“Volkswagen is aiming for a rapid breakthrough for e-mobility and is redoubling its efforts in the field of charging infrastructure. Throughout Europe, the Group will be installing a total of 36,000 charging points by 2025; 11,000 of these are to be developed by the Volkswagen brand. They will be installed at Volkswagen plants and at about 3,000 Volkswagen dealerships in all large towns and cities. With its Group company for charging infrastructure Elli (Electric Life) and its charging service “We Charge”, Volkswagen is also moving into further lucrative business areas connected with charging. All in all, the Group is investing about €250 million at its European locations. At the same time, the Group calls for other measures to take effect rapidly for more charging stations in Germany.”

Thomas Ulbrich, Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen brand responsible for E-Mobility, said about the announcement:

“Charging infrastructure will increasingly become the crucial factor for the rapid breakthrough of e-mobility in Germany. Charging an electric car must become just as easy and normal as charging a smart phone. This is why we need significantly more charging stations in public spaces and simple rules for the installation of private Wallboxes. Volkswagen intends to send out a signal and is becoming involved in the development of charging infrastructure at all levels,”

VW says that it is aware of the charging patterns of electric vehicles and its estimates put home charging at about 70% of all charging.

They plan to offer home charging solutions through Elli, Volkswagen’s new energy and charging company.

Volkswagen plans to deploy charging stations for work too – starting with their own locations. The automaker says that it “will be installing about 4,000 charging points for employees; many of these will be accessible to the public.”

Electrek’s Take

While these plans are not entirely clear, it sounds to me that this is VW’s answer to Tesla’s Destination Charging network.

Ionity was VW’s (and all the other legacy automakers participating in the network) answer to Tesla’s Supercharger network for highway travel and now, they are turning to level 2.

Through Electrify America, Volkswagen is already covering level 2 charging in America, but they didn’t have similar plans in Europe.

Any investment in EV charging infrastructure is welcomed and this one is no exception.

Although, I always like to point out that robust fast-charging stations with a high average number of charge points are what EV infrastructure is lacking more than anything else.