Dutch EV charging company Fastned has won tenders to develop new stations in both Denmark and Switzerland as it continues its strategy of pan-European fast charging.
In Denmark, it has won the A/S Storebaelt tender, giving it the opportunity to build a station in Nyborg at what it terms a “strategic location”, right before the Storebaelt Link directly off of the E20. The E20 is “one of the most used motorways in Denmark”, according to Fastned, as it connects the country’s mainland and Germany to the country’s capital of Copenhagen on the islands of Zealand and Amager.
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Denmark remains one of the BEV growth success stories among European national markets amid a wider drop in the growth of all-electric new sales on the continent. In the first nine months of the year, Danish new BEV registrations have topped 60,000 units (see Fig.1), up by 49pc year-on-year and representing 48pc of all new sales in Denmark year-to-date.
Fig.1: BEV enthusiasm growing strongly in Denmark this year
The new station is the fifth location Fastned has secured since entering the Danish market in July 2023, although only three are currently operational. Its construction will begin in the first quarter of 2025 and be completed by mid-year.
“It will be accessible in both directions and fits well into the company’s existing high-traffic location strategy,” Fastned says. It also promises to be one of the largest in Fastned’s entire network.
“By building this big, beautiful, drive-through station, we are finally able to give Denmark's EV drivers a best-in-class charging experience and show the market what the future of fast charging looks like,” says Frederik Heesch Hansen, Fastned’s senior market developer for Denmark.
On a Swiss roll
The firm announced at the start of the month that it has also been successful in securing one of five lots of 11 charging locations offered in a tender by the Swiss Federal Roads Office, or Fedro. The contracts are to build fast-charging hubs along national roads.
Th other winners are French charging firm Electra, the largest Swiss charge point operator (CPO) Gofast — which was just kicked off the first of 150 planned location cooperation with the Swiss business of German discount supermarket chain Aldi — the charging arm of German OEM Mercedes and Italy’s Atlante, in which OEM conglomerate Stellantis is a partner.
The winners have three years to plan the new charging hubs and apply for the building permit. They will be responsible for planning, financing, construction, power connection, operation and maintenance of hubs, Fedro says.
“We are pleased that our concept and our many years of experience were able to convince in the tender,” says Ludwig Steding, country manager for Fastned Switzerland. “Our future-oriented drive-through concept and covered stations most likely contributed to this positive result.”
Fastned selected Lot Package 1, which includes a site at Lachen near an exit on the M3 motorway, which runs diagonally from France toward the southeast border, passes through Zurich and offers the main road connection between that city and both Basel and Chur. The package also includes a site in front of the Vereina/Klosters tunnel — where car shuttles run on a railway through the Alps — which is used by almost 500,000 vehicles/yr.
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