Page 13 - UTILITIES

A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 15 May 2018

Race is on to set up Europe's electric car charging network

By DAVID McHUGH hicle. The 58-year-old Ber-
AP Business Writer lin geography teacher is a
MUNICH (AP) — Charging proud owner of a Mitsubishi
an electric car away from Outlander, a plug-in hy-
home can be an exercise brid that combines internal
in uncertainty — hunting combustion with a battery
for that one lonely station he can charge overnight.
at the back of a rest-area The battery-only range of
parking lot and hoping it's 50 kilometers (30 miles) lets
working. him drive emissions free for
In Europe, some of the big- daily trips at home.
gest automakers are out But a family vacation of
to remove such anxieties more than 200 kilometers
from the battery-only driv- (120 miles) to the Baltic Sea
ing experience and en- was a different story.
courage electric-vehicle Hoedt had to drive on in-
sales by building a highway ternal combustion before
network of fast charging finding a lone charging sta-
stations. The idea is to let tion as he approached his
drivers plug in, charge in destination, using the go-
minutes instead of hours, ingelectric.de website.
and speed off on their way "It was right next to the high-
— from Norway to southern way, there was one charg-
Italy and Portugal to Po- ing station and we were
land. lucky that it was free," he
Much is at stake for the au- In this Friday, May 11, 2018 photo a Ionity charging station sits at the rest stop Brohltal Ost at the said. But he couldn't find a
tomakers, which include A61 motorway in Niederzissen, Germany. charging station he could
Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler Assoiciated Press use by the seashore.
and Ford. Their joint ven- On the way back, he was
ture, Munich-based Ion- Associated Press in an in- said, speaking at the com- into the next industrial area able to charge at a rest
ity, is pushing to roll out its terview he's "confident" pany's Munich headquar- and finding a charging stop, but only by asking
network in time to service the company will reach its ters near the 1972 Olympic station somewhere, with- a non-electric car owner
the next generation of goal of 400 ultra-fast charg- stadium. out light, or any amenities to move his vehicle away
battery-only cars coming ing stations averaging six The idea is to break electric around, but right at the au- from the lone charging
on the market starting next charging places each by cars out of the early adopt- tobahn." pole. A battery-only car
year. They're aiming to win 2020. er niche, in which they are "If you're going from Ham- might never have made it
back some of the market The idea is "to be able to charged slowly overnight burg to Munich, because home.
share for electric luxury car drive long distances with at home and used for short it's a weekend trip to And he couldn't use one
sales lost to Tesla, which has battery electric vehicles, commutes. friends, typically you do not to visit his cousin 650 kilo-
have much time," he said. meters (400 miles) away in
So what counts will be "the Rosenheim.
speed of recharging your "I looked at the option...
vehicles, and at the same The infrastructure is still so
time finding maybe some bad, I just don't want to
amenities: maybe a cof- risk that I get stranded," he
fee, getting a newspaper said. "Once the infrastruc-
or whatever." ture gets better, that might
Ionity opened its first station be my next car."
April 17 at a rest stop off the Tesla has shown how
A61 highway near the small charging infrastructure can
town of Niederzissen, 50 ki- drive vehicle sales. It has
lometers (30 miles) south of 1,229 stations with 9,623 fast
Bonn in western Germany. chargers in Europe alone,
The six high-speed chargers where it has cut into Mer-
are operating in "welcome cedes and BMW's sales of
mode," meaning they're luxury cars. But it has its own
free until May 31. After that, proprietary plug. Ionity is us-
Ionity plans to charge for ing the CCS plug backed
the power, which it seeks by the European Union as
to obtain from renewable a common standard for all.
sources. In both the U.S. and Europe,
Ionity has agreements for the situation is roughly simi-
some 300 sites, working with lar: More chargers avail-
In this Friday, May 11, 2018 photo a man charges his BMW electric vehicle at the rest stop Brohltal fueling station and rest stop able in jurisdictions where
Ost at the A61 motorway in Niederzissen, Germany. landlords. The average dis- government strongly backs
tance between stations will electric vehicles, such as
be 120 kilometers (75 miles). California, Norway or the
its own, proprietary fast- across Europe and to have "The sites we are looking for More charging availability Netherlands. Elsewhere,
charging network. the same experience at are really the A-sites," he is what it will take to get an chargers get can harder
Despite a slower-than-ex- each station, meaning a said, "directly at the auto- environmentally aware car to find for long stretches
pected start, Ionity CEO very easy and comfortable bahn. Not down the road, buyer like Rainer Hoedt to along rural highways.
Michael Hajesch told The customer journey," Hajesch not driving five kilometers choose a battery-only ve- q