The new charging stations form part of an 350kW charge network. The provider, Ionity is an energy venture established by major automotive manufacturers Daimler, Ford, BMW, plus the Volkswagen Group (Audi and Porsche). The objective is to offer faster charging for electric vehicles, which the backing consortium will hope to drive up sales.
The move reflects a growth in High-Power Charging sites throughout Europe. The first U.K. station will be fitted with four High Power charger. Each of the chargers can charge up to 350kW. By ‘high-power’ this reflects an alternative to most other charging points, which are 50kW.
The charging station is located in Maidstone, which is in the county of Kent and accessible via the M20 motorway. Ionity plans to expand the charging points, with locations in Milton Keynes and Gretna Green expected to follow later in 2019. The U.K. model builds on other charging points that the Ionity group have fitted in different parts of Europe, with the vision of promoting across-European travel for electric vehicles.
With the charging stations, Ionity has worked with the energy provider company Octopus. This is to ensure that the energy provided to the charging stations drawn from renewable sources. Octopus was formed in April 2016 and the company provides power to some 700,000 businesses and homes in the U.K.
Ionity indicate that the new high-powered charging points are also future proof, in terms of being upscaled as charging technology advances. The long-term aim is to have a system that can produce charging times as low as eight minutes. This will depend on how infrastructure develops and also to vehicle type, mainly relating to the capacity of an electric vehicle’s battery.
Discussing the development, Michael Hajesch, who is the CEO of Ionity, stated: “We selected Octopus Energy to provide 100 percent renewable energy for our network of 40 High Power Charging stations in the UK. Coupled with the new charging times that 350 kW makes possible, this represents an important step towards making the environmentally friendly long-distance journey an everyday reality.”
As technology advances, in terms of charging stations and battery design, the prospect of e-mobility becoming a convenient, reliable and everyday experience draws ever closer.
