The full Ionity story, fast charging your EV around Europe
This month proved that electric vehicles are getting more attention than ever before
Did you notice Ionity breaking the internet two weeks ago? It’s time for a deep dive in what Ionity really stands for. All stories I read overlooked some of my most important findings. Last year I used Ionity in more than six countries covering more than 50.000 kilometers all electric.
Is the Ionity offer too compelling?
What seems to be forgotten by many is that where Ionity is going, nobody has gone before. Many Tesla drivers complained about the price hike Ionity announced halfway through January. Makes you wonder, the same people who can be found giving out high praise to their own Europe wide network seem to care a lot about the competition. Yet, is it really a competitor?
Well the thing is, it started to look like it. I can drive much faster from Berlin to Amsterdam in a Model 3 LR using Ionity, compared to using Tesla chargers. Mind you, I still had to use one Tesla charger on that ride. New Ionity expansion since then has made it possible to do Autobahn racing from Berlin to Amsterdam using exclusively Ionity chargers. (Auetal, I’m looking at you).
Auetal, Ionity, online since December ‘19 finishing the Amsterdam-Berlin circuit.
The closed Tesla circuit
Any Tesla driver will tell you that the Tesla network is open to anyone. The ‘car companies’ just have to work together with their most scary enemy to make it so. Well as we made it to 2020 without anyone joining the Tesla charging network, let’s for now assume nobody will (get the chance). My point above is that even though the story has always been the Tesla SuperChargers will be open for other parties to join, that can be the story forever.
Ionity is more than a story
When Ionity started building their network back in 2018, they initiated something that isn’t happening anywhere else in the world. An open fast charging network to all (fair point, only CCS connectors are really welcome) Europe-wide. I realise Electrify America is working on a similar scale, but it’s ‘just’ the USA they are covering. Cross the Canadian border and nothing will ever be the same. Very different compared to Ionity installing chargers from Norway to Portugal, relying on many parties.
If you buy a new electric vehicle by Renault, Peugeot, Opel, Honda, Mercedes, Energica, Jaguar, BMW, Tesla, Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia or MG (and I’m probably forgetting some!) you can charge from Ireland to Spain to Austria to Denmark to Norway to Finland to the UK, Italy, yes pretty much anywhere in Europe using the Ionity network.
Allego might be the only competition at scale. Still they are not nearly at Ionity level around Europe if you compare physical reach (yet they are in charge of huge AC charging infrastructure projects). While Fastned is ambitious, they are just getting started. (Hopefully opening up stations in Switzerland and Belgium this year).
The Ionity corridoor, some history
In December 2018 my adventure started with rides to Munich, Konstanz, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg. I visited Fastned stations that had opened a week before, the neighbours still building their pizza restaurants. Ionity openings were also happening on a daily basis, the map was still very spotty.
When planning a roadtrip to Madrid for March 2019 this was the South of France on the Ionity map. White means ‘building’, one purple (active) station is hiding below Toulouse. (Yep, buggy map).
Now look at the difference in France when we check out the map just a couple months later in July, 2019.
July 2019, Ionity (white means building, purple is active).
Digging through my screenshot archives, I recovered the state of affairs at Ionity end of July ‘19. First station in Ireland is up, two in the UK, one in Italy, building in Spain, Denmark all covered, but look at Czech, the huge gaps in France, etc. FYI: except for Barcelona most stations in Spain have had building status for well over 200 days.
Ionity Europe, end of July ‘19 (Purple means up and running, white is still building in progress).
The difference one station makes
Mind you, I love how one charging station can change everything. Just look at Italy in the picture above. Heading from Milan to Rome (for example with the Audi e-tron) was still slow because you had to rely on 50kW chargers mostly in 2019. Fast forward to the now and the Ionity station near Bologna is active which suddenly means the whole route is a joy to drive using the newest bigger battery powered vehicles.
With this in mind, let’s read some of the commentary online about the newly introduced Ionity pricing active January 31st, 2020. This emobly blog is an important read, just use a translator to get the gist of it. A lot of valid points, yet the focus is more or less entirely on the German market. Which makes sense, it’s a German blog. If you don’t feel like reading you can watch Bjørn Nyland. Some more valid points and price comparisons. Just read the comments to find out that not many people actually understand the things he talks about in the video. Still, the focus is mainly on NO/SWE/DK which I understand as he lives in Norway. Yet most Europeans don’t live there, so let’s head south a bit. If you translate this Dutch blog, you get some more useful information.
