Daimler, BMW announce plan to facilitate e-mobility across Europe

Four major carmakers announced on Tuesday that they have come up with a joint communication plan to create charging stations for battery-operated electric cars across Europe, including in Poland, a report in the Polish press stated. BMW, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen (VW) want a network of stations along major highways, and have signed a preliminary agreement with the intent to begin planning the network, which would consist of 400 charging points by 2020. The plan stated that they intend to begin building it early in 2017. They emphasized that the plan to create such a network “was brought about by unprecedented cooperation,” the statement said. “Our joint project is a milestone, clearly showing that rivals join forces to build e-mobility,” said BMW boss Harald Krueger. However not disclosed financial details of the project, but said that they aimed to install charging points that would operate in standard Combined Charging System (known as CCS), with power up to 350 kW, which is more than the existing system. As part of the signed agreement, BMW, Daimler, Ford and VW will be equal partners in the joint venture. Conceivably, the long-distance e-mobility project would locate some of the charging points initially on the A2 motorway, which runs between Poznan and Warsaw. Poland currently has 81 accelerated battery charging points for automobiles, but most of these are located at car dealerships, or around shops and hotels in cities.  According to the e-mobility website Chargemap, 7.4 percent of the points in Poland are on public roads.