In the UK Kia has launched its charging service KiaCharge. This gives the brand’s BEV- and PHEV-drivers access to more than 13,900 charge points across the UK, meaning access to around 68 per cent of the public charging network from a single account.

The former team behind Plugsurfing and Allego has launched an AI-based software-as-a-service platform for electric vehicle charging. The promise: anyone who wants to enter the electric vehicle charging market should be able to set up their own charging app within 24 hours with Deftpower.

The BMW Group has introduced a new tariff structure for its charging services BMW Charging and Mini Charging in 19 European countries. Only one of the two tariffs offers fixed prices at all available charging stations. In both cases, preferential conditions with Ionity cost more.

Statkraft makes another acquisition in the field of charging infrastructure: The Norwegian state-owned energy company announces the takeover of 51 per cent of the shares of the Swedish provider Bee Charging Solutions. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.

The InterEnergy Group has ordered 50 charging stations from Blink as they expand the Evergo network into Panama. The order consists of 35 Level 2 charging stations and 15 Blink DC fast-chargers and, there are more on the line.

Allstar Business Solutions, a provider of fuel cards in the UK, has agreed on a new partnership with Gronn Kontakt, an EV charging company owned by Statkraft. The deal means that Allstar has added a further 110 charge points to the network and coincides with the launch of a new EV charge payment card.

The British hotel chain Premier Inn has commissioned the energy group Engie to supply up to 1,000 fast charging points for electric cars. They plan to set up 600 charging points with more than 50 kW capacity at 300 hotels within the next three years.

Fast charging company Fastned increased its revenue from charging operations in the fourth quarter of 2020 by 14% year-on-year to €1.9 million. The number of charging transactions in the Fastned network rose to over 194,000 (+12%).

In France, charging network operator FreshMile and charging specialist Chargemap have expanded their cooperation. Until now, access to Freshmile charging stations with the Chargemap badge has been via roaming. Now, the Chargemap and Freshmile services are connected directly via the open protocol OCPI.

Volkswagen Group Components has created a new Charging & Energy business unit as of 1 January 2021. This will be headed by Elke Temme, who was formerly managing director of Innogy eMobility Solutions.

After the new charging platform was founded this year, now more than 100,000 charging points are now available for roaming partners to connect via the European platform e-clearing.net. The platform has processed more than 3.3 million transactions this year.

In the coming year, more and more charging stations will be Plug&Charge-capable, thanks to several steps that have been taken behind the scenes. This lays the groundwork from which the automotive industry at large should now benefit. That being said, for the technology to be widely used, one main thing is still missing: a large […]

The charging infrastructure lobby organisation ChargeUp Europe wants to change from an informal alliance to an industry association next year. To this end, the organisation has appointed Christopher Burghardt, ChargePoint’s Managing Director Europe, as President for the first full year of operation.

Hubject has entered into a cooperation with ultra-fast charging venture Scandinavia ApS. The 48 fast charging parks of the joint venture belonging to E.On and Clever in Denmark, Norway and Sweden will be connected to Hubject’s EV charging platform intercharge.

Total has won the concession tender of the City of Paris for the modernisation and expansion of the French capital’s public charging network. The concession is valid for ten years and covers the supply, installation and operation of the charging network.

In Germany, a panel of top politicians and business leaders has decided on further incentives for electric mobility. As expected, these include the extension of the innovation premium until 2025, but also subsidies and requirements for the expansion of charging infrastructure.

Electrify America has now officially started the introduction of Plug&Charge at all charging stations in the USA. This means that drivers of compatible electric cars can now use the automated charging and payment process after online registration.

chargecloud GmbH, a provider of cloud-based software solutions for managing and billing at charging stations, and The Mobility House (TMH) are linking their ChargePilot and chargecloud systems. The duo has developed an interface for this purpose.

The Hyundai Motor Group’s entry into the Ionity fast-charging network is now official. The Korean company through its Hyundai and Kia brands holds a 20 per cent stake in the Europe-wide high power charging network founded by BMW, Ford, Daimler and Volkswagen.

Total Germany has acquired the business activities in the field of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles from the Munich-based company Digital Energy Solutions from the Viessmann Group with effect from 1 November. Total is thus taking over around 1,400 charging stations with over 2,000 charging points at B2B locations.

The charging network operator NewMotion has announced a roaming partnership with the British charge point operator Osprey Charging, formerly known as Engenie. Under the partnership, 259 rapid connections will be added to NewMotion’s public UK charging network.

Hubject is cooperating with Los Angeles-based eMobility service provider Go To-U. Go To-U’s digital platform provides reservation capabilities that allow drivers of electric vehicles to book charging stations in advance along with complementary services.

Fastned opened its first charging location in Belgium on Tuesday. This means that the Dutch fast-charging company is now active in four countries: the Netherlands, Germany, England and Belgium. Fastned has also started to issue a new series of bonds.

Hubject has released the latest version 2.3 of the Open InterCharge Protocol (OICP). Partners of the roaming network ‘intercharge’ can now start the implementation. Via API interface the protocol connects 250,000 charging points and more than 750 companies in 43 countries.

Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) and Lexus Europe are launching a new charging service for Lexus drivers under the label “Lexus Charging Network”. The service is available in Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, Germany, France, Great Britain, Spain and Italy.

A new service named ‘EV Roam’ is being provided by Renewable Energy Assurance Limited (REAL), in partnership with the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA). It is aimed to “help facilitate the uptake of roaming between EV charging networks in the UK”.

BMW Charging and Mini Charging expand their range of charging products for the market launch of the fifth generation of the BMW electrification kit. Together with the iX3 as the first model of this fifth-generation, a new mobile charging station is being introduced, and there is now also a bonus point system for plug-in hybrids.

Shortly after Ford announced that the Mustang Mach-E GT would also be available in Europe from the end of 2021, Ford also announced the charging rate at Ionity charging stations and the wall box partners for Europe.

The EU project NEXT-E with 252 fast-charging stations will soon be connected to Hubject’s eRoaming platform Intercharge. This involves 222 fast chargers with 50 kW and 30 HPC stations with 150 to 350 kW charging capacity in seven Eastern European countries.

The European offices of Hyundai and Kia, together with Digital Charging Solutions (DCS) are launching a new charging service for electric car drivers under the labels Charge myHyundai and KiaCharge. The service will be rolled out across various markets in Europe.