Volkswagen has announced that it plans to install up to 25,000 DC fast chargers across the world in 2023, but Australia is not being part of Volkswagen’s charger rollout.
Volkswagen began to create a global fast-charging network years ago and this year will see an additional “25,000 high-power charging points around the world with the help of partners”.
Some of these partnerships include:
- The IONITY Network: Joint venture between Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen
- Ewiva: Partnership between Enel X and Volkswagen
- EV Charging in Spain: Partnership between BP, Iberdrola and Volkswagen
- EV Charging in China: Partnership between CAMS and Volkswagen
The new partnerships will help get to the company’s 2025 goal while installing the next 25,000 EV fast chargers this year alone.
At the end of 2022, Volkswagen had rolled out around 15,000 EV fast chargers of the 45,000 that it plans to roll out by the end of 2025. The current sites have chargers with speeds of up to 350 kW.
Out of the 45,000 chargers that make up Volkswagen’s 2025 global charging network, the majority of the chargers will be based in Europe.
The European sites will make up 40% of the global rollout given Volkswagen’s strong footprint across the continent. That would be a total of 18,000 EV chargers there.
China will also have 17,000 fast chargers in collaboration with its installation partner, CAMS.
22% of the chargers will be in North America, with around 10,000 chargers located there. These form part of the Electrify America network. Currently, there are over 3,400 “fast chargers” as part of the network there with 90 chargers labelled as “coming soon”.
It has been nearly 6 years since this network was founded back in February 2017. It was originally started as part of the diesel-gate saga in the US where Volkswagen agreed to several actions including promoting EVs over 10 years.
The first site opened in 2018 in Massachusetts and since then it’s grown to over 3,400 fast chargers across the US. Given the rollout so far, getting to the goal of rolling out 10,000 reliable fast chargers by 2025 will take a very big effort.
The overall goal of 25,000 fast chargers in the next 11 months seems very ambitious but if successful, it would bring the total network to 40,000 fast chargers by Christmas.
Volkswagen EVs not in Australian Configurator
It doesn’t come with much surprise that Australia is not part of any of the rollout plans at this stage. Volkswagen currently does not offer any EV options in its model range in the country. This is seen in the online configurator for our market.
Cupra Born, the first Volkswagen EV to land in Australia
Volkswagen last month did announce the first EV that will make it to the Australian market. It would come under the Cupra brand. That’s the all-electric Cupra Born hatch with the first batch of around 400 electric hatchbacks arriving in March/April.
While the global fast charger rollout continues for Volkswagon, Australia is seeing other networks enter the market. One of the most recent ones has been BP with the launch of the BP Pulse network across Australia. Although BP is collaborating with Volkswagen in other countries, it’s not the case here.
Tesla continues to expand its Supercharger Network in Australia
The only EV manufacturer that dominates the Australian charging landscape is Tesla. The company has over 60 active sites and 300 fast-charging bays according to the latest data from carloop. The most recent Tesla site includes a 6-stall V3 Supercharger in Shepparton, Victoria.
Many larger sites are also planned by Tesla for 2023. This includes some with up to 15 charging bays.
As the EV uptake grows, so will the need for charging. Vehicle manufacturer charging networks give buyers the confidence to purchase the brand’s EVs.
Volkswagen at a global level does realise this, it’s just not the case here in Australia. This might change over the coming years but in the meantime, it’s creating opportunities for other operators to roll out fast chargers to support our EV adoption.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.