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Mercedes to establish their own charging network.

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Mr Miserable

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Jul 8, 2019
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Oh dear.
Mercedes-Benz is launching its own electric car charging network
It looks like the IONITY partners are falling out, at least it looks that way, as Mercedes have announced that they are going to establish their own charging network.
Of course they will continue to support IONITY - too much invested to rip up the agreement completely, but a sign that the pace of development of IONITY sites and possibly their quality of service are not up to the expectations of Mercedes. No surprise there. The chances are that the other partners are equally disappointed.
This is a huge step by Mercedes and it will gulp cash as they try to rapidly establish a working network with locations that fulfill their exacting criteria.
I wish them good luck but I give the process 5 years at most. As for IONITY, I think the writing is on the wall...
 
Oh dear.
Mercedes-Benz is launching its own electric car charging network
It looks like the IONITY partners are falling out, at least it looks that way, as Mercedes have announced that they are going to establish their own charging network.
Of course they will continue to support IONITY - too much invested to rip up the agreement completely, but a sign that the pace of development of IONITY sites and possibly their quality of service are not up to the expectations of Mercedes. No surprise there. The chances are that the other partners are equally disappointed.
This is a huge step by Mercedes and it will gulp cash as they try to rapidly establish a working network with locations that fulfill their exacting criteria.
I wish them good luck but I give the process 5 years at most. As for IONITY, I think the writing is on the wall...
Let's hope they don't have the same level of service as the dealer network.. You can walk into one of those places with the means to buy every car in the place but unless you booked an appointment in advance, they will flatly ignore you.
 
I think the problem with Ionity is nobody realises it is owned by.a bunch of big brands. You still get some saying “only Tesla have built a charging network”, and while Ionity isn’t on the same scale as the supercharger network, none of the brands seemed to get any credit for at least starting to try.

Most of the issues with building the network seems to be getting the locations and power to them. I’m surprised they’ve not put a couple of rapids in the corner of the dealerships of all the Ionity brands, I recon it would help with both availability and brand awareness. And if they are doing that already, shows how badly they’ve promoted it!
 
Oh dear.
Mercedes-Benz is launching its own electric car charging network
It looks like the IONITY partners are falling out, at least it looks that way, as Mercedes have announced that they are going to establish their own charging network.
Of course they will continue to support IONITY - too much invested to rip up the agreement completely, but a sign that the pace of development of IONITY sites and possibly their quality of service are not up to the expectations of Mercedes. No surprise there. The chances are that the other partners are equally disappointed.
This is a huge step by Mercedes and it will gulp cash as they try to rapidly establish a working network with locations that fulfill their exacting criteria.
I wish them good luck but I give the process 5 years at most. As for IONITY, I think the writing is on the wall...
Oh dear, I hope the charging network will show some improvement over the diabolical support they provide to their Smart brand cars. I'm not holding my breath.
 
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For some reason I chose to read the story in the express. They really nailed it.

The choice quotes start with the headline:

"Biggest problem with owning electric cars in the UK could soon be fixed by Mercedes"
hallelujah we are all saved. All sorted by a week next Thursday I expect.


"Plans for the high-power charging network will start in the US this year with Europe following soon after"
Ok well maybe give it a fortnight then.


"Perhaps the biggest bonus of stopping at these charging stations is the speed at which they will boost the batteries. Mercedes is promising that it will include 350kWh power which should take things from 10 to 80 percent in under 30 minutes. Most current chargers in supermarket car parks only offer 50kWh charging which means stopping at Mercedes should be around six times fasters."
I am really looking forward to all cars charging 6 times faster than with a "50Kwh" charger using Mercedes "350Kwh power"

:rolleyes:
 
I’m surprised they’ve not put a couple of rapids in the corner of the dealerships
I believe Porsche are doing this (I cant recall who they are partnered with) yet most sites (at least the one near me) is for their brand only.

What would be nice to see is some enforcement on to petrol stations or/and the likes of shell, BP etc to be doing more just like it's done to car makers in regards to emissions. Most already have some sort of infrastructure and locations hence could be a good fad-in.
 
The article says through ChargePoint, with preferential pricing and access for Merc owners. I expect it'll be open.
ChargePoint 🤣🤣. They are one of the oldest charging networks in USA and still haven’t figured out how to do level 3 the right way. I am skeptical that Mercedes can help them. I mean, what is so hard about just mimicking tesla at this point 🤷‍♂️. Welp, probably office politics such as “if it is not my idea it’s not good”. I hope they pull it off. We need other brands of cars to be like tesla on road trips, a “no/small comprise” experience as this will help EV adoption although most people really are not taking long road trips often.
 
