Germany: First Fastned High Power Charging station live

Fastned opens their first ultra-fast charging in Germany today. Located on the A3 motorway, the site serves electric car drivers with charging powers of up to 350 kW. It is the first of 25 such stations the Dutch will install across the country with hundreds more planned across Europe.

Fastned was quick to secure funding from the German government that allocated 4.1 million euros. Enough for the Dutch company to install 25 charging stations with no less than 17 scheduled to be ready this year.

The first such location in Germany features two such HPC points with one ChaDeMo and CCS connection each. For now, their charging power is limited to 175 kW (CCS) and 50 kW (ChaDeMo) but Fastned says they are configured to deliver 350 kW with some minor changes needed once the first such electric vehicles will get on the road. Another classic multi-standard charger joins the bunch at the A3 motorway close to Limburg.

In general, Fastned uses a modular design for their charging stations, so that the company may add high power charging points as required. While the German location has two installed for now, it is ready to be expanded to up to 8. Another stopp located at “De Watering” in the Netherlands however, only includes two stops but both are ready for HPC at 350 kW.

The latest station also features Fastned’s Autocharge function that is to make any fob or charge card redundant in future. Instead the charging station recognises the vehicle once registered with Fastned and automatically starts charging via CCS.

Overall, Fastned aims to install a network of 1,000 charging locations across Europe. To date, the Dutch company operates 73 charging sites in the Netherlands. Apart from Germany that is to become one of their main markets, Fastned is preparing to enter the UK reportedly as well as Belgium to install a few hundred high power charging stations there as well.