VW To Build Massive Electric Charging Network to Take On Tesla.

VW vows to build massive electric car charging network across US

Volkswagen wants to sell more electric cars in the US, but to do that, it needs to spend millions of dollars on building out the country's underdeveloped charging infrastructure. Toward that end, the auto giant's subsidiary, Electrify America, announced today that it plans to install EV charging stations at more than 100 Walmarts in 34 states by mid-2019.

From article, (Volkswagen wants to sell more electric cars in the US, but to do that, it needs to spend millions of dollars on building out the country’s underdeveloped charging infrastructure. Toward that end, the auto giant’s subsidiary, Electrify America, announced today that it plans to install EV charging stations at more than 100 Walmarts in 34 states by mid-2019. The announcement came a few days after Porsche, which is owned by VW Group, hinted at plans to build 500 of its own EV charging stations in the US.

The Walmart charging stations are part of a broader Electrify America project to install 2,000 chargers at nearly 500 charging stations across the country by June 2019. “EV owners need a convenient, reliable and fast turnaround in recharging their vehicles,” said Mark McNabb, president and CEO of Electrify America, in a statement. “Walmart is the perfect partner for Electrify America to bring electric charging services to EV owners who value their time.”

 Meanwhile, Klaus Zellmer, CEO of Porsche Cars North America, told Automotive Newsthat the performance brand would install at least 500 fast chargers at dealerships and highway locations across the US by the end of 2019. “If you want to buy that car, you want to know what happens if I go skiing and go further than 300 miles,” Zellmer said. “What do I do? So we need to have answers for that.”

Taken together, it represents a multimillion-dollar commitment by the German auto giant to blanket the US in charging stations, in the hopes of luring more American consumers to by its zero-emission vehicles. Another way of looking at it is that VW is taking a page from the playbook of Tesla, which has installed 1,210 of its Supercharger stations across the globe since 2012. It realizes that to persuade more American car buyers to consider going electric, it must first commit to a fully built charging network to help reduce range anxiety.)

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