Mercedes-Benz Gives Hints Of Future Charging Locations

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Mercedes-Benz, like numerous different producers, discovered over the previous few years that counting on charging firms and authorities to energy electrical automobiles wasn’t going to work out.

This, in fact, flies within the face of what automobile producers have at all times accomplished. It was their job to construct the vehicles and supply guarantee restore cash, and it was the job of sellers to do the ultimate sale and carry out the repairs. It was then the job of oil firms and fuel station house owners to care for powering them. The thought at first was to proceed this association, even when these weirdos at Tesla have been attempting to do all of it. Change sucks, proper?

However, as soon as there was a bunch of EVs beginning to seem on the roads, the issues with counting on charging firms grew to become obvious. Residence charging (at the least for folks with a storage or driveway) wasn’t an issue, however non-Tesla EV charging stations weren’t holding up underneath the stress of accelerating use, particularly in California and alongside the busiest interstate highways.

Going through this dilemma, producers discovered that they’d must do two issues. First, they have been going to wish to affix the Tesla charging community. This meant paying Tesla billions, agreeing to vary the charging plug, and in any other case on the point of cost on the solely stations that gave the impression to be working nicely on the time. However, in the long term, producers would want to contribute to dependable charging with their very own charging firms.

Completely different firms are going about this in numerous methods. Seven producers (BMW group, GM, Honda, Hyundia/Kia, Mercedes-Benz Group, and Stellantis) teamed up to start iONNAa charging community that’s simply getting off the bottom with extra dependable European charging {hardware} at charging stations with higher facilities than most. GM, outdoors of the iONNA effort, is working with EVgo to construct charging stations, many at Pilot/Flying J truck stops.

Mercedes-Benz is working on its own charging network by partnering with ChargePoint. The objective is to ultimately construct 400 of those stations, every with respectable facilities, security, and nice lighting. However, most significantly, the objective is to ensure they’re dependable and work nicely when folks want a cost.

I bought an opportunity to make use of one of many first MB charging stations just a few months in the past east of Dallas, Texas (Royse Metropolis, to be particular) at a buc-ee’s journey middle.

As promised, it was dependable and the situation felt fairly secure. Buc-ee’s at all times has a fantastic set of facilities, together with bogs, meals, drinks, and so forth. All in all, the expertise was a optimistic one, and apart from that the variety of stalls was considerably restricted, the Tesla Supercharger station throughout the car parking zone doesn’t do any higher. If in case you have a automobile that may pull greater than 250 kW or prefers 800-volt charging, it’s the higher place to go for now.

However, pretty much as good as these station are, Mercedes-Benz hasn’t actually informed us the place we an count on extra of those to pop up, at the least till now.

A New Map On The Web site

Not too long ago, the corporate’s web site had a brand new map seem on this web page, exhibiting us the place the present stations are and, extra importantly, the place Mercedes would love extra of them to be constructed!

After all, the map isn’t very particular, apart from about the place the present stations are. Circles, with the smaller ones being lighter and the bigger ones being darker, point out the place the upcoming stations are speculated to be. My guess is that the corporate shall be placing a larger variety of stations in the place the massive, darkish circles are, whereas specializing in placing in as little as one station for the smaller circles, which might make sense.

Trying on the map, it’s clear that Mercedes desires to give attention to cities, and extra particularly the most important metro areas. In case you take a look at an inventory of the most important cities in the USA, this map has all of them coated. New York and Philadelphia are coated by enormous circles, and smaller circles cowl the entire Northeast Megaregion from Boston to Washington. Los Angeles (the #2 metro by inhabitants) can be nicely coated, as is far of California (the place lots of the EVs are). Dallas and Houston (each prime ten cities) are coated, in addition to the remainder of the Texas Triangle. Atlanta and southern Florida additionally get large circles.

It is a good method, as cities want a variety of public charging for EVs to essentially work out. Industrial automobiles, rideshare automobiles and taxis, and public automobiles all want locations to cost throughout downtime. Individuals who don’t have driveways or garages with charging may also must cost, however that’s an issue that must be solved as dwelling charging is the most effective method to EVs. Individuals who drove an uncommon quantity in a day and easily want just a few extra miles to complete the grocery getting and different errands may also put a variety of demand on EV charging.

However, simply because Mercedes is spending some huge cash on city charging doesn’t meant that rural areas and interstates between the cities are getting no consideration. Overlaying particular corridors doesn’t appear to be a precedence, as you don’t actually see any rows of dots that comply with these highways, aside from the notable exception of the I-44 hall. In most different instances, Mercedes appears to be specializing in getting mid-sized cities alongside these interstate routes, like Brownsville, El Paso, and Albuquerque.

All this having been stated, there are some unusual issues within the map. For one, there are some pretty massive metro areas that aren’t getting a lot consideration. Las Vegas is a good instance, as is Oklahoma Metropolis. Salt Lake Metropolis is getting greater than minimal consideration, however continues to be getting as a lot consideration as Chicago (the #3 metropolis in the USA). Memphis, Tennessee isn’t a significant metropolis, but it surely’s getting much less consideration than El Paso. I’m certain that Mercedes-Benz has some good causes for all of this stuff, however no person else has been informed.

Luckily, no person goes to be anticipated to depend on the Mercedes-Benz community completely. The corporate appears to be in search of locations the place assist in charging is definitely wanted and never attempting to be every little thing to everybody.

Featured picture from the Mercedes-Benz web site (honest use).