What would be nice to see is some enforcement on to petrol stations or/and the likes of shell, BP etc

I see no benefit in forcing them ... better that innovative solutions, like GridServe, emerge. However, market forces will ultimately dictate; in Norway petrol pumps are being replaced (on forecourts) by Charge Stalls, to the point where ICE drivers will be having to start planning where they will refuel ...

Shell have their Recharge brand - so could be argued are doing something on the forecourts where they have installed them. But they have a vested interest in sticking with Petroleum (well ... I don't think that, I think the smart money is on being ready with the New Stuff, but Mega Corp can also decide "We'll just buy the market leader when the time comes and the market has matured" ... along with the lousy PR that comes for just sitting on their hands). Their commitment has been reflected in people getting overstay-penalty-charges for using a Recharge Stall, on a Shell Forecourt, for the normal amount of charging time (at 50kW I dare say ...)

There are some Recharge stalls (recently installed) at our local Waitrose - I presume that is a nation-wide collaboration. I see plenty of EVs parked at them ... and a fair few that are ICEd as well ...

And BP has Pulse - they bought the Chargemaster / Polar startups.

what is so hard about just mimicking tesla at this point

I think the key difference (aside from reliability / servicing) is that Tesla was bold enough to put plenty of stalls at each site. In 2014 Tesla were creating 4 and 8 stall sites (Ionity STILL only doing 6-stall sites in UK). By 2016 / 2017 Tesla were predominantly 8 stalls. Now several of those early sites have been expanded, and new sites are 12 - 16 stalls, and a couple are 24 stalls

That takes some money to "punt" on that. That has to be weighed against installing a couple of stalls and (presumably? hopefully?) infrastructure and planning to expand easily later. But surely a row of Tesla chargers has also been good for Brand Awareness? A row of Ionity chargers would, I think, also have been good for "EV Awareness" ... but clearly the big auto brands behind Ionity didn't take that punt ... their original sites were 4-stalls, and all the newer ones in UK are 6-stalls - I couldn't find any in UK that have more than 6 stalls ... not exactly Brave. (I couldn't find a list of Ionity Sites / Stalls, only an interactive map, but I would be curious to know what their biggest EU site is)

Ionity plan to have 7,000 stalls across Europe by 2025. Their website says that they currently have 2,080 stalls in EU ... that will be 30 new stalls, every week, between now and then ...
 
I see no benefit in forcing them ... better that innovative solutions, like GridServe, emerge. However, market forces will ultimately dictate; in Norway petrol pumps are being replaced (on forecourts) by Charge Stalls, to the point where ICE drivers will be having to start planning where they will refuel
Norway is way ahead and the government there is and has been pushing things much harder than over here though. The likes of BP and shell could be doing much more towards the carbon neutral goal and imho should be pressured in the same way as car makers. The 2035 deadline/target (set by the government) means nothing and risks being pushed if the infrastructure is not in place and I dont see much point in building a whole new infrastructure as of the likes of gridserve as it will take way to long when the many petrol stations could start fading in the process instead of just ending up deserted/wasted real estate which already serves for refuelling.
 
I think the key difference (aside from reliability / servicing) is that Tesla was bold enough to put plenty of stalls at each site. In 2014 Tesla were creating 4 and 8 stall sites (Ionity STILL only doing 6-stall sites in UK). By 2016 / 2017 Tesla were predominantly 8 stalls. Now several of those early sites have been expanded, and new sites are 12 - 16 stalls, and a couple are 24 stalls

That takes some money to "punt" on that. That has to be weighed against installing a couple of stalls and (presumably? hopefully?) infrastructure and planning to expand easily later.
I love driving along California's 5 freeway which has an impressive number of super chargers and multiple sites with 50+ stations. Now Arizona is getting the same treatment and a few other states are getting sites with 50+ stations. Going to be fun watching Mercedes/ChargePoint & Electrify America take that plunge.
 
I think the problem with Ionity is nobody realises it is owned by.a bunch of big brands. You still get some saying “only Tesla have built a charging network”, and while Ionity isn’t on the same scale as the supercharger network, none of the brands seemed to get any credit for at least starting to try.

Most of the issues with building the network seems to be getting the locations and power to them. I’m surprised they’ve not put a couple of rapids in the corner of the dealerships of all the Ionity brands, I recon it would help with both availability and brand awareness. And if they are doing that already, shows how badly they’ve promoted it!
I just wish they were building more of them faster - like with all DC fast charging.

It doesn’t really matter to me who is behind it, as long as it does what they say on the tin and isn’t overpriced.