E.ON has opened its first ultra-fast recharging hub in the Czech Republic, and another twelve will be added within three years.
E.ON has opened its first ultra-fast charging hub in the Czech Republic in Sulejovice near Lovosice and will invest heavily in additional public infrastructure in the coming years. Across Europe, the E.ON Drive network should be expanded by another 5,000 recharge points by 2026. At the same time, E.ON wants to focus on fast and ultra-fast charging and customer comfort. Equally important, however, will be the offer of domestic and corporate recharging, as shown by the pilot project of cooperation with the car manufacturer KIA.
“For E.ON, the support of electromobility is one of the key topics in the whole of Europe. We have come a long way since 2011, when we opened the first public charging station in the Czech Republic at Brno Airport. And the biggest one in recent years. Back in 2017 At the end of this year, we plan to have 300 public charging stations in our network in the Czech Republic and only We will invest about 80 million crowns in public infrastructure this year.The hub in Sulejovice, which is the first of thirteen planned, should be the standard for our customers in the future. “We are already in the final phase of implementation and we will soon offer this opportunity to our customers,” describes the upcoming plans Claudia Viohl, CEO of the E.ON Group in the Czech Republic.
E.ON Drive in Europe will soon have 17,000 recharge points
E.ON’s plans in the Czech Republic correspond to the vision in other countries. The E.ON Drive network crosses eleven European countries from Norway to Romania and has 12,000 recharge points. Most of them are currently for AC charging with power up to 42kW. About 10 percent of them are fast chargers and about two percent are ultra-fast chargers (UFCs). And this ratio should change in the future.
“Last year alone, E.ON Drive has seen more than two million recharges across Europe, with electric vehicle users consuming over 36 GWh of electricity. We are seeing increasing trends in this area. Our network will continue to grow very significantly. today we are talking about having 12,000 recharge points, we want to have 17,000 by 2026. In all the countries where we operate, we want to be among the three main players in the field of electromobility and we want to focus primarily on ultra-fast recharging, which is key “As here in Sulejovice, we will equip more than 200 locations in all countries where we operate,” explains Sukhjinder Singh, Member of the Management Board of E.ON Drive Infrastructure.
About the ultra-fast charging hub in Sulejovice
E.ON is opening its second charging hub in the E.ON Drive network in the Czech Republic and the first to consist exclusively of ultra-fast charging stations. During the annual construction, which cost about 20 million crowns, a CNG filling station was first created, which was later supplemented by three ultra-fast charging stations. One station is from ABB and has an output of 175kW. It is a modular architecture, where the power can be increased up to 350 kW with a very simple intervention. The other two chargers are from Alpitronic and have an output of 150 kW and two DC charging points. This means that in Sulejovice, it can charge up to five cars at a time for the next trip in ten minutes.
The rechargeable hub will offer users a number of additional services. Registered customers in the E.ON Drive system will be able to add water to the washers or use a vacuum cleaner for free, and thus use the time for which they will recharge. They are protected from bad weather by a concrete shelter, which is made using 3D printing technology. In the spring, there will also be a relaxation area with play elements for children and benches.
In the Czech Republic, 12 more mushrooms with ultra-fast chargers will grow within three years
The installation of UFC charging hubs, and thus the strengthening of individual places where it can be recharged, is the path that E.ON in the Czech Republic wants to go further in the future. The first recharging hub in Vystrkov u Humpolce is one of the busiest locations in the E.ON Drive network in the Czech Republic. Last year alone, drivers took about 13 percent of the entire volume they recharged on the E.ON Drive network. They took a total of 627 MWh. Together with its partners, E.ON has selected suitable locations throughout the Czech Republic, which are close to the main transport routes and 12 other UFC recharging hubs will be built around them. Eight of them will be equipped with three racks and each will have an output of 300 kW and will be able to handle up to six vehicles at once. The other four hubs will have two stands with the same output of 300 kW, which can charge four vehicles at once. Mushrooms should be established in the future, for example, in Brno, Hradec Králové, Ústí nad Labem, České Budějovice, Olomouc and Prague.
Cooperation with KIA shows an advantageous solution for companies and households.
However, the development of electromobility is not just about public charging. The development of domestic or corporate recharging goes hand in hand with it. “In general, with the development of sales of electric cars on the Czech market, the demand for recharging options in companies and households is also developing. Residential recharging is another pillar of our business. In this segment, we record year-on-year growth that significantly exceeds our expectations. The dominant is the B2B sector, which also has higher requirements for the quality of services provided, especially in complex energy systems, the possibility of using photovoltaics for recharging purposes or cost allocation for employees,” adds Martin Klíma, Head of Mobility Services at E.ON Energie.
The practical possibilities are illustrated by the successful cooperation with KIA, which E.ON has completely equipped with charging systems in its car showrooms and training center. E.ON will also provide the automotive company with a complete solution for the home charging of its customers who purchase a KIA electric car. Including the settlement of the subsidy.
“We already have the widest range of electrified cars on the market in the Czech Republic and we plan to offer a total of eleven pure battery electric cars by 2025. In line with this goal, we have also focused on developing a complete package of electromobility-related services in recent years. In cooperation with E.ON, we also negotiate a subsidy for the acquisition of a wallbox, its delivery and installation, both for corporate customers and households,” says Arnošt Barna, CEO of Kia Czech.
By 2025, the carmaker plans to invest approximately 340 billion crowns in the development of innovative technologies, and a significant part of this money will be used to develop electromobility. Last year, Kia also participated in the expansion of the charging infrastructure in the Czech Republic and completely equipped its dealer network with charging wallboxes. The Kia EV Power Card makes recharging the owners for Kia cars. It enables recharging in the Czech Republic at the largest operators of the public charging network at advantageous prices, and in addition from February 2022 also in Austria and Germany. “From next month, we will also offer our customers the Kia Charge product, which is a card and application that makes additional charging points available across Europe,” adds Arnošt Barna. Kia’s electrified cars account for almost 50 percent of sales in Europe, and every tenth Kia has worldwide electrified propulsion.
Source: E.ON and CTK
