Partnership Established by Automakers to Develop EV Charging Network Across North America

A new charging network is being established in North America by a coalition of seven prominent automakers. Their ultimate goal is to install 30,000 high-powered charge points in urban and highway areas. The companies involved in this joint effort are BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, and Stellantis. In a statement, the coalition expressed their intention to expedite the adoption of electric vehicles and enhance the appeal of zero-emission driving.

The goal of this project is 30,000 new charging points, and the companies say they will “attack public and private funds” to get there. After all, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that the country will need about 182,000 fast chargers to meet the massive flood of electric cars on the road by 2030. This project represents a large part of these needs.

These stations use the Combined Charging System (CCS) and the North American Charging Standard (NACS). It’s worth mentioning that Tesla’s chargers use the NACS charging type, and the company recently opened up the technology to other EV manufacturers.

This new joint program will officially begin operations sometime this year, assuming it meets regulatory approval requirements, and plans to open its first stations next summer. Each site has multiple chargers and plenty of amenities including canopies, restaurants, restrooms and integrated brick-and-mortar stores.

Electric car sales are expected to account for more than 50 percent of total car sales by 2030, so the more charging stations available, the better. To this end, some of the companies participating in this project are also working on their own to build more charging stations. For example, GM promises to build 40,000 charging stations in car dealerships throughout the United States and Canada.