USA: Ionna officially opens first charging station

Ionna, the North American fast-charging joint venture between BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and Toyota, has officially opened its first charging hub as well as its headquarters in North Carolina. The goal is to deploy over 1,000 EV charging points by the end of the year.

Ionna began construction of its first charging hub, called ‘Rechargery,’ in Apex, North Carolina, in October 2024. The site is now officially open for business. It features four DC fast-chargers, with eight more under construction. All ten chargers will offer up to 400 kW via CCS and NACS.

And it won’t be the only Rechargery in the US for long. The CPO says that it has contracted more than 100 sites already, on top of the two locations to open later this week, namely in Houston, Texas and Abilene, Kansas. Another six locations are already under construction, including a charging hub in Willcox, Arizona.

The company claims it will “set a new standard for interoperability and ease of use in 2025.” It already offers Plug & Charge and wants to continue to increase the number of automakers able to use the technology. Furthermore, Ionna intends to offer “AI-driven smart reservations/routing optimization, in-car payments, and other features,” claiming: “the most integration-rich charging network in America is on its way.”

There will be another first: The charging hub in Garner, North Carolina, will also feature one of Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” convenience stores. Customers tap their credit card or mobile wallet when entering the store, take what they need, and leave without standing in a checkout line. Cameras and weight sensors see what the customer is taking, and the store charges them automatically.

For Ionna, the opening of the Rechargery in North Carolina marks the end of its beta phase, during which “automaker vehicle fleets and everyday drivers helped stress-test the IONNA network, completing more than 4,400 charging sessions, on over 80 unique vehicle models, and dispensing nearly 63 thousand kilowatt-hours of energy.” As mentioned above, the company plans to install at least one 1,000 charging bays by the end of the year. By 2030, the network hopes to offer “over 30,000 ultra-fast-and-reliable charging points.”

Seven carmakers—BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis—joined forces in the summer of 2023 to create a charging joint venture for the US and Canada. Toyota later joined in the summer of 2024. The joint venture received antitrust approvals in February and announced its headquarters in Durham in the US state of North Carolina, as well as the appointment of several key executives to its leadership team in June.

ionna.com, linkedin.com, ionna.com (list of locations)