Shell Joins Europe’s Ionity Fast-Charge Network

Royal Dutch Shell plc has joined Ionity GmbH, a consortium of carmakers that is building an ultra-high-speed charging network in Europe for electric vehicles.

Ionity was formed late last year by Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Porsche and Volkswagen. The group aims to create a network of 400 quick-charge facilities by 2020, beginning with 20 by the end of 2017 in Austria, Germany and Norway.

The facilities initially will be located along major highways. The stations will provide power capacities as great as 350 kW (about seven times that of current fast-charge options) and the ability to recharge an EV battery in roughly 10 minutes.

Shell has been adding charging points at its 45,000 branded fossil-fuel service stations worldwide. Last month the company agreed to buy NewMotion, Europe’s largest EV charging station network, with 80,000 at-home and public sites.

As a part of Ionity, Shell plans to add an average of six fast-charge points each at 80 sites in the NewMotion network in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the U.K.