7 Automakers Join to Create "Ionna" a Massive New U.S. EV Charging Network

[R1 EVY]

I the whole industry comes together to make charging ubiquitous. It will be great for all?

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a46728807/ionna-ev-charging-network-annou

7 Automakers Join to Create Ionna, a Massive New U.S. EV Charging Network

BMW, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, and Stellantis work together on a network, with 30,000 charging stations, some rather cushy, to be open in the U.S. by 2030.

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[Chrisy]

The company announced Friday its CEO would be Seth Cutler, previously president and COO of the charge network EVgo, and a chief infrastructure engineer at Electrify America before that.

 

[R1 EVY]

I hope he left because he didn't like how Electrify America is run?

 

[Dark-Fx]

More chargers more better.

 

[Zoidz]

Just to put a scope around this project - that's 5,000 new L3 installations a year. Sorry, I'm extremely skeptical. Some of these are the same automakers who have failed at their EV production plans.

"Seven automakers are involved in the plan, claiming they are set to have 30,000 charging stations up and running by decade's end."

"What will the new charging network look like? "The goal is to have six to 10 charging cables capable of 350 kW at each"

 

[moosetags]

Anything additional in the EV charging infrastructure is great.

Brian

 

[emoore]

Just to put a scope around this project - that's 5,000 new L3 installations a year. Sorry, I'm extremely skeptical. Some of these are the same automakers who have failed at their EV production plans.

"Seven automakers are involved in the plan, claiming they are set to have 30,000 charging stations up and running by decade's end."

"What will the new charging network look like? "The goal is to have six to 10 charging cables capable of 350 kW at each"

100% agree. If you assume 8 chargers per site, over 7 years that's over 500 charging locations a year. almost 1.5 a day. That seems highly unlikely to me.

 

[R1 EVY]

Just to put a scope around this project - that's 5,000 new L3 installations a year. Sorry, I'm extremely skeptical. Some of these are the same automakers who have failed at their EV production plans.

"Seven automakers are involved in the plan, claiming they are set to have 30,000 charging stations up and running by decade's end."

"What will the new charging network look like? "The goal is to have six to 10 charging cables capable of 350 kW at each"

I totally understand what you're saying. These targets are always aspirational at best. I just think more functioning charges is better.

 

[DuoRivians]

As long as they’re reliable, the more chargers the better!

 

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

Yay, looking forward to more broken chargers. ?

 

[Dmartin]

100% agree. If you assume 8 chargers per site, over 7 years that's over 500 charging locations a year. almost 1.5 a day. That seems highly unlikely to me.

Why is this unlikely? Tesla Alone has 6,000 sites they have been building for about a decade, that means 1 company by themselves has on average built 1.6 new locations a day for a decade. I think 1.5/day for this conglomerate is doable. You don't have 1 team working on all of these, you have 1 team working on say 10-15 projects at a time and have 100 teams. It's a big undertaking for sure but it's not out of the realm of possibility, and given then amount of money on the line for these companies I am certain they will want it to succeed.

 

[NY_Rob]

" The company announced Friday its CEO would be Seth Cutler, previously president and COO of the charge network EVgo, and a chief infrastructure engineer at Electrify America before that."

Perfect, failure baked in from day one...

 

[emoore]

Why is this unlikely? Tesla Alone has 6,000 sites they have been building for about a decade, that means 1 company by themselves has on average built 1.6 new locations a day for a decade. I think 1.5/day for this conglomerate is doable. You don't have 1 team working on all of these, you have 1 team working on say 10-15 projects at a time and have 100 teams. It's a big undertaking for sure but it's not out of the realm of possibility, and given then amount of money on the line for these companies I am certain they will want it to succeed.

If it was Tesla doing it I would say it's possible since they have been building superchargers for a decade in the US. And Tesla didn't start out building 1.6 a day, it took years to get to that level. This conglomerate doesn't have the experience with the US permitting and supply chain. As I'm told when I complain about how slow Rivian is rolling out the RAN, transformers take a long time to get these days. I just don't see how they get to 1.5 a day anytime soon. But I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Doesn’t bode well. It’s amazing how many people fail upwards!

 

[Zoidz]

Why is this unlikely? Tesla Alone has 6,000 sites they have been building for about a decade, that means 1 company by themselves has on average built 1.6 new locations a day for a decade. I think 1.5/day for this conglomerate is doable. You don't have 1 team working on all of these, you have 1 team working on say 10-15 projects at a time and have 100 teams. It's a big undertaking for sure but it's not out of the realm of possibility, and given then amount of money on the line for these companies I am certain they will want it to succeed.

This company was just announced. They need at least 6 months to get their crap together, build teams, and to line up/ramp up supply chain. Permitting, if the team has experience, is a 3 to 12 month process depending on municipality. It’s highly unlikely they will turn on a single installation in 2024.

Regarding staffing, you are assuming that they can hire enough people with reasonable expertise quickly enough to build 100 teams. These teams do the site planning/engineering/contract work but they don’t do the installation, that’s contracted out. That also takes time and has to fit into a contractor‘s schedule.

More charging infrastructure is great and I welcome it. This announcement is just reaching for the stars, it’s an idealistic goal but not a realistic goal.

One woman can make a baby in 9 months. 9 women cannot make 1 baby in a single month.

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