Volvo to Offer Preferred Charging Rates For its Electric Vehicle Customers in Europe Starting July 1

author: FutureCar Staff    

Drivers of Volvo's new fully-electric Recharge family of vehicles, including the XC40 and C40, are getting a great deal on charging beginning this summer from Volvo's charging partner Plugsurfing, which is Europe's largest EV charging platform. 

Volvo said its deepened its collaboration with Plugsurfing and will offer heavily discounted charging prices at Ionity operated charging points across Europe. Plugsurfing provides customers with access to more than 200,000 charging points operated by companies Ionity, Innogy, EnBW, Allego, Vattenfall and many others.

Beginning July 1, drivers of fully-electric Volvo vehicles will pay 0.35 EUR/kWh at Ionity's more than 340 high power charging stations across 24 European countries, during the first 12 months of ownership of a pure electric Volvo car, including the Polestar 2.

That is a big discount from the average price of 0.79 EUR/kWh that most customers pay throughout Europe to charge up at an Ionity operated site.

"We are excited to offer our customers one of the most competitive prices for charging at Ionity, one of Europe's largest public fast charging networks," said Olivier Loedel, head of electrification ecosystem at Volvo Cars. "This collaboration is a first step in our global ambition to help our customers of Recharge cars travel quickly at a much lower charging cost, wherever they are."

To offer its customers a more seamless charging experience, Volvo Cars said it will soon update its Volvo Cars app to serve as a consolidated digital charging platform. The updated app will add a navigation feature to the nearest charging stations, remote control of a charging session, charging notifications and payments.

 "Volvo Cars aims to change the current fragmented public charging landscape into an all-in experience that is convenient and hassle-free," said Loedel. "We want to achieve this by providing an integrated digital charging platform for our customers, and easy access to the largest charging networks globally."

Convenient access to charging is considered to be one of the barriers to more widespread EV adoption around the world, especially in the U.S. But as European automakers introduce more electric vehicles companies like Ionity are continuously adding more charging stations.

"The bottom line is that customers want easy access to public charging infrastructure," says Tatu Kulla, Plugsurfing CEO. "Price and quality of digital infrastructure are key aspects of an excellent user experience. We value the strategic partners who share this vision and seek collaborative solutions."

The XC40 Recharge was Volvo's first electric vehicle. It was first unveiled in Oct 2019.

The XC40 Recharge, based on Volvov's XC40 compact SUV. In addition to being Volvo's first electric vehicle, it was also the first production vehicle to come with Google's Android Auto built in, so drivers can use their favorite Google apps such as Maps, Assistant and Play without having to sync a smartphone.

In March, Volvo Cars announced that it will transition to building only fully-electric vehicles by 2030. The company will electrify its entire model lineup, replacing all of its internal combustion engine models by then.  

Volvo recently unveiled the C40 Recharge, the second EV in the Recharge family. It will go on sale in the U.S. by the end of the year.

FutureCar Staff