The future of cars sure looks like it’s electric. Countless high-profile automakers have announced plans to shift significant portions of their production lines from gas-powered to electric in the coming years. With electric vehicles being able to go further and further on a single charge — and charging becoming faster and faster — we’re rapidly approaching a moment when recharging an electric vehicle can be accomplished in a comparable amount of time than filling up a tank of gas.
Still, one big question hovers above all of this — namely, where will drivers take their cars to recharge their batteries? The infrastructure question is a significant one when it comes to getting electric vehicles to be more widely adopted. Last year, Audi revealed a concept for charging stations accompanied by a waiting area that looked not unlike an airport lounge. In the U.K., a similar concept has arisen in spaces where gas stations once stood.
The latest automaker to offer an ambitious plan for a charging network is Porsche. As The Verge reports, Porsche has set itself an ambitious goal of having 80% of its new cars sold be electric by 2030. As the article notes, Porsche is also looking into taking a page from Tesla’s playbook and expanding its own network of charging stations.
The article notes that this network would be designed as a supplement to the existing charging networks run by Ionity, which is supported by Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company, the BMW Group and Volkswagen Group. Porsche’s networks would be for the exclusive use of Porsche owners, and would give them a place to sit and have a drink while their vehicles recharge. The plans currently focus on Europe, but it sounds like there’s room there for expansion into the United States and China as well.
It’s a big step for Porsche — but it also begs the question of whether we’ll be looking at a landscape dotted with marque-specific charging stations in the years to come, rather than more universally-accessible chargers. It’s not hard to see how the former could pose some challenges towards getting electric vehicles more widely used.
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