Fast charging in Europe, focus on pricing
Except for Ford all the companies behind Ionity, are German. Oh wait, didn’t Hyundai join during the Frankfurt Motor Show last year? Interesting tweet:
That should help us understand how Ionity will move forward from here on out. Just look at German 5G companies and you will find out, any kind of connected service in Germany is never going to be cheap. Traditionally speaking anything car related in Germany is cheap compared to most neighbouring countries, it’s extra sad that now everybody in Europe will take this price hit coming in. What we have to try and understand though is that Ionity intends to have one service, with one price, all over Europe.
You might skip that fact, but we don’t have any such services yet. If you cross a border in the EU, prices change for pretty much everything. Gasoline, cell phones, cable/netflix, cars, bikes, houses, bread, espresso, I could go on. Since the Euro has entered our lives nearly twenty(!) years ago, the comparisons are easier than ever. Yet nobody seems to be taking this into account. (Tesla for example charges a different price in pretty much every country it operates in, looking at their vehicles and supercharging).
If you live in Denmark (as Mr. Nyland rightly points out) Ionity will be pretty cheap, compared to general fast chargers around the country. ‘Weird detail’: if you live in Denmark all is fine. Monthly payment plans are the norm and work out for the locals.
When you visit Copenhagen by Jaguar I-Pace and you try to charge up in front of your hotel, that could easily cost you a 100 euros. Yes, a hundred euros. Yet the outrage on the internet about Ionity charging up to around 70 euros (and that’s fast charging!) was louder than imaginable. In my newsletter from last summer, you can find some links to Copenhagen’s secret charger.
If you think that’s crazy, then try Austria. Vienna charges 1 euro for a kWh too (luckily not everywhere, just be very careful). On the other hand one can visit Portugal (or Ireland) and charge up for free in many places, you can make your way up to Scotland and do the same. Drive around Catalunya (Spain) like I did last summer and encounter free DC chargers all over Girona, Figueres.
Interesting timing
What I think might be hard to accept is that Ionity HQ is located in Germany. Where they have 70(!) locations already open to the public. And seventeen construction sites. One hundred active stations will be true for Germany this summer, no doubt. The runner up is France with 43 stations, nice but the important number is construction: three. Yes you read it correctly. France needs these hundred stations much more, because the local competition is still pretty weak. And instead that will not happen this year, at least I don’t think so. Ionity mentioned they intend to have 80 active stations in France by the end of the year.
Why am I hammering on these numbers, I will explain. In my opinion the eight euro flat fee price of last year, made sense because of the ‘beta status’ of the network in many places. Even though I was racing from charger to charger, the average European citizen still has to visit/spot one of these stations for the first time, I’m guessing. Something new has to be a bit appealing, hence the eight euro price point seemed fair and easy (balanced) around the EU.
Now Ionity has raised the bar (significally), but it has done so at a moment when many people are still waiting. Hundreds of thousands of EV drivers will enter the market in France, the UK, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Czech this year and then I’m not mentioning many others. These people would love to charge up at Ionity, yet possibilities are (very) limited. And when they encounter the rare station, it might be locally super expensive (and they might not have a clue about special charging cards and their rates).
I think this strategy could turn out to be quite the mistake. Unless you only want your service to be specially for Germans driving the newest VW/BMW/Daimler/Audi/Porsche, obviously. I love to help people out, that’s why I’m handing out my France EV guide for free. There will be ways to charge for less, always. It might be slower, you might need to drive an extra mile. But people will get there. As Ionity I think you should lead the way as they actually have in 2019. It’s just beginning!
Stability and redundancy
Maybe the most important aspect looking at High Power Charging along the European highways. The doom for any EV driver is to lose power. Well, as some of my clients have experienced. There are no foolproof networks yet. Any charger can go down. When you’re building six chargers like Ionity intends to, you minimalise risk.
Still, last week one of my clients nearly stranded at Ionity Wetteren. It was only thanks to the old 50kW Tritium charger (part of the Luminus network) that he could make it to the UK that day. Zoom out and a year ago I survived quite some scary moments (or just upsetting). A lot of Jaguar updates were still needed back then. Not all chargers are equal. Some Ionity stations in The Netherlands have only two chargers. Meaning if one is broken/turned off/busy, yeah you get the point.
None of the above ever scared me away of Ionity stations. Nevertheless. Once you start asking the premium price. People will expect premium service. Always. I expect a lot of pressure on the Ionity team to perform above average and internally it could have been good to keep prices predictable (or at least lower) for a while longer. Many popular vehicles arriving on the market don’t even have huge batteries, so eight euros would’ve been a good deal for most.
