After forming ‘Electrify America’ last year in order to comply with their settlement with the EPA and CARB over the Dieselgate scandal, Volkswagen set out to make a large investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the US.
Now Volkswagen is now doing the same in Canada with a new subsidiary called ‘Electrify Canada’.
The German automaker announced this week the formation of the new subsidiary that will “build an ultra-fast electric vehicle (EV) direct current (DC) charging network across Canada, which is anticipated to be operational starting in the second quarter of 2019.”
Daniel Weissland, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group Canada, commented on the announcement:
The Canadian electric vehicle market is growing, creating a great need for charging that is fast, convenient and available in key locations. We are thrilled to be able to offer this service and to take a leadership position in providing this key EV adoption enabler to the Canadian market.
They plan to deploy the same ‘ultra-fast’ 150kW to 350kW charging stations with CCS and CHAdeMO plugs as they are currently deploying in the US.
That said, the size of the network is much less ambitious than the one in the US. They are planning an “initial phase” of “32 EV charging sites near major highways and in major metro areas in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.”
Earlier this year, VW’s Electrify America unveiled their charging stations with new suppliers and they include options with charging capacities up to 350 kW, like this one in Virginia.
They also started opening some of their ultra-fast EV charging stations and they announced several partners for locations, including Walmart and Target.
A map of planned charging stations for the massive network is now available.
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