Photo: Electrify America
Volkswagen is living proof that good things can come out of controversial origins. Adolf Hitler ordered Ferdinand Porsche to create a “people’s car,” and we ended up with the VW Beetle and a mammoth carmaker – thanks to major Ivan Hirst, from the British Army. Electrify America was born out of Dieselgate, and it became a leading EV charging network in the US. However, Reuters reported that Volkswagen would be willing to sell a stake in the company to help it expand.
That shows that, although Volkswagen is following some of the paths Tesla trailblazed in the electric car market, it will not chase all of them. If this move is confirmed, it will be apparent that Volkswagen has no intention to sell electricity to anyone in any form unless to help things get started: its core business is selling cars.
Citi would be the financial group helping Volkswagen find a co-investor that is ready to put $1 billion in Electrify America. Infrastructure groups and other potential backers would be contacted soon to make their bids. Neither City nor VW commented on the rumors. Electrify America also kept its lips sealed.
Volkswagen had to invest in a charging network to ease the penalties it would have otherwise with Dieselgate. That makes us wonder if it would have done so if it had any other choice.
While some companies such as Rivian think Tesla’s model of an exclusive charging network is a good idea, Lucid already said it does not make sense for it. The Air will count on Electrify America to fast charge. Considering the expansion of electric vehicles, that makes a lot of sense.
Having an exclusive charging network demands constant investment to expand it. Tesla is even being sued because of congestion fees it is imposing to balance its superchargers’ demand. At the same time, the company is wondering about making some of them available to other brands. In the US, that will be pretty hard because Tesla uses unique charging connectors there.
A charging network that does not rely on a single brand can see its charging stations have more demand, which helps them turn a profit sooner. On the other hand, it also needs to expand faster to supply an increasing electric car fleet. In Europe, Volkswagen joined multiple other car companies to create Ionity. Perhaps the idea with Electrify America is to follow the same strategy.
Citi would be the financial group helping Volkswagen find a co-investor that is ready to put $1 billion in Electrify America. Infrastructure groups and other potential backers would be contacted soon to make their bids. Neither City nor VW commented on the rumors. Electrify America also kept its lips sealed.
Volkswagen had to invest in a charging network to ease the penalties it would have otherwise with Dieselgate. That makes us wonder if it would have done so if it had any other choice.
While some companies such as Rivian think Tesla’s model of an exclusive charging network is a good idea, Lucid already said it does not make sense for it. The Air will count on Electrify America to fast charge. Considering the expansion of electric vehicles, that makes a lot of sense.
Having an exclusive charging network demands constant investment to expand it. Tesla is even being sued because of congestion fees it is imposing to balance its superchargers’ demand. At the same time, the company is wondering about making some of them available to other brands. In the US, that will be pretty hard because Tesla uses unique charging connectors there.
A charging network that does not rely on a single brand can see its charging stations have more demand, which helps them turn a profit sooner. On the other hand, it also needs to expand faster to supply an increasing electric car fleet. In Europe, Volkswagen joined multiple other car companies to create Ionity. Perhaps the idea with Electrify America is to follow the same strategy.
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