The most powerful electric vehicle fast-charge station went into use in Iceland on Friday, RÚV reports. It only takes five minutes for the station to charge a vehicle for 100 kilometres [62 mi].
The charging station has been installed in the parking lot of the Bílabúð Benna car dealership at Krókháls 9 in Grafarholt og Úlfarsárdalur in the eastern suburbs of Reykjavík. It can deliver up to 350 kW of electricity. According to dealership owner Benedikt Eyjólfsson, this is even more powerful than the EV charging stations that Tesla is installing, which provide up to 250 kW. The stations installed by Icelandic power company ON Power reach a max of 150 kW.
“It can take under five minutes for 100 kilometres,” said Benedikt, “and if the car can take such a powerful charge, you could get up to 250 kilometres in 10 minutes.” The station will be open to anyone who has a vehicle with the so-called ‘Euro connector’ (Type 2) for fast charge stations. The first person to charge their electric car at the station was Minister of Industry and Innovation Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, who commented that the country’s transition away from from fossil fuels in transportation is well underway. In fact, she says, Iceland has made more progress in transitioning away from fossil fuels than almost any country in the world.
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“The energy transition in transportation is going well, we’re now number two in the world, after the Norwegians, and we’ve been encouraging and supporting infrastructure development.” Þórdís Kolbrún says that this infrastructure, i.e. additional charging stations, has been “sorely needed” so that “there won’t be this range anxiety and people can travel between places and out in the countryside.”
“We also know that there are often bottlenecks,” Þórdís Kolbrún continued, “and we have to be careful that at places where there are many [EV charging stations], that people can charge both quickly and well. We’re trying to achieve this combination by pushing things forward with grants, but of course it’s just the general market that’s really doing it,” she concluded.
