Audi wants to invest around 100 million euros in charging infrastructure to install at its own sites and is planning more than 4,500 charging points, most of which will also be publicly accessible. The majority will stand at Audi’s German plants with some at other locations as well.

According to the car manufacturer’s announcement, they are planning 3,500 charging points for the final expansion of the main factory in Ingolstadt alone with Neckarsulm getting another 1,000, according to Audi. The goal is to electrify every tenth parking space at the German plants by mid 2022.

At the foreign locations, the expansion is much more modest. In Brussels (where the e-tron is being built) and at Győr in Hungary (where the e-tron’s electric motors are manufactured) there are just under 100 charging points. However, these locations are also significantly smaller than the German plants. The Mexican plant in San José Chiapa is also to have a charging infrastructure, but Audi has not yet provided any figures.

A project team has already started work in mid-2017, drawing up concepts and preparing for implementation. “Establishing such extensive charging infrastructure is a completely new challenge,” Maximilian Huber describes his task as head of “site charging” at Audi. “Such lead times are necessary because the planning and expansion of the energy supply on this scale alone takes multiple years.”

An expansion of the electricity connection is not necessary, as “a dynamic and intelligent load-management system will be controlling all power input across sites this year already”. 4,500 of the planned charging points are to be AC chargers with up to 22 kW, “approx. 50 more” are planned with up to 350 kW.

The status quo: According to Audi’s own information, there are currently 600 AC charging points with up to 22 kW in operation, plus 60 DC charging points, older ones with 50 kW, newer ones with up to 350 kW. The existing charging infrastructure at the Brussels, Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm locations is to be increased to a total power input of 21 megawatts.

audi-mediacenter.com