[Trapdoor]

The Volkswagen Group, Daimler, Ford, and BMW have inked a deal to set up what they have named “Ionity,” a high-power charging (HPC) network tailored to EVs in European countries. Germany, Norway, and Austria will be getting the first stations and these are going to be located at intervals of 120 kilometers (75 miles), so range anxiety shouldn’t be much of an issue in those parts of Europe that will be covered by Ionity.

VW, Daimler, Ford, BMW Team Up To Build Ionity Charging Network

BMW, Daimler, Ford and VW Group officially announce Ionity European EV charger network | Autocar

 

[Rooster-x]

By the end of 2018, there are going to be more than 100 stations utilizing the European charging standard Combined Charging System (CCS) and providing a maximum capacity of up to 350 kW per charging point.

Do we know of any EV's that can charge at 350kW yet? I guess the Ioniq has been known to charge at 70kW and maybe Tesla's charge at up to 135kW. Interesting times ahead, shame the new Leaf doesn't have battery cooling to take advantage of higher charging rates or have they addressed this shortcoming with a change in battery chemistry?

 

[Gavin Taylor]

"We support industry standardization with the use of the CCS standard, as it is the most commonly used charging standard that enables the majority of BEV drivers to use the charging network. The network will not be limited to vehicles from a single manufacturer but rather improve the experience for all BEV vehicles with the CCS standard.

Really ?

 

[Simon Hewison]

And their website is currently just a placeholder, no information on locations, availability, tariffs, helpline availability, payment options, or usage registration requirements... which is pretty much mandatory if you're talking about EV charging networks.

So, this is just regurgitating a press release from 2016, the only difference is that their offering now has a name, rather than "the proposed charging network established as a joint venture between Ford, VAG, BMW and Daimler".

 

[leafmonster]

Is the new leaf ccs or chardemo?

 

[MrPaulus]

This is a huge announcement. I’m surprised that it’s not being given more attention here.

 

[ASM]

It’s harder to get excited when charger network news is always about what is coming in the future.

Until there is a real physical charging asset in a location that you would use, it’s all tomorrow will be better than today - where “tomorrow” is often some indeterminate date.

 

[ScotstounPele]

New Leaf is Chademo.

None of the current Teslas, Nissan or Renault EVs use CCS. And that's a huge chunk of the current market.

Seems therefore that the emphasis is on selling CCS vehicles (and undermining the competition's charging standard) and shoring up VW/BMW's market share rather than establishing a profitable charging network. Interesting.

 

[leafmonster]

Chardemo is way better (more of). I would have to think twice before buyng a car with CCS or the other one.

 

[MrPaulus]

Chardemo is way better (more of). I would have to think twice before buyng a car with CCS or the other one.

Sorry, but Chademo is the past, CCS is the future. It’s the price of early adoption that there is now a better competing standard.

 

[Mangan]

What in the standards make one better than the other?

 

[proddick]

If 20 sites are going to be live before end of this year they must have already signed land leases and arranged HV supply to the sites. On that basis, I would have expected a list of sites to have been part of the press release.

There are some other threads about this on here, including this one from Nov 2016!

BLIMEY BMW, Ford, VW and others to create vast European EV charging network

Frankly, they really haven't done much in a year except come up with a name. Even the Apprentice candidates could do better

 

[proddick]

New Leaf is Chademo.

None of the current Teslas, Nissan or Renault EVs use CCS. And that's a huge chunk of the current market.

Seems therefore that the emphasis is on selling CCS vehicles (and undermining the competition's charging standard) and shoring up VW/BMW's market share rather than establishing a profitable charging network. Interesting.

The hope/expectation is that the Model 3 will have CCS in Europe so it can use these chargers. I suspect the Leaf will be the last new car to launch without CCS in Europe.

 

[Ed Straker's Car]

Sorry, but Chademo is the past, CCS is the future. It’s the price of early adoption that there is now a better competing standard.

Eh? We'd better tell Tesla then , J1772, Mennekes, SAE Combo, ChaDeMo, Tesla, all still relevant for years to come.
This is just a vain attempt to railroad sales not standardisation, Are 3 phase Zoe 40's in the past?
If they gave a hoot about a harmonised charging network they would be installing 3 headers, 22kW AC + the 2 most popular DC formats that 250k European cars already have, it wouldn't cost any more...

 

[pbceng]

Sorry, but Chademo is the past, CCS is the future. It’s the price of early adoption that there is now a better competing standard.

CCS is a cobbled together "standard" that's an add on to Mennekes or J1772 and results in a Frankenplug but has the advantage (to non-Japanese OEMs) of being incompatible with CHAdeMO. The latter is a very well thought out standard and is still included in the EU legislation even though CCs is the standard. Be honest, why would you expect the german automakers to support the most popular EV out there?

Looking at it from a business perspective it makes perfect sense for the German automakers to put in a CCS network since pretty much only they use it so they're supporting their products without assisting anyone else. Why would it be different? The 350kW is to try and get the charging time down primarily driven by Porsche and while there aren't any cars on the market that can take advantage of it yet, the Mission E is coming and it will provide a halo effect even if infrastructure limitations limit the reality. Having said that Tesla have managed to put in locations with multiple chargers capable of delivering 145kW each (split across two cables) so maybe it's not that big an issue. The Tesla chargers are at a fairly standard 400V though while the 350kW ones are 800V which will require some different hardware and presumably higher installation costs.

It's still a good move assuming they do more than install two chargers worldwide in two years!

 

[leafmonster]

I wonder if one could make an adaptor to charge chardemo cars from a CCS charger? It would need ac and dc elements.

 

[Simon Hewison]

I wonder if one could make an adaptor to charge chardemo cars from a CCS charger? It would need ac and dc elements.

No, it woudn't need AC. It would merely need to do the protocol conversion, and probably have a contactor for the DC bus, and some current loop measurements for safety. Entirely feasible. Getting it approved by BSi ,or TüV, or the Chademo association would be a challenge though, but it's no harder than Tesla's Chademo adapter. How much did Tesla spend getting their Chademo adapter to market? I'd guess it would be millions of dollars.

 

[Neilew]

Is the new leaf ccs or chardemo?

Chademo with type 2 instead of type 1 for home (and away?) charging.

 

[halcyonrichard]

Looks like things are happening behind the scenes so to speak. but I think DNO power connections will be a big factor concerning time scales. MRH group have over 450 fuel stations in the UK (edit currently 491 sites and growing) and are teaming up with Ionity. I just hope we see some evidence on the ground.

MRH partners with IONITY to roll out electric charging - Forecourt Trader

Richard

 

[halcyonrichard]

The Volkswagen Group, Daimler, Ford, and BMW have inked a deal to set up what they have named “Ionity,” a high-power charging (HPC) network tailored to EVs in European countries. Germany, Norway, and Austria will be getting the first stations and these are going to be located at intervals of 120 kilometers (75 miles), so range anxiety shouldn’t be much of an issue in those parts of Europe that will be covered by Ionity.

VW, Daimler, Ford, BMW Team Up To Build Ionity Charging Network

BMW, Daimler, Ford and VW Group officially announce Ionity European EV charger network | Autocar

20 stations are complete and 50 should be operational. The second link has this quote in which suggests 20 stations are already complete and it is a target of 50 by year end (2017)

"So far, 20 stations have been completed of a projected 400 charging stations planned by 2020. The network currently stretches along major routes in Germany, Austria and Norway, with 120km between each station. The short-term target is 50 stations by the end of the year(2017)."

Richard