VW News: Electrify America stake will cost $1 Billion as Volkswagen looks to expand.

[G. David Felt]

 

According to the sources, Citi is representing Volkswagen as they shop for a co-investor willing to inject at least $1 billion dollars  in Electrify America. This is being shopped among infrastructure groups, electrical companies and other energy companies such as big oil.

Volkswagen, Electrify America and Citi have all declined to comment. Yet as various oil companies buy up electrical charging companies and manufactures of charging equipment, Volkswagen is now in the aftermath of their emissions cheating scandal that forced them to spend $2 billion in building out EV charging stations across America from 2017 to 2026 has now looked to join the long term energy supply chain for BEVs.

Electrify America has signed long term contracts with Lucid, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Ford who offer either unlimited charging for up to 3 years or a yearly credit amount for the first few years using EA charging network.

Audi BEV owners not only get 3 years of unlimited charging at EA stations, they also get a 220V home charger installed by EA with each BEV purchase.

Last year EA rebooted their pricing system to charge by the kilowatt-hour where allowed. This revamp resulted in higher costs to charge for many EV drivers and set the company up as a fuel dispenser with margins that are maintained by state or region according to their agreement that were signed.

As of last month, June 2021 EA had 635 charging stations across the United States with 2,850 charging spots that were up and running allowing Ultra-Fast high-speed charging up to 350 kilowatt allowing for BEVs that support it to fully charge in under 20 minutes.

EA has stated they expect to have 800 charging stations with 3,500 charging spots by end of December 2021 covering 45 states with two cross-country routes. CEO Giovanni Palazzo stated in March at Volkswagen Power Day event that Electrify America has plans to expand further beyond their original charter from the diesel emission settlement and now this seems to be what he might have been hinting at as EA pushes to court more auto companies to sign onto using the EA charging network and be one of the top competitors right up there with the Tesla Supercharging network that has just announced it will open to everyone as they retrofit the stations with standard charging plugs and Ionity, Europe's largest charging network co-owned by BMW, Daimler, Ford and Hyundai. Ionity also according to sources has Renault and Shell Oil who have both offered investment capital for a percentage.

Volkswagen is presenting on July 13th 2021 their new strategy as they consolidate all their various global charging efforts under a single new Charging & Energy business division led by Elke Temme a long time executive in the energy utility area.

Seems the Charging infrastructure is the next big expansion of competition that will decide who wins and looses in the wake of a global EV rollout.

 

Volkswagen to sell stake in charging unit Electrify America -sources | Reuters

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