ABB has won a contract from the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) in Thailand to install more than 120 fast-charging stations for electric cars across the country by the end of this year. These will be 50 kW columns.

Govecs presented a new edition of its Flex electric scooter model especially for use in the sharing sector. The Flex 2.0 comes with a self-developed drive train and a choice of one or two batteries. In addition, Govecs is aiming to set up urban sharing charging stations in cooperation with Swiftmile.

Nio plans to deliver the first ES8s in Norway in September 2021. As the Chinese carmaker has now announced, Norway will also be the first overseas market to offer the company’s complete charging infrastructure – including battery swapping stations.

Electrify America is releasing the third instalment of payments for e-mobility initiatives in California. The 200 million dollars are part of an 800-million contribution the Volkswagen subsidiary was ordered to pay following the diesel scandal over emission fraud.

The Mobility House has a new add-on module called “grid-friendly charging” for its ChargePilot energy management system. TMH says the feature enables grid operators to intelligently control multiple charging stations and help charge point operators save money.

Dutch EVBox Group adds to its range of charging equipment as it reveals the EVBox Troniq Modular. The DC fast-charging station is designed to “grow with the customer’s business” through upgradeable power modules.

Dutch truck manufacturer DAF Trucks, part of the US Paccar Group, now offers customers a complete range of charging stations with outputs from 20 kW to 350 kW. Mobile chargers with an output of 24 kW to 40 kW are available as well.

France’s oil and gas giant Total has opened its network of high power charging stations to Charge4Europe. The JV of DKV and Innogy thus extends its reach across Europe with the agreement affecting Total pit stops in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.

The Electric Highway, tge UK’s longest-standing fast-charging initiative, has opened its largest high power charging site at a Moto pitstop, Rugby Services, at Junction 1 of the M6. The new facility includes 12 ultra-rapid chargers from Tritium, able to charge supported vehicles at 350kW.

An EU-funded project called Progressus is currently addressing three challenges in the realisation of next-generation smart grids: efficient energy conversion, smart energy management and secure monitoring – especially in the context of growing electric car sales.

In the UK, ABB technology has announced that it will be providing ultra-fast charging and high availability for EV drivers in York as part of a £2.2 million scheme. The scheme was developed to meet the growing demand for chargers as the city’s existing charge points are almost at capacity.

Along with other partners, Hyundai and We Drive Solar are planning to test electric car-sharing in combination with bidirectional charging on a large scale in Utrecht, the Netherlands, starting this summer. The new Ioniq 5 will also be used for this purpose.

General Motors has presented its concept for simplifying electric car charging for US customers under the name ‘Ultium Charge 360’. The “holistic approach” is supposed to cover all charging scenarios, public and private.

Canadian light electric vehicle manufacturer Daymak announced that its new EV series Daymak Avvenire will come standard with its patented Daymak Ondata wireless charging technology.

The Norwegian renewable energy utility Statkraft is launching into the UK charging market with the recently acquired Mer, previously known as Gronn Kontakt UK.

In the UK, Westminster City Council and Siemens have installed more than 1,000 on-street EV charging points in the City of Westminster, London. The council, working in partnership with Siemens GB&I, installed the 1,000th EV charging point in April 2021 and are on track to deliver another 500 chargers by April 2022.

Ekoen has announced the construction of 100 fast-charging locations in Poland, each of which will include several fast and ultra-fast charging stations as well as a lounge and café for waiting times. The Polish startup wants to explicitly focus on the convenience of electric car drivers when charging.

After the first edition in 2019, the eMobility consultancy P3 Automotive has published a new edition of the P3 Charging Index. We are publishing it today exclusively in advance. There is a change at the top placing, but the most long-distance-suitable electric car still comes from Stuttgart.

Hubject and Saascharge, a provider of electric vehicle charging software, have announced an international partnership that will enable roaming for their respective customers in Europe and the US.

Charging infrastructure provider Jolt Energy and infrastructure consultancy AECOM have announced an agreement to roll out ultra-fast charging stations in major European and North American city centres.

Ola Electric, the eMobility offshoot of Indian ride-hailing giant Ola, has announced the creation of an exclusive network of more than 100,000 charging points for its upcoming electric two-wheelers. This is expected to come up in over 400 cities in India within five years.

Robotics specialist Rocsys is now cooperating with Grivix and VDL Enabling Transport Solutions to develop a robotic charging solution for high-performance charging of heavy electric commercial vehicles. The consortium plans to start validation tests this year.

The Florida-based eMobility company Evlomo has announced the construction of a battery factory in Thailand – together with the local company Rojana Industrial Park Public. Evlomo had only recently announced its intention to build a DC charging network in Thailand.

EnBW is planning a large-scale charging park at Kamener Kreuz in North Rhine-Westphalia. It will have 52 HPC charging points with a capacity of up to 300 kW, making it the largest public fast-charging park in Europe, according to the energy company.

US President Joe Biden has now officially confirmed its intention to invest 15 billion dollars in the construction of a national network of 500,000 charging stations for electric vehicles. This sum had already been leaked in advance, but now the US government is providing a more in-depth look at the plans.

Kia will offer buyers of the new EV6 reduced prices at its HPC stations in Europe as one of the shareholders of the joint venture Ionity. The brand has just announced that two pricing packages will be offered.

Automotive supplier Mahle has opened an electronics and mechatronics development centre in Changshu, China. Among other things, work is being done on electric powertrains, charging solutions and thermal management applications for alternative drives.

JustPark, which manages a community of space owners and their charge points, has teamed up with Zap-Map. The charging location service will include up to 800 charging stations via JustPark as it rewrites its home charger offer.

Today, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo launched the New York Clean Transportation Prizes initiative offering up to $85 million through three competitions. New York State is looking for clean transportation solutions with a focus on underserved communities.

Major players such as BMW AG, Groupe Renault, Stellantis, Tritium and Volkswagen AG, and Shell, bp, and Total, have agreed to implement Plug&Charge as standardised by ISO before the second half of this year. A dedicated project team at CharIN is to drive the implementation.