Four of the biggest car companies in the world have signed a formal agreement to work together on building a new European charging network to support electric vehicles.
Ford, the BMW Group, Daimler AG (which owns Mercedes-Benz) and the Volkswagen Group aim to set-up a network of 1,000 fast chargers along major routes across Europe. The electric vehicle chargers will offer power levels of up to 350kW.
This project is due to start in 2017, with an initial target of 400 sites across Europe. The car companies supporting the project hope to have “thousands” of charging stations accessible to customers by 2020.
In a statement, Ford said that the planned infrastructure would make it easier to use electric vehicles on long journeys, since the charging stations will be situated on motorways and other major roads.
The new charging network will be available to drivers of any electric vehicle equipped with Combined Charging System technology, regardless of manufacturer. This particular system allows for the super-fast 350kW power output, which Ford says is “significantly faster than the most powerful system deployed today”.
Ford has also said that electric car charging “is expected to evolve to be as convenient as refuelling at conventional gas stations”.
