Europe to add 10,000 charging points to electric vehicle network

INDUSTRY NEWS

Even Tesla fans who shook off the threat to its European Supercharger network from the recent news of the Ionity fast-charging electric vehicle (EV) network must be concerned about an announcement from Eon.

While the Ionity network aims to deploy 400 of its 350kW chargers across Europe by 2020, Eon is promising 10,000 fast chargers for battery-electric cars in the same time frame.

And while Ionity is a team effort from Ford, BMW, the Volkswagen Group and Daimler, Eon is Europe’s biggest energy company, with access to every piece of hardware it needs to make it a reality.

It already has enough EV charging points to allow drivers to travel from northern Germany to Bavaria in the south. It also has ready-made partnerships with Denmark’s Clever e-mobility organisation.

It has partnered with Tank and Rast (which is also a key player in the Ionity scheme) and plans to deliver 150kW charging (the same as Telsa’s Superchargers), though the charging stations can be upgraded over time to Ionity’s 350kW level.

Eon claims its network will allow drivers to punch in 400km of EV range within half an hour at one of its charging stations. It already has 6,000 charging stations across Europe, including the UK, as it tries to get out in front of any potential battery electric vehicle (BEV) tipping points in Europe’s car sales patterns.

There are already 120,000 charging points deployed across Europe, though Morgan Stanley analysts predict it will require between 1-million and 3-million charging points by 2030, depending on EV take-up rates.

Like Ionity, the Eon network will exclusively use the Combined Charging System plug layout, which Tesla does not use. All of BMW’s i models use the CCS plug, as do Volkswagen’s BEV versions of the Up and Golf, while Ford, Mercedes-Benz and smart all plan to roll out EVs using the plug.

While SA is clearly miles behind with some of these developments, we are aware that discussions are taking place, but at this stage there are few, if any, real timelines.