UK: IONITY opens first HPC EV charging park

Ionity has opened its first high power charging park in the UK with four charging stations with up to 350 kW capacity. The CCS charging park is located in Maidstone, Kent Kent and Ionity say it will soon add locations at Milton Keynes and Gretna Green.

In total, the network backed by most German carmakers and Ford intends to install more than 40 high power charging sites on the Isles. With the first HPC station open in Kent, located off Junction 8 of the M20 in Maidstone, Ionity says that more are to follow in Buckinghamshire, Scotland and other locations across the country.

Power for the chargers will be provided by Octopus Energy, who is using 100% renewable sources for their power.

http://twitter.com/IONITY_EU/status/1129305576108904448

For now, no electric car available on the market can make full use of the 350 kW provided. The first EV to get close to it will be the Porsche Taycan, and for now, the Audi e-tron also takes up to 150 kW. However, Ionity’s CCS charge points can also provide slower charge rates.

There are not many 150kW charging stations in the UK, apart from those recently announced by rival firm BP Chargemaster, but most public charging points are 50kW. Here Autocar quotes an Ionity spokesman saying “we are now seeing cars coming to market with capability far beyond 50kW charging, so an advanced charging network is a key part of the EV jigsaw”.

Overall, Ionity is working to install 400 HPC locations in 23 European countries in the next two years. The joint venture from Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Porsche and Volkswagen is positive to complete the construction of its announced high power charging sites along motorways as planned by the end of next year. Ionity CEO Michael Hajesch claims they had secured contracts for about 95 per cent of the scheduled locations and that rapid progress, as well as expansion, can be expected.

carsuk.net, autoexpress.co.uk, autocar.co.uk

Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.