While motorway journeys are a source of anxiety for motorists, in particular due to the low autonomy and excessively long charging times of electric cars, Ionity is gradually deploying new stations to overcome these difficulties.
The station located on the Rousset service area, on the A8 motorway, aims to be more spacious and more powerful, setting the trend for the charging network for the years to come.
Congestion at charging stations is one of the most anxiety-provoking phenomena for holidaymakers across Europe, who fear long queues before they can charge their car. To overcome this problem, the solutions are simple: you need more terminals and recharge faster.
With this new station, Ionity is deploying 16 ultra-fast charging stations, capable of delivering up to 350 kW of power. Soon, the station should have up to 26 terminals, all rows under a courtyard of solar panels. While Ionity stations had only six terminals on average, the new stations have a dozen, doubling the number of cars charged.
Simplify charging
Among the main pitfalls of electric charging is the method of payment. Indeed, many charging stations do not allow you to pay for your consumption with a simple credit card. It is therefore necessary to bring an RFID badge compatible with the charging network or have a specific subscription to the operator.
The new Ionity terminals allow you to pay by means of an RFID badge, from your smartphone by scanning a QR Code or by bank card, each being equipped with a TPE. In addition, Ionity is also deploying Plug and Charge, already in use at Tesla, allowing you to simply plug in your car and drive away, with payment made through the customer’s account. This requires having a compatible car, usually the high-end models of the brands of the Ionity consortium. There remains the charging price, €0.49 with subscription and €0.69 without subscription, which remains high compared to the competition, especially if we compare with Superchargers.
Ionity’s efforts to simplify highway charging are welcome to help further democratize the electric car. With these new stations as well as those deployed by other operators, motorists will be able to take the road to vacation more serenely. It remains to monitor the proper functioning of the terminals to ensure that each station is fully functional. There is nothing more frustrating than arriving at a station full of HS bollards, a problem motorists regularly face.
With a total of 60 stations of this type expected by the end of July, Ionity is working to improve the network and simplify electric charging. Thanks to the joint efforts of other operators such as Fastned or Tesla, it will soon be possible to imagine a totally electric future… without a cold sweat before setting off.