The charging network provider ChargePoint has concluded a new round of equity financing. The company has raised $127 million (€107 million), mostly from existing investors.

Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) opened a 50-space charging station at its Arizona Proving Grounds to help the company test battery and charging performance in scorching weather. VWGoA says it is “one of the most extensive EV charging stations”.

New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced an extensive investment program for e-mobility. The ‘EV Make Ready’ initiative includes the construction of 50,000 AC and 1,500 DC charging stations in the US state by 2025.

Volkswagen’s so-called Transparent Factory in Dresden has expanded its car park charging infrastructure with 32 additional charging stations. The facility and showcase visitor centre now has 64 charging stations in operation, 36 of which are open to the public.

Plugsurfing announced a cooperation with the eMobility-Startup &Charge. The app from &Charge enables customers in Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to buy online and offline from partners and receive as a bonus free “kilometers” to redeem with traction power providers.

The ChargeNow charging service operated by Digital Charging Solutions for the BMW Group was renamed BMW Charging and Mini Charging respectively as of 1 July. Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) continues to operate the services.

The UK-based Engie has agreed to launch a partnership with waste management company Biffa to provide electric vehicle charging facilities across their UK sites. This is to support Biffa’s ‘Resourceful, Responsible’ sustainability strategy.

The Austrian government is increasing purchase premiums and subsidies for charging infrastructure for zero-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles from 1 July. This includes zero-emission and plug-in hybrid cars, zero-emission heavy and light commercial vehicles, zero-emission buses, and electric two-wheelers – including e-motorbikes, mopeds, e-bikes and e-cargo bikes. 

McDonald’s wants to set up hundreds of fast charging points for electric cars branches in Great Britain in cooperation with InstaVolt. The rapid chargers are designed for charging capacities of up to 125 kW. New Aldi branches in the UK are also to receive charging points – but at a much slower rate.

ABB has received a major order for charging infrastructure worth around five million US dollars through the Chinese charging specialist Chargedot: The Chinese manufacturing joint venture GAC Toyota is ordering several thousand AC wall boxes.

Volvo Cars is now cooperating with PlugSurfing to offer its customers access to the more than 200,000 charging points of the Plugsurfing network. Volvo’s Polestar electric car brand recently joined the Plugsurfing network.

The new model year of Jaguar’s only all-electric car I-Pace now includes a three-phase AC charger for faster charging and a new infotainment system. The latter has extended functionalities for planning a route including charge stops. The company has also adjusted its pricing.

Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) have developed a joint public charging service. My Easy Charge gives customers of the FCA Group’s BEV and PHEV models access to over 130,000 charging points in 21 European countries.

The European Commission supports the establishment of charging stations for electric vehicles in Schleswig-Holstein through the German state. At least 1,500 additional charging points are to be created in Germany’s northernmost federal state and up to six bus depots are to be equipped with charging stations.

Bosch’s Europe-wide network of charging stations has currently passed the 150,000 chargepoint mark and is to be expanded to around 200,000 chargepoints by the end of 2020. The German company is focusing primarily on roaming agreements.

In time for the on-sale of the VW ID.3 electric car, Volkswagen is launching the wall box ID.Charger. It is available to order online for clients in eight European countries, and the basic version costs 399 euros – without installation.

The Greek government has announced extensive subsidies to foster electric mobility in the country. The goal is for every third vehicle to be electric by 2030 as the country introduces purchase premiums as well as furthering charging infrastructure.

BMW has just signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese state-owned energy supplier State Grid to drive forward the expansion of the Chinese store network for electric cars. One of the goals is to more than double the existing range of charging points to around 270,000 by the end of this year.

In an economic stimulus package following the Corona crisis, the German government has included several measures to promote electric mobility. The most powerful one is that the state is doubling its share of the environmental bonus in the form of a new “innovation premium”.

Polestar will be cooperating with Plugsurfing in Europe to offer its customers access to the 195,000 charging points of the Plugsurfing network. This should make public charging easier across national borders.

With over 14,000 DC charging stations installed, the Swiss ABB group is among the biggest suppliers of charging infrastructure. The market is developing quickly and will continue to change at a rapid pace in the coming years.

EnBW and Smatrics found Smatrics mobility+ GmbH. The joint venture aims to operate the largest charging network in Austria and, above all, to expand high power charging. All Smatrics charging stations will be transferred to the new operating company.

Together with partner HDI, Mercedes-Benz Bank now offers “comprehensive” insurance cover for hybrid and electric vehicles. The new electric protection module is automatically added to insurance policies for EVs and thus does not incur any additional costs.

Slovakian navigation specialist Sygic has introduced an electric car mode to its App Sygic GPS Navigation. The new EV Mode allows route planning with compatible charging points, payment without installing an additional app and real-time data from the stations.

EV powertrain developer Lightning Systems has just announced Lightning Mobile, a mobile DC fast charger for electric vehicles. The mobile fast charger can be quickly deployed to provide fast roadside charging to support the operation of electric fleet commercial vehicles.

After first giving us his polarising observations on how not to make it in the business of charging infrastructure in last week’s guest contribution, the mobility consultant and former Hubject CEO Thomas Daiber now delivers the five biggest Do’s for growth and lasting success.

In Germany, applications for funding for the development of charging infrastructure can be submitted again with immediate effect and all online. An important exception for customer parking spaces is new.

According to latest insider information, charging infrastructure operator Allego is cutting a significant number of jobs. The offices in the Benelux countries and Germany are particularly affected.

The energy supplier Fortum has signed an agreement to sell a majority stake of its public charging station operator Fortum Recharge to Infracapital. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020.

Deficient business models and a hardware-intensive struggle for locations: Looking back, the former Hubject boss Thomas Daiber sees the ramp-up of the e-mobility charging infrastructure as a permanent turning into dangerous dead ends.