[Greenie]

Since Mini falls under BMW, this should apply to future EVs from this badge as well. BMW has joined the Ionity fast charger network in Europe and it's a group consisting of automakers including Daimler, Volkswagen, and Ford.

I'm guessing they're trying to compete with Tesla or other charging companies because there's money to be made with more and more people going full electric. Guess they want to be a part of that as well. The group will build around 400 fast chargers around the main Europe travel routes.
Motoring has more info on this: https://www.motoring.com.au/fast-charging-network-starts-in-europe-109693/

Good news for everyone assuming this network won't be limited to their cars only like Tesla's superchargers.

 

[Josh911]

400 fast chargers by 2020...

I thought in 2020 we will have fast EV charger in almost every corner... Don't you guys think that it's pretty small number for such period of time?

 

[MiniFootPrint]

It probably has to do more with market share than with anything else because right now europe is still in love with diesel engines, that has been slowing down EV development for them so its easy to see why these brands would want to get a head start so soon. Its good enough that even Tesla might want to join them, its one of the only ways they can go forward even faster and ensure the EV market takes off even stronger.

 

[Josh911]

Why would Tesla want to join Ionity, if it has its own Supercharger network around the world? It doesn't make any sense to me.
Currently, Tesla has 7,320 superchargers in 1,043 stations worldwide, 349 of them are in Europe.

 

[Josh911]

OMG, Europe keep investing money in the EV market. UK just committed £400m ($530m) for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. I guess in a few years, UK will be the most ev-friendly country in the world with all these charging stations and other incentives that the government provides.

 

[Greenie]

Wish the rest of the world would follow suit. I do understand that chargers may be sparser in less travel led areas, but the cities and roads between them could use a few more chargers. Or have them more accessible at pit stops and restaurants.

 

[Mr. Twister]

Wish the rest of the world would follow suit. I do understand that chargers may be sparser in less travel led areas, but the cities and roads between them could use a few more chargers. Or have them more accessible at pit stops and restaurants.

That would be great for European countries! For example, the route from Brussel (Belgium) to Amsterdam (Netherlands) takes only 3 hours (213km),
if each country will provide at least one charging station on that path the whole way from one county to another will be easily accessible even for the low-battery life EVs.

 

[MiniFootPrint]

charging won't be an issue as long as you plan ahead of time where you will need to charge
as a bonus if you plan on getting this Mini, by time it comes out, far more chargers will be out, Tesla actually has an aggressive plan for that

 

[Greenie]

Here's what the Ionity chargers could looks like, with large easy-to-use touchscreens and halo lights above the stations. They'll be ultra fast 350kW chargers, even better than Tesla's 145kW Superchargers, but they seem to be limited to Europe for now.

 

[Tandy]

Pretty cool looking chargers. Has there been any indication of an inflated charging cost due to the extra kW? Surely these could charge your average EV at a much quicker rate.

 

[Greenie]

You're still using the same amount of electricity at these stations, so I assume the cost should be similar than the average charger. Actually think these will make them more money even if they don't charge a premium because there's going to be a higher turnover rate when cars can plug and go in a short amount of time.

 

[Coops]

Well we know that typically you have to pay extra for convenience, but you're right that there may be more money in sheer volume. Have they given any sort of approximation of what the charge time would be with these superchargers? I know the Tesla stations can typically get you to 80% in around 30-40 mins, which really doesn't seem that improved over any other quick charging station.

 

[Medieval]

Here's what the Ionity chargers could looks like, with large easy-to-use touchscreens and halo lights above the stations. They'll be ultra fast 350kW chargers, even better than Tesla's 145kW Superchargers, but they seem to be limited to Europe for now.

That's just awesome. Supercharger is the way to go but by 2020, I don't know how many Superfast charger can cater for the whole Europe

 

[MiniFootPrint]

Can't be that hard to roll them out but we'd have to look at where they get part from because that can very well suggest how efficient of a timeline they can operate on.
To be honest its the least of my concerns, car maker are already trying to optimize home charging.

 

[Tandy]

Some of the smaller companies putting out charge stations do seem to be a little more focused on where the electricity comes from over these partnered conglomerates. I mean we aren't really going to be reducing emissions by all that much if we're still relying on coal and gas to power these things.