- Ionna, the DC fast charging network backed by several automakers, is going full steam ahead.
- The company wants to double the number of chargers installed in the U.S. by the end of the year.
- After its first year of operation, Ionna will hit a milestone that no other company has managed so far.
Ionna, the DC fast charging network backed by several big automakers, is pushing hard to expand the number of available stations in the United States. So hard, in fact, that after its first year of operation, Ionna is set to become the fastest-growing charging operator in the United States.
According to company officials, the number of available stations and stalls is on track to double by the end of this year. Currently, Ionna has 51 locations across the United States, with 478 charging ports open for business. By December 31, or during the first weeks of next year at the latest, the nicely rounded 100-site, 1,000-bay milestone will be reached, according to Ionna officials who spoke to InsideEVs contributor and State of Charge host Tom Moloughney.
Ionna opened its first DC fast chargers in December of last year and has pledged to build 30,000 charging bays by 2030. So far, it has contracted over 4,000 bays, and the first 1,000 of them are set to become operational soon.
By comparison, not even Tesla managed to open 100 locations so quickly when it first got into the Supercharger game back in November 2012– it took 14 months to build 81 Superchargers globally, although the company ramped up installations significantly after a lackluster first year.
It’s also worth noting that technology and the speed of installation have improved massively in the past decades, meaning it’s now easier than ever to install DC fast chargers. The stalls themselves come ready-made from suppliers, while Tesla had to engineer its own solution from scratch.
Nevertheless, it’s great news that Ionna is growing at such a fast pace. Its so-called Rechargeries are some of the best–if not the best–DC fast charging stations in the country, with canopies, decent amenities, and 400-kilowatt stalls equipped with CCS and NACS cables.
Backed by almost a dozen car makers, Ionna is not backing down with its expansion plans. Speaking during a media conference, representatives from both Ionna and its backing companies said that the buildout of DC fast chargers must continue, no matter what happens to the EV market, now that the $7,500 federal tax credit is gone and the political environment is not exactly EV-friendly.
