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.

AddÉnergie Technologies has been selected to supply more than 100 fast-charging stations to Hydro-Québec’s Electric Circuit network following a recent call for proposals. The contract will see AddÉnergie deliver its newest chargers over a two-year term.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure has received an order from Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg (VAG) to equip the newly acquired electric bus port with a medium-voltage connection and charging infrastructure.

NOW GmbH, the new National Centre for Charging Infrastructure in Germany, is inviting tenders for the construction and operation of the largest rapid charging network yet to be built in the country. As if to say, the market has failed, now the state does the talking.

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.

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”.

Finnish company Caverion and the high power charging joint venture Ionity have entered into an international service partnership. Caverion is responsible for the maintenance and service of transformers at Ionity’s HPC stations for electric vehicles in Norway, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

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.

The Indian energy provider Tata Power plans to expand its network of smart EV charging points in India from the current approx. 170 now to over 700 by end of the financial year under the subsidiary brand name of Tata Power EZ Charge.

The Californian city of Pasadena is opening the Marengo Charging Plaza at 155 E. Green Street. The Plaza is now home to a total of 44 chargers including 24 Superchargers installed by Tesla and 20 fast chargers installed by the City of Pasadena.

Australian fast-charging station manufacturer Tritium has launched its Plug and Charge solution. The technology leverages the ISO15118 standard and enables an electric vehicle and charger to communicate. Payments are authorised directly from the driver’s account without the need for a card or RFID tag.

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.

Following real-life testing, Ford is updating the fast-charging data for the Mustang Mach-E. In the ‘Extended Range’ variant with battery and rear-wheel drive, the SUV’s charging performance is around 30% higher than the values stated before, the car manufacturer reports.

The British Department of Transport (DfT) has set new targets for the expansion of ultra-rapid charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. The plans envision the construction of at least six HPC sites along motorways by 2023.

The Swiss company Huber+Suhner has presented a liquid-cooled charging cable system which is designed to enable continuous charging with 500 A even at very high temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius. With a voltage of 1,000 volts, charging capacities of up to 500 kW are conceivable.

In the UK, Western Power Distribution (WPD) has just released the details of its updated EV strategy. In order to enable the faster rollout of charge points across the UK, WPD is focussing on making the connection process easier for charge point operators.

ABB has agreed with Norway’s largest food wholesaler ASKO and its owner NorgesGruppen to supply the charging infrastructure for its growing fleet of electric vehicles.

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.

ABB has received an order from Jönköping in Sweden to supply ten 450 kW pantograph rapid chargers. The installation is scheduled for the first half of 2021 with operation starting by mid 2021.

Fastned opened its first fast-charging station in Amsterdam this weekend. The Dutch company claims “hundreds of electric cars can be charged per day at this station” and that the design would allow the addition of more fast-chargers in future.

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 CHAdeMO Association has presented the new CHAdeMO 3.0 protocol, which was jointly developed with the China Electricity Council (CEC). According to the organisation, the charging standard will enable DC charging with a capacity of “over 500 kW”.

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.

The Frankfurt-based European Electrical Bus Company (EEBC) now offers mobile high-voltage chargers for depots in four performance classes. With the four devices of the MDCC line, electric cars, electric buses and electric trucks can be charged via CCS with 22, 44, 75 or 150 kW.