FRANKFURT – Volkswagen is planning to sell a stake in its Electrify America electric vehicle charging company, according to two individuals familiar with the situation, as the carmaker seeks outside funding to construct infrastructure for battery-powered vehicles. According to the sources, Volkswagen is working with Citi to find a co-investor willing to put $1 billion into the division, and the company is anticipated to reach out to infrastructure companies and other potential investors soon.
Volkswagen, Electrify America, and Citi did not respond to requests for comment.
Electrify America was formed in the midst of Volkswagen’s emissions cheating scandal in the United States, and it promises to invest $2 billion between 2017 and 2026 to develop charging stations for electric vehicles (EV).
According to its website, the unit has 635 charging stations and roughly 2,850 fast-loading places up and running, with ChargePoint and Tesla’s Supercharger as its main competitors.
This includes ultra-fast high-speed charging stations with up to 350 kilowatts of power, allowing owners to charge their cars in under 20 minutes.
By December 2021, the business intends to have installed or under development roughly 800 charging stations with about 3,500 fast chargers across 45 states, including two cross-country routes. It also runs charging stations that are powered by the sun. Electrify America Chief Executive Giovanni Palazzo, who joined Volkswagen from Daimler a decade ago, indicated during Volkswagen’s Power Day in March that the company planned to expand further. Volkswagen is presently attempting to unify its numerous charging activities into the Charging & Energy business unit, which is overseen by Elke Temme, a long-time executive at Germany’s largest utility RWE. Volkswagen will reveal its new approach on July 13. Several industries, including utilities, carmakers, and huge oil companies, have flocked to charging infrastructure, all seeking to profit from a surge in electricity consumption as a result of the global EV rollout. Renault and Shell were both interested in becoming co-owners of Ionity, the European EV charging joint venture owned by BMW Hyundai, Ford, Daimler, and VW, according to Reuters last week./n
