30 charge parks by the end of 2024: Mercedes to build European HPC network

Mercedes-Benz plans to open its first 30 fast-charging parks in Europe, with a combined total of more than 200 charging points, by the end of 2024 as part of its announced global HPC network. The first location is to be built this year in Mannheim, Germany.

The Welt am Sonntag reports this with reference to Franz Reiner, head of the subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Mobility. Mercedes-Benz’s first HPC charging location in Europe will open in Mannheim this year. It will almost simultaneously open the first locations in Atlanta, USA, and in Chengdu, China.

Worldwide, Mercedes plans to install an initial 2,000 charging points by the end of 2024, 200 of them in Europe. The carmaker announced the far-reaching plans at the CES in January, mentioning 10,000 HPC points by 2030. In March, Reiner specified that the installation would begin in the fourth quarter of 2023 in the US, Germany, and France. The 350 kW charging points are open to the public, but Mercedes customers will receive some advantages (such as a reservation function).

Mercedes has yet to announce any concrete locations in Europe other than Mannheim. Mercedes (unlike Tesla) will not build the charging points themselves. “We at Mercedes-Benz do not expect to apply directly for government subsidies for the charging stations. As a rule, our partners will do that,” Reiner told the German paper. It is unclear to what extent a subsidy, which usually requires non-discriminatory access, is compatible with the reservation function only available for Mercedes drivers.

Mercedes is not planning a lounge like Porsche built at its first location in Bingen am Rhein. But the charging stations will have a roof and “other amenities in the near vicinity”, for example, at the car dealership next door. “We are guided by demand and the feedback from our customers. First of all, the availability of the charging infrastructure is in the foreground, with a digital payment process and the possibility of reserving charging points in advance,” Reiner is quoted saying.

Incidentally, it is still unclear which charging partner Mercedes will work with in Europe. For the construction of the North American charging parks, the Stuttgart-based carmaker is cooperating with MN8 Energy and ChargePoint. By 2027, the partners will build a network of more than 400 locations with more than 2,500 HPC chargers in the US and Canada.

welt.de (in German)