FRANKFURT (awp/afp) – Germany’s third-largest automaker, Mercedes-Benz, is investing in the electric charging station market, starting this year in the United States and Canada, the group said in a statement Thursday.
“The goal is to have a complete network by the end of the decade, when Mercedes-Benz intends to go all-electric, where market conditions allow,” the statement reads.
The German manufacturer is attacking the North American market first, where it plans to establish a network of 400 stations on the map of the United States and Canada by 2027.
To this end, it has joined forces with the American solar energy supplier MN8, with whom it announces the creation of a joint venture, which represents an investment of one billion euros in equal parts.
Each station is expected to offer electric vehicle drivers between 4 and 30 charging stations, for a total of 2,500 stations on the continent.
These terminals must offer “up to 350 kW” of electricity, the group says, without specifying an average. This ceiling represents a power far in excess of that accepted by the best equipped vehicles.
The group comes several years after its competitor Tesla, which has already installed more than 6,000 stations in the United States, currently offering more than 28,000 terminals to American motorists, according to the website of the Ministry of Energy, and 22% of the American market .
The manufacturer should benefit from the policy voted this summer in Washington to subsidize the electric vehicle sector, which worries Europeans greatly, risking discrimination against foreign companies outside the American territory.
The German group will “seek” if it can really take advantage of these subsidies, admitted its boss and president, Ola Kaellenius, during an online press conference from Las Vegas, where the CES auto show is held until Sunday.
Another interest for Mercedes: retaining a clientele of buyers for their car models. While its charging stations will be accessible to all electric vehicles, they will offer exclusive services to Mercedes owners who will be able to reserve the terminals in advance.
This feature could “perhaps convince more customers to join the Mercedes brand,” Kaellenius explained.
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