Ionity

The headquarters of Ionity is located in Munich (Germany).

History

Creation of the joint venture and network of charging stations for electric vehicles

BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Group, including Audi and Porsche, announced on November 3, 2017 creation of Ionity joint venture which will be engaged in development and construction of network of high-power charging stations for electric vehicles across the whole Europe. It is expected that continuously growing staff of the company will total 50 people already by the beginning of 2018.

Founder partners, BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Group, have equal shares in joint venture and are open for participation of other car makers in expansion of network of charging stations.

Fords and the German car makers will create the all-European network of charging stations for electric vehicles

Construction of network of charging stations

In total construction about 400 stations of superfast charging by 2020 is planned that will make travel on electric vehicles on a long distance comfortable. Investments into infrastructure emphasize gravity of intentions of producers concerning development of a segment of electric vehicles. Project participants hope for the international cooperation in this sphere between all participants of the industry.

Existence of the developed network of high-power charging stations — necessary conditions for penetration of electric vehicles on mass market. Ionity will help to achieve the general for us the goal — to provide clients with superfast charging with a possibility of payment by an electronic method, to make comfortable travel on a long distance — Michael Hajesch, CEO Ionity is convinced.

In total 20 stations are going to be put into operation in 2017. They will be located along the main roads of Germany, Norway and Austria with an interval of 120 km and set at gas stations and the stations of service of such companies as Tank & Rast, Circle K and OMV. In 2018 the number of charging sets will already exceed 100, and everyone will allow to load at the same time at once several electric vehicles of different brands.

Power of stations

Each point of charging will be able to provide a charge current with power up to 350 kW, charging will be made using the system of the combined charging by direct and alternating current of Combined Charging System of the European type. It will allow to reduce considerably time, necessary for completion of a charge of accumulators, in comparison with the existing charging systems. It is expected that the lack of a binding to a specific brand and a wide covering of network will help to make the electrified vehicles more attractive to the mass consumer.

Choice of places

When choosing the best places for installation of charging sets the ability to integrate with the existing charging points was considered. For this Ionity conducts negotiations on accession to the existing infrastructure initiatives, including with participation of political institutes.