BMW announced Monday that it is making a supercharger network available for electric car drivers to use for free.
Through a deal with NRG Energy, the German automaker will let BMW i3 electric car owners recharge their batteries at NRG eVgo charging stations in California until the end of 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The charging stations weigh close to 100 pounds each and can be mounted on a wall. Cliff Fietzek, manager of connected emobility for BMW's North American operations, said starting in August, BMW will begin offering the stations to dealers and other businesses interested in letting electric-vehicle owners recharge batteries in 30 minutes.
The move will put the automaker in competition with Tesla Motors, which provides chargers that are only available to owners of its electric cars. BMW's new chargers, on the other hand, can be used to recharge automobiles made by Ford, General Motors (GM), Volkswagen and other automakers, Automotive News reported.
"Our focus is on getting as many DC fast chargers out there as possible, but the cost has been a hindrance," Robert Healey, EV infrastructure manager at BMW of North America, said in an interview. "We want to remove every perceived barrier for our potential customers. We want to ensure that customers see these chargers."
Fietzek said owning a charger network is not one of BMW's goals, Automotive News reported.
"It's not our role," he said. "We don't want to own infrastructure. We want to support the rollout and we're heavily supporting partnerships but we don't want to be the network operator like Tesla, for example."
The convenience of being able to recharge cars from different companies comes from the use of the SAE Combo plug system, which is employed by BMW's charging stations as well as those from Ford, GM, Daimler and Nissan, the Wall Street Journal reported. Tesla, however, does not use this system for its electric vehicles.
A major concern drivers have about electric cars is running out of power during the day and being left stranded far away from a charging station. This issue is a major reason for electric vehicles representing less than 1 percent of vehicle sales in the U.S. Electric car marketers argue, however, that most drivers wouldn't travel far enough during an average day to drain their batteries.
Healey said NRG is looking to launch 50 fast recharging stations in California by the end of the year and 100 by the end of 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Tesla said it operates 103 supercharger stations in North America and plans to make supercharger stations available to 98 percent of the U.S. population and parts of Canada by 2015.
