Volkswagen is expanding charging network for e-cars with energy group Enel

Volkswagen is building its own charging infrastructure

An electric car from VW is parked at a charging station in Berlin: Volkswagen wants to make access to charging stations as quick and easy as possible.

(Photo: dpa)

Dusseldorf Volkswagen is taking the next step in expanding its European fast-charging network for electric cars. The Wolfsburg group founded the joint venture Ewiva with the Italian energy group Enel, which started operations on Tuesday. The joint venture aims to set up 3,000 fast charging points at 700 locations throughout Italy by 2025. A first charging station was inaugurated in the Italian capital Rome.

VW CEO Oliver Blume said in a press conference: “This is another milestone in the development of our charging infrastructure”. Both partners are each investing 100 million euros in setting up an Italian fast-charging network.

When building up its charging network, the Wolfsburg car manufacturer is primarily concentrating on Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Italy. In order to save money, the car manufacturer is cooperating with partners from the energy sector such as BP and the Spanish electricity producer Iberdrola.

The planned rapid charging stations should further increase the acceptance of electric vehicles. The Ewiva fast chargers with a charging capacity of up to 350 kilowatt hours (kW) are installed primarily for long-distance traffic along important main routes. The batteries of the currently available e-cars could be charged in about 30 minutes, they say.

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Building an efficient charging network is an “enormous challenge,” emphasized VW boss Blume. Volkswagen is concentrating on regions where there are currently no or very few charging stations. With the expansion of the charging network, a new business area is emerging with which Volkswagen can earn additional money. Even current electricity price increases, such as in Europe, would not stop the upswing in electromobility.

VW Group is expanding the network worldwide

“Our fast-charging network in Europe is already larger than that of our competitors, and also larger than that of Tesla,” says CTO Thomas Schmall, who is responsible for the battery and charging business on the VW Group Board. According to its own statements, VW and its partners have 16,000 fast charging points in Europe, and Tesla has around 10,000.

Oliver Blume

VW CEO Oliver Blume presented the joint venture with the Italian energy group Enel.

(Photo: Reuters)

The VW Group also wants to expand its fast charging network in China and the USA. By 2025, there should be around 45,000 fast chargers worldwide under VW direction. Around 18,000 fast charging points are planned for the whole of Europe in the same year, announced manager Blume.

Other car manufacturers and companies from the energy sector are also investing in the expansion: According to the management consultancy Roland Berger, the number of charging stations worldwide grew by around 37 percent in the first half of 2022. With the increasing number of electric cars, charging is gradually becoming a lucrative business for network operators.

According to the Federal Network Agency, a total of 59,228 normal charging points and 11,523 fast charging points were reported in Germany on October 1st. That’s an increase of 20 percent for normal chargers and about 29 percent for fast chargers since January 1 of this year.

>> Read about this: The lack of raw materials could hinder the further expansion of electromobility

“Companies continue to invest heavily in the expansion of the charging offer,” said Kerstin Andreae, General Manager of the Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). “Quite simply because electric mobility continues to develop stably, above all thanks to the European CO2 fleet limits and the convincing products.”

VW board member Schmall: No lack of electricity

Volkswagen does not see any problems with the power supply due to further increasing sales of electric vehicles. “We have enough energy for it,” emphasized CTO Schmall. The electricity must be used intelligently and charging distributed accordingly over the entire day. This makes it easier to use renewable energy.

In the future, the entire automotive industry wants to offer its electric vehicles as buffers and intermediate storage systems for energy generation. For this, e-cars must be equipped with “bidirectional” charging technology. Such cars can not only store the electricity, but also feed it back into the power grid. This allows solar or wind power to be stored, which is produced again and again when nobody needs it.

So far, only very few electric cars are equipped with this charging technology for two directions. Board member Schmall said that the Wolfsburg manufacturer is working intensively on it. “Probably by the middle of next year, we want to offer bidirectional charging in practically every electric model,” he promised.

More: Boss Oliver Blume now wants to take action at VW.

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