Volkswagen and Shell want to bring faster public charging to more electric vehicles in Germany. That’s why they’re piloting a new “Flexpole” charging station, whose first location has been installed in Göttingen, Germany.
The Flexpole was created by Elli, VW’s electric vehicle infrastructure company, and adds a unique battery storage system to a charging station. That allows the location to be connected to a low-voltage grid, but still pump out 150 kW of charging power. That can help add another 99 miles (160 km) of range to an EV in as little as 10 minutes.
The partners say that this innovation will have a big impact on expanding EV infrastructure in Germany and the rest of Europe. It will make installing useful public charging stations in areas with low-voltage electric infrastructure much easier. Elli also promises that the technology is easy to install.
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The Elli Flexpole “can be set up almost anywhere without major construction work, making it ideal for quickly setting up fast-charging options,” said Simon Löffler, Elli’s chief commercial officer. “We are pleased to have found a strong partner in Shell who, like us, wants to expand the charging network in Germany and across Europe.”
With the new chargers, VW, Elli, and Shell hope to contribute to meeting charging station expansion goals set by Germany. The nation has made it its goal to offer drivers one million charging points by 2030.
Although progress is being made, with the number of charge points rising from 21,000 to 80,000 over the course of 2022, only 16,000 of those locations offer fast charging. Thanks to the Flexpole’s design, costly transformers and time-consuming construction work aren’t needed to install speedier charging stations.
“With VW’s Elli Flexpole charging stations, we can make an important contribution to the necessary expansion of the charging infrastructure. And in locations where it would be otherwise difficult for fast charging,” said Tobias Bahnsen, Shell’s head of e-mobility for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
