Fast charging: Ionity changes model and switches to kWh pricing

Ionity was probably waiting for a sign to change its economic model in France. A sign that took the form of an outcome. Indeed, it took until the opening of the 100th Ionity charging station (the 102nd to be exact) for the consortium to develop its offer.
It was on the occasion of the opening of the St-Witz station in Val d’Oise (95) that the group made up of several car manufacturers including Mercedes, Audi, Hyundai and Volkswagen confirmed the end of the billing per minute.

As of next July, all of the network’s terminals will change their pricing model. The price of the service is already known. It varies between 0.39 euro per kWh on the rare terminals capped at 50 kW to 0.69 euro per kWh on conventional 350 kW terminals. These are of course non-subscription prices which only concern on average 15% of users. Most Ionity customers have either a monthly plan specific to the network or advantageous rates offered by the brand of their car.

180 stations in three years

This evolution of the service was not only expected by users but also desirable. Indeed, per-minute pricing was particularly unequal insofar as it favored the owners of the most expensive vehicles, logically equipped with more efficient batteries.
In theory, with per-minute charging, an owner of an MG ZS EV, a particularly inexpensive vehicle but equipped with a charging power of 85 kW, pays for his charging on an Ionity terminal three times more expensive than another with the chance to drive an Ioniq 5 (240 kW) and that for the same quantity of electricity delivered.

As a reminder, Ionity is the major player in fast charging in France with more than 100 stations, mainly on motorways. The future of the network goes through a double movement.
On the one hand, an intensification of its structures with the increase in the number of stations, including outside the motorway network. Ionity is aiming for 180 stations by 2025. On the other hand, the group also plans to double the number of terminals per station, going from 6 to 12 “pumps”, in order to cope with the growing development of the electric car fleet.

Source : Clean Automotive