New ‘ultra-fast 350 kW charging stations’ for EVs to be deployed in Europe in partnership with Audi, BMW and others

Ultra E, a project born out of an alliance between European carmakers, utilities and other companies, announced today the deployment of 25 new charging station for electric vehicles along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T).

The group is referring to the stations as “Ultra-Fast-Charging” and claims that they have a power output of “up to 350 kW” or more than twice the capacity of the currently most powerful DC fast-chargers available. 

The network will be using the CCS charging standard and it will be connecting the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria.

Currently, there is no passenger electric car capable of charging at a rate anything close to 350 kW, Tesla’s vehicles have the highest capacity at 120 kW, but in the meantime, the network will be used by electric buses and trucks which are starting to be deployed.

Electric cars will also be able to use the system with a charge rate of 50 kW, but the Ultra-E alliance expects that passenger cars capable of charging at 350 kW will arrive by 2018 – when the project is expected to be completed.

We are talking about adding around 190 miles (300 km) of range in about 20 minutes.

Interestingly, several automakers are part of the initiative including, Audi, BMW and Renault. Audi is part of the Volkswagen Group, like Porsche, who is developing a charging infrastructure with a similar capacity.

Allego is the company building and deploying the station. Dr. Marcus Groll, Director High Power Charging at Allego GmbH, stated:

“We are very happy to start the Ultra-E project with a strong partner consortium now and thereby build an important first cornerstone for the European Ultra-Fast-Charging infrastructure of the future,”

The project represents a 13 million euros investment. Half of the money is coming  from the fund for the “Connecting Europe Facility” of the European Union and the rest is split between the partners of the Ultra-E alliance: Allego BV (coordinator), Allego BVBA, Allego GmbH, VERBUND AG / SMATRICS, Bayern Innovativ GmbH, Audi AG, BMW AG, Magna, Renault S.A, and Hubject GmbH.