Toyota Joins “American Ionity” Ionna Supercharger Network

In 2023, one car manufacturer after another decided to switch to Tesla’s North American Charging Standard for fast charging of electric cars. Such a decision meant that cars from those brands, including Toyota and Lexus, could suddenly be charged at Tesla’s Supercharger network of fast chargers. This is certainly very important in North America, where Tesla is superior in this market and the number two doesn’t come close when it comes to the number of chargers. The CCS1 standard, which is slightly different from the CCS2 that is used in Europe by virtually all car manufacturers, including Tesla, is therefore becoming less and less popular.

Still, it seems that the carmakers in question don’t want to put their trust entirely in Tesla’s whims. Earlier this year, BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes, and Stellantis joined forces in Ionna, a fast-charging network to be set up together that is comparable to Europe’s Ionity. Toyota is proving how promising Ionna is by also joining it. Ionna’s ambitions are not to be sneezed at: the company wants to offer a total of 30,000 individual fast chargers in the US by 2030. That’s not quite comparable to the 25,000 units that Tesla mentions for the whole of North America (so not just the US), but it does indicate that Ionna wants to become a serious player. With help from Toyota and Lexus, of course.

The notable absentee from the Ionna line-up seems to be Volkswagen, but there’s a good reason for that. As part of the ‘reparations’ after the diesel scandal, Volkswagen had to make a significant contribution to clean electric mobility in the US, which is why it founded Electrify America in 2016. Electrify America is currently the number two fast charging provider in the US, but with 4,250 chargers spread over 950 stations, it doesn’t come close to Tesla.

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