Mercedes to launch Tesla-rivalling charging network

Indeed, Mercedes-Benz Chairman of the Board of Management Ola Källenius said “our customers deserve a compelling charging experience that makes electric vehicle ownership and long-distance travel effortless,” and that “we won’t take a wait-and-see approach for this to be built”.

Construction on 400 US and Canada sites is to begin this year, featuring more than 2,500 high-power chargers. By high-power, they mean up to 350kW. To begin with, there will be between four and 12 chargers at each hub, though as many as 30 is possible for future installations.

These will be among the 10,000 high-power chargers Mercedes hopes to establish the world over. Locations will be focused first in key cities and urban population centres, with retail, road network infrastructure, service and dealer destinations being key considerations. All will have good food outlets and restroom facilities nearby too.

Mercedes EV drivers will be able to pre-book charging stations from their car. Unlike Tesla however, Mercedes chargers will be available to use for all EV drivers, to help “accelerate the electric transformation”, even though the network will be designed to be “another differentiator of Mercedes-Benz ownership”.

What will certainly be a differentiator for Mercedes drivers specifically, will be the ease of use. Mercedes chargers will be able to communicate with the cars, for a straight-forward plug and charge function – no card entry or extra payment activity required, though manual payment will be possible.

Mercedes also wants its sites to be fed with sustainable green electricity, with green contracts from suppliers with renewable energy certificates. Some hubs will also feature photovoltaic systems to power ancillary systems like lighting and surveillance.

The North American network will be deployed over the next six to seven years, at a cost of over a billion dollars. Clearly, Mercedes is keen on this as a differentiator for its products and truthfully, the advantage Tesla has wielded up to this point with its own network has been painfully obvious. Well done to the Three-Pointed Star for biting the bullet…