Germany’s Mercedes is one of the now eight partners in the Ionna North American charging joint venture (JV). But it continues with its approach of investing in that network but also trying at the same time to build out its own branded chargers in the US by partnering with coffee chain Starbucks.
Mercedes and Starbucks will collaborate to install chargers over 100 Starbucks stores across the US. The first phase of the programme will be to co-locate 400kW chargers at Starbucks located along Interstate 5 (I-5) — a major West Coast travel corridor stretching from Canada to Mexico.
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Additional opportunities will target what the two firms identify as “core urban areas, charging deserts, and other critical travel corridors”. Mercedes’ own-brand charging network is committed to using 100pc renewable electricity.
The partners rather ambitiously aim to “infuse delight” into the charging experience through “experiences that make drivers genuinely excited to plug in”, according to Andrew Cornelia, CEO of Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging. Starbucks says there is charging already available at or close to 1,000 of its US stores.
Mercedes opened its first US charging site in November as part of an initial $1bn investment. Since its launch, the firm hails “fast progress” in opening a dozen locations with 400kW speed charging across TX, AL, GA, FL, SC. TN and KY. The network is expected to expand to nearly half of the US states over the next 12-18 months.
But the firm is also a member of the Ionna consortium, which has just welcomed Japan’s Toyota as an eighth member. Whether a legacy OEM should be distracted from its core challenge of shifting its vehicle offerings to meet the evolving challenge of the ICE-to-BEV-via-hybrids journey is debatable in itself.
However, a double distraction of investing in a standalone charging specialist, but also trying to build a competing own-brand network seems especially needless. And it is not just in the US where Mercedes is pursuing an approach of competing against a consortium it is also part of — in Europe too it is a backer of the Ionity JV but is also developing its own fast charging network.
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