The MSP situation (aka charging cards)
Wait, did I just introduce you to new terminology? The EV world is full of this. I found this blog by Allego to help you out. They interviewed me last year so you know where to go if you want to find out more about me.
Let me take you back to 2018. Thanks to the best Dutch EV blogger out there, I got very lucky with the Maingau Plus card. Unfortunately the (Q4 of 2018) pilot never got extended. I think I have an idea why. My two-week-eight-thousand-kilometer-roadtrip would’ve never been possible without it. 8000 kilometers for €35,-. Then 2019 started with a bang. Deutsche Telekom entered the EV market. Paying 2ct/minute and suddenly fast charging got very attractive!
Yeah, 2019 was cheap, Summer saw the introduction of eins e-mobil. Charging with fixed fee anywhere in Europe. DC charging for five euros. What a fiesta. Anybody could foresee that would not last. This weekend their app will show new prices, it has been said. I will be curiously opening and reopening the app. I suggest you do the same.
The year 2020
By the time you’re reading this, The New World will have started. Ionity will be priced for what it’s worth. There is no bigger & faster public charging network in Europe along the highway. It’s like visiting a Five Star hotel. You’re not gonna walk in and ask for a cheese sandwich for a euro. Especially not if it’s in downtown Barcelona. The whole idea with high prices for one-time visitors is to ‘talk people into’ paying a monthly fee. Help covering the network. I get it.
I just don’t know if it’s the right time. We’ll have to wait and see how it pans out. Buyers of a Volkswagen ID.3 later on this year in NL will be offered a deal from Shuttelservices.nl. Audi customers can expect this. Mercedes seems quite a steal. Speaking of, I will be driving the #EQC2Madrid so please follow me on Twitter in February if you’re curious!
What about the competition
Even though they are not competing in the same markets yet, Fastned and Allego (and EnBW, Innogy and many others in other regions) obviously have their eyes on the ball. Especially new EV drivers saying no to the monthly paid charging card model, will (or could) be lured by deals from outside of the Ionity-realm.
Planning without Ionity
As you might know, I like to help people plan their international travels by EV. If Maingau drops the ball and a Ionity specific price increase arrives, what can you do? Follow my advice.
In March I hope to visit the snow with my dad and sister. That was going to look a bit like this, I thought:
A virtual 977km travel plan with a certain Audi.
As you can see, without any edits the preference of ABRP is clear. Suddenly I’m realizing it’s also a big day for A Better Routeplanner. Wondering if they will update pricing in the module, then the above screenshot will change significally. But let’s say you don’t want to go broke with the new pricing, just click on one of those Ionity stations and change the settings to ‘never use’ and see what happens! This!
Does this mean the future is bright, no matter the colours of your vehicle?
A couple of minutes got added to expected travel time. Minutes! So what does this mean: Fastned has to build a couple of HPC’s at Gladbeck, because now there is only one. Good news is their new app will tell you if it’s occupied. So that can help your strategy.
The first Allego stop had succesful visits by Model 3, EQC and e-tron in the past, just be sure to use the white CCS plug on the right side.
The second Allego stop has some mixed results over the new year period but seems better now. Model 3’s have been getting 120kW, not as fast as Ionity.
Back to Fastned, this station has two HPC’s where you will get up to 175kW. Should max out your Audi e-tron.
The last stop would be an Austrian 75kW charger. Right now it’s in use. This is the thing with Ionity, most (German) stations have four or more active chargers. That’s not really common looking at the competition. And when looking at Allego even if sometimes they have four machines, it’s rare that all four are up and running..!
Concluding: paying for Ionity might be sensible if you’re not ready for a hassle. Looking for adventure: you know where to find me, ha! Only time will tell if people are willing to pay the premium. Or just get a monthly fee that lowers the kWh prices. Or use Maingau as long as it works! Good luck out there.
We will have to wait and see, in February I think a lot will happen with some new apps, charging cards, maybe McDonald’s and Burger King (especially in Germany they are expanding 100kW+ charging all over the country) will do special deals to lure new customers, who knows!
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What will happen to Ionity roaming prices
If you don’t want to say goodbye to Ionity just yet, I totally understand. That’s why I’m hosting this new Ionity pricing updates page. Right now eins e-mobil & Maingau are still super useful. Probably eins won’t even last the weekend. Maingau promised laadpastop10.nl they wouldn’t act February 1st.
[August 2020 update: Maingau is changing gears]
It won’t be a boring year in the World of EV!
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