Ionna
| Company type | Joint venture |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive infrastructure |
| Founded | February 9, 2024 |
| Headquarters | Torrance CA , USA |
Area served | North America |
Key people | Seth Cutler[1] |
| Products | Automotive industry |
| Owners | BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz Group, General Motors, Stellantis, Hyundai Motor Group, Honda Group, Kia Group |
| Website | ionna |
Ionna is a high-power charging station network for electric vehicles to facilitate long-distance travel across North America. With a concept to put its locations along highways it is similar to the Ionity network in Europe.
History
The American government recognized that a key element in expanding electromobility is the establishment of public charging points. From 2022 it started to fund the construction of fast charging stations ($7.5 billion for 500,000 charging points).[2] Tesla responded to this in advance and began opening its superchargers to third-party brands in 2021 . They also made their previously proprietary charging plug available for standardization under the name North American Charging Standard (NACS).
After opening, the Tesla Superchargers developed a dominant position in fast charging. In addition to the number of charging points, availability[note 1] and ease of activation also played a role.[note 2] In mid-2023, many manufacturers began licensing Tesla's technology and and the access to Tesla's Supercharger network - at which point the ratio of NACS to CCS charging points in North America's fast charging landscape was already 60 to 40 percent.[3] The Volkswagen Group, as the main shareholder of Electrify America, also announced that its vehicles will have access to superchargers from 2025.[4][note 3]
In this market environment, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Stellantis, as well as Honda, Hyundai and Kia announced in July 2023 that they would combine their plans in order to build an independent network of HPC fast charging stations in North America. In February 2024, the IONNA LLC company began operations of the network under the name Ionna. The goal is to set up 30,000 HPC charging points.[5][6][1] For comparison, there were 12,000 charging points in operation at Tesla and 4,000 at Electrify America at that time.
References
- ^ a b "High-Powered EV Charging Network, IONNA, Begins Operations in North America". Ionna LLC. 2024-02-24.
- ^ Iris Martinz. "Weißes Haus stellt Plan zum Ausbau des E-Ladenetzes vor" (in German). Elektroauto News.
- ^ Michael Neißendorfer. "General Motors bindet Tesla Supercharger ein und setzt auf NACS statt CCS" (in German). Elektroauto News.
- ^ "Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Scout Motors brands to implement the North American Charging Standard in future electric vehicles". Volkswagen AG. 2023-12-19. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
- ^ Sebastian Schaal (2024-02-12). "Autobauer-Allianz bringt US-Ladenetz als Ionna an den Start". Electrive.net.
- ^ Luca Leicht (2023-07-27). "Mehr als doppelt so viele Schnelllader wie Tesla". auto-motor-sport.
Notes: