German automakers unveil design of their own high-powered electric car charging network

Ionity, the new ‘ultra-fast’ joint electric car charging network by BMW, Mercedes, Ford and Volkswagen, is arguably the biggest development in electric car charging infrastructure since Tesla’s Supercharger network.

Now it gets a new design more worthy of its significance for European electric car deployment.

The company describes the new design:

“As if it were floating, the light box sits like a roof over the slender vertical pylon, giving the charging station the appearance of a beacon, an effect, which is particularly striking at night. In keeping with the character of EMobility, the station’s architecture conveys an open, light and warm sense of space. Crisp, simple structures and surfaces, smart interfaces and a mixture of robust lightweight materials merge together into a seamless ‘charging experience’. In keeping with the IONITY logo, the colours represent the flow of energy during the charging process as depicted by the charge status.”

Here are images of the new design:

While the company has already started deploying some stations, IONITY COO Dr. Marcus Groll says that the new design shows “things to come”:

“Our charging station design concept is a clear signal to our shareholders, partners and customers alike that this is the shape of things to come.”

They are planning 400 stations with a capacity of up to 350 kW across Europe by 2020. They started work on the first 20 stations last year and they plan to hit a total of 100 stations this year.

Last month, we reported on them unveiling the map of planned stations.

Electrek’s Take

I like what I see. I think that Tesla definitely put a lot of work into making their charging stations look good, but I can’t say the same for most other networks out there.

But now what Ionity came up with looks better than any other charging station I ‘ve seen before and more importantly, a lot better than your average gas station.

Also, Ionity previously guided “roughly 6 charge points” per station so it’s encouraging to see up to 10 charge points on this concept station.