IONITY Installs First 50 Ultra Fast Charging Stations

Within 8 months, IONITY installed 50 stations

The installations of IONITY fast charging infrastructure accelerated and the number of stations increased to 51 out of 400 planned in Europe.

Interestingly, another 43 stations are at various stages of construction. The pace of installations is very important as several manufacturers are launching new long-range electric cars, which needs to be supported by at least a basic infrastructure for long-distance travel.

The IONITY is a joint venture of BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, and Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche.

For comparison, Volkswagen’s Electrify America in the U.S. already installed about 90 stations out of 500.

According to the map, first installations were done in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Norway, Liechtenstein and Italy.

Chargers are envisioned for 800 V battery systems and up to 350 kW of power.

IONITY fast charging station – design concept

This article originally appeared on Inside EVs.

 

[comeaujo]

How many chargers (plugs) per location on average? As more and more EV's that will be sharing these fast charging stations to support long distance travel hit the road that's the most important metric IMO.

 

[MGMX]

How many chargers (plugs) per location on average? As more and more EV's that will be sharing these fast charging stations to support long distance travel hit the road that's the most important metric IMO.

They average 6 charging points per station.
I think they strictly rely on CCS charging, which is the standard on the majority of European electrical cars (including the Model 3).

 

[OPRCE]

The company claims they will average 6 stalls per location in Europe and are building out at an impressive rate.

Thus far I have seen two new stations (in Germany & Switzerland) where there are 4 stalls + 2 blank sockets prepared for site expansion with more charger/transformer units, as well as stations with 6 stalls operational from the outset.

e.g. Hohenwarsleben, Germany:

This charger is built in Australia by Tritium and I've heard it said (by Bjørn, I believe) that they tend to fail often in very low temperatures. In Switzerland they are a different design by ABB.

If one zooms in on the charger frontside the second label below the screen advises that it is partially sponsored by some EU Infrastructure Fund:

Another notable difference from Tesla is the Ionity location, which is predominantly at well-established service stations directly on the Autobahn, for supreme convenience, although space may become a limiting factor later. However, there are also government plans for providers to install such facilities at the more numerous AB rest-stops which have no petrol/shops, usually just a toilet and some picnic benches. Hence, if not necessarily Ionity, something similar could eventually be found approximately every 20km along major routes.

It remains to be seen what this OEM conglomerate will charge/kWh, but I suspect it will be a hefty sum, around 70c, or about twice what Tesla currently charges, in order to not make BEVs too competitive against their ICE offerings over the next 10 years of gradual transition.

@MGMX, yes, it is exclusively CCS 2.0, rated, according to the label above, for up to 920V DC @500A = 460kW

 

[miimura]

@MGMX, yes, it is exclusively CCS 2.0, rated, according to the label above, for up to 920V DC @500A = 460kW

I don't believe that they can simultaneously do 920VDC and 500A. That output power would be higher than the input power on the label shown. The maximum output power is likely limited to 350kW while the voltage and amperage are also limited as stated.