Electric vehicle owners in North America can look forward to a new DC fast charging network, a supported by eight major automakers.
The network will be managed by new company Ionna which was founded in 2023 by the seven automakers BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis. Toyota joined Ionna as the eighth founding member in July.
The network will be rolled out across the US and Canada over the next few years and eventually have at least 30,000 chargers on an undisclosed number of stations. Ionna refers to seasons as Refills.
The first station will be located in Apex, North Carolina, just a few miles from where Ionna plans to establish its U.S. headquarters. An inauguration ceremony was recently held for the station being built on the site of an old gas station.
Ionna released an artist’s impression on Thursday of what the completed station will look like. It will have 10 covered parking spaces offering charging ports to CCS and NACS standards. The charging ports will be able to providing charging rates of up to 400 kWIonna said. This will potentially allow some EVs to charge from 10 to 80% in less than 30 minutes.
There will be a lounge area with restrooms and food and drink services, as well as Wi-Fi, said Ionna.
Ionna did not say when the station, and others like it, will be ready for operation.
Despite joining forces on Ionna, some of the automakers supporting the company also plan to establish their own charging network. One of them is Mercedes, which opened its first charging station last year in Sandy Springs, Georgia, where the automaker’s U.S. headquarters is located. GM is also establishing its own charging networkwith partners Pilot Company and EVgo.