ZEV taxi company Viggo installs public HPC hubs

EV-exclusive ride-hailing company Viggo announced building a network of ultra-fast charging stations through its subsidiary ViggoEnergy founded last year. Viggo plans to open more than 60 urban hubs with 500 charge points accessible to the public as part of extensive plans to expand.

The Danish company set the timeline over the next three to four years as part of its European expansion plan and has already started installing charging stations.

Viggo opened its third and largest high-power charging hub near the central station in Copenhagen. It comprises five charge columns delivering up to 300 kW.

“This central Copenhagen hub is our 3rd and so far biggest hub – and it lays the foundation for our future European expansion,” said Kenneth Herschel, Viggo CEO.

The charging subsidiary ViggoEnergy allows roaming via Hubject so that any EV driver may access the Viggo charging stations.

“Over the last few years, we have seen a massive increase in demand for charging infrastructure in Scandinavia,” explained Herschel. “Rather than being part of the problem with our growing fleet, we decided to become part of the solution by building our own publicly accessible charging infrastructure.”

While the company did not disclose details on the charging stations other than capacity, other news saw ViggoEnergy work with charge point operator Spirii. Following our request of information, Viggo confirmed that Spirii was their charge point operator. The company was founded in 2019, focusing on offering an open charging platform to other companies, first in Denmark.

Viggo also launched in Copenhagen in the same year and has exclusively zero-emission cars in its fleet. In September 2021, the company added three Toyota Mirai fuel cell vehicles for the first time and upon entering Oslo, Norway.

The taxi service company has also stationed vehicles in Aarhus, Denmark. In October last year, Viggo had reportedly ordered 300 Fisker Ocean electric cars. Contract manufacturer Magna completed Fisker Ocean prototypes only a week ago. These will undergo final tests before series production begins in Graz on 17 November 2022.

The company also told electrive, that its 135-strong fleet includes mostly Tesla cars of all models as well as Jaguar I-PACE, Mercedes EQB, EQC, WQE & EQV, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Ford Mustang E-Mach Kia EV6. Viggo expects to receive the first Fisker Ocean in the fleet from Q2 2023.

The company offers rides at a fixed price displayed in the app, like Uber. Viggo calculates the cost at the time of booking based on the amount of traffic and the expected time the ride will take. There is also the option to book an electric cab and driver at an hourly rate.

ritzau.dk, mobilitywatch.dk (Spirii)