers of power in just a few minutes’ time. In mid-April, the first charging station in the planned network opened at the Brohltal-Ost rest stop (Rhineland-Palatinate) on the A61 motorway. A second opened in late May near Lucerne, Switzerland, on the A2 motorway, a key north-south transit route. The overall goal of setting up such a rapid-charging infrastructure is to insure the acceptance of electric vehicles – and to make long-distance travel with them an enjoyable experience.