Sometimes, it’s easy to think that Europe has its charging situation all figured out. After all, they’re not struggling with the reliability issues Americans are (outside of Tesla), plus, a look at the map on sites like Plugshare shows that there are tons of charging stations. But, when we consider the sheer number of ICE cars that are going to need to be replaced with EVs, there’s still a lot of work left to do, even there.
Fortunately, there are some serious efforts underway to keep the momentum up, and one of them claims it’s going to end up giving southern Europe the biggest charging network yet seen. Wallbox and Atlante are throwing in to develop new public charging points in Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal.
“We are excited to announce our collaboration with Atlante, a strategic partner with whom we share a long-term vision, and with whom we will provide our customers with the best possible electric charging experience,” says Enric Asunción, CEO and co-founder of Wallbox. “Thanks to our common commitment to promoting the widespread adoption of sustainable transportation, we aim to foster a new energy paradigm based on collaboration and create a pan-European public charging infrastructure, hoping that this partnership will drive many other initiatives that will enhance the consumer charging experience”.
Both companies say they share a deep commitment not only to getting badly-needed stations up and running, but also to promoting sustainability and driving technological improvement. But, working together, they say they can reach “new heights”. By collaborating with Wallbox, Atlante can move a lot faster toward the company’s goal of installing 5,000 charging points by 2025 and 35,000 by 2030.
But, as Billy Mays supposedly said, “But wait, there’s more!” The companies brag that all of these stations will be 100% powered by renewable energy (bought through utilities), and backed up with on-site solar+storage whenever reasonably possible. In other words, the effort won’t just be the biggest network, but also a clean one.
“When it comes to hardware selection, we place the utmost importance on the level of reliability and service quality, ensuring users a straightforward and uncompromising performance experience. Therefore, we exclusively use top-tier chargers and have only a few selected partners like Wallbox, whose products complement our offering in the fast-charging segment,” said Stefano Terranova, CEO of Atlante.
Atlante’s fast-charging stations will rely on Wallbox’s Supernova series of chargers, and these are available in both the 60 kW and 150 kW output levels. They’ll be strategically positioned along the main highways of Southern Europe, but specific sites have not been announced. But, we do know that recent legislation in the European Union does mandate the distance between them: at least one station per 60 kilometers on the core road network, and one for every 100 kilometers on the Trans-European network. The company will also be looking for urban charging sites in parking lots and and other key locations in cities, so this isn’t all about road tripping.
While further details aren’t yet available, this is definitely going to be good news for today’s EV drivers and others who adopt EVs in the coming years.
Featured image provided by Wallbox and Atlante.
