Volkswagen Group announced that, together with its partners, it installed more than 15,000 high-power charging (HPC) points with an output of up to 350 kilowatts (kW) around the world.
The company said that it considers charging "not only a precondition for e-mobility, but also a high-potential strategic business area of the future." This indicates the willingness for significant investments in the charging infrastructure.
The number of 15,000 fast chargers (as of the end of 2022) is a third of the mid-term goal of 45,000 HPC, which the company plans to install by 2025 in three main markets:
- Europe: 18,000
- North America: 10,000
- China: 17,000
- Total: 45,000 by 2025 (goal announced at Power Day 2021)
This year, the group would like to add some 10,000 HPC for a total of 25,000 (including 10,000 in Europe).
Of course, the Volkswagen Group does not install fast chargers alone, but rather depending on the market, it does so through subsidiaries or joint ventures with partners:
- in Europe:
- Ionity, a joint venture between Volkswagen Group (Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche), BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, later joined also by the Hyundai Motor Group
- Ewiva (announced in 2022), a joint venture in Italy with Enel X Way, a member of the Enel Group
- partnership with BP (to install about 8,000 fast-charging points across Europe, including Volkswagen Components' Flexpole fast-charging stations)
- partnership with Iberdrola (main traffic arteries in Spain) - in North America:
- Electrify America (and Electrify Canada), a subsidiary created as a consequence of Volkswagen Group's Dieselgate - in China:
- CAMS, a joint venture with JAC, FAW, and Star Charge
According to Electrify America, the network in the United States consists of 791 stations with 3,435 individual fast chargers. The plan is to increase that number to about 1,800 stations and over 10,000 chargers by 2026 (counting together the US and Canada).
In the case of the Ionity network, the number of stations recently exceeded 450 (the 400th station was installed a year ago) with almost 2,100 individual chargers. By 2025, the company would like to have more than 1,000 stations and about 7,000 chargers.
