Volvo Cars invests in BP-backed charging firm

[Lexman8]

From Reuters:

Volvo is investing in a startup called FreeWire whose rapid charging systems for electric cars are being installed across BP gasoline stations in Europe this year.

Fast charging is a crucial factor in luring customers to electric cars, reflected in moves across the sector. BMW , Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen for instance have jointly pledged to open 400 ultra-fast charging stations in Europe by 2020, aiming to close the gap with Tesla.

Yet Volvo, owned by China's Geely Holding and whose XC40 sport utility vehicle will be its first all-electric offering in a strategy to generate half of its sales annually from fully electric cars by 2025, has said it does not see itself owning service or charging stations. Through its Volvo Cars Tech Fund, the Swedish company said it had bought a stake in FreeWire, though it gave no further details.

The fund's CEO Zaki Fasihuddin said Volvo expected an already visible shortage of charging points to grow in magnitude as a wave of electric cars hits the streets in five years.

"With electrification there's going to be a lot of pressure not only to build infrastructure, but also to help consumers get over the range anxiety they feel," Fasihuddin told Reuters. "We think FreeWire is attacking that problem is a good way."

Fasihuddin said Volvo's investment would allow it to play an influential role in designing products with FreeWire and to work with BP, which invested $5 million in FreeWire in January.

"If you look at the possibility of piloting an innovation, (BP's involvement) just makes it all the more possible because we get to utilise our and BP's retail networks and that gives us a bigger, global sandbox to play in," Fasihuddin said.

[MaDProFF]

Not sure 400 over all of Europe is going to ease the range anxiety that much, but it is a start

[AB-UK]

Yet another charging setup, with another set of fees etc.
What is needed is consolidation and cooperation among the existing networks.
Uniformity in chargepoint hardware should result in lower costs due to bulk buying processes, and therefore lower charges for users.

[steadvex]

So much for my dreams of Volvo working with Tesla

Was really hoping that would be the case, extra super chargers and an existing Europe wide charging network!

[AB-UK]

With Tesla's 300 mile range (or even more - please!).

[neon]

We quickly need some regulation before this just becomes another way of scamming the public.
I wonder how the gap will be filled as the switch happens to electric and there is a huge loss of tax from fuel as a result.

[Lexman8]

Originally Posted by neon

We quickly need some regulation before this just becomes another way of scamming the public.

Totally agree. There needs to be one, or maybe two, standard plugs for cars same as there are standard nozzles for petrol and diesel currently so you can choose where to fuel/charge your car.

I wonder how the gap will be filled as the switch happens to electric and there is a huge loss of tax from fuel as a result.

It'll be impractical to have a higher cost for electricity used to charge your car at home so I can't see any alternatives other than a hugely increased charge for road tax (politically not wise) or some form of road-use pricing based on mileage whereby connected cars could transmit the odometer reading every so often or it gets checked once per year somehow (already done at MOT time).

[Deman77]

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/i...y-system-rocks

Good idea from AA CEO there. Road pricing should equalise different types of propulsion - you can price discriminate depending on what you want adopted. And to stop it being political suicide it gets introduced as awarding free miles which are covered by road tax with charges for use in excess.

[Quacker]

Originally Posted by neon

We quickly need some regulation before this just becomes another way of scamming the public.
I wonder how the gap will be filled as the switch happens to electric and there is a huge loss of tax from fuel as a result.

This is not an issue at all. Telematics will be fitted to cars working off the sat-nav and a tax per mile driven will be deducted automatically from your wallet. It’s a trivial exercise to vary the charge by road type or time of day and even deduct hefty fines automatically for exceeding speed limits once this is set up. Every car will have a SIM card just like Volvo’s On-call, which will relay info in real-time, or catch up whenever it gets back in signal.
It’s on the way!