Sick of having to download one more app? Tired of having to subscribe to get one more hypothetical service? Landing on a fast-charging station that’s broken, in poor condition or unavailable? Discovering that the charge price also contained hidden charges that weren’t so clear? Scared of not finding a station compatible with your vehicle? Stefano Terranova (Atlante), Aurélien de Meaux (Electra), Michiel Langezaal (Fastned) and Jeroen von Tilburg (Ionity)--entrepreneurs who were, until now, in a hurry to develop their own fast charging networks--were also sometimes frustrated users of the offer.
In the prestigious setting of the Cercle de l’union interalliée, a private sports, social and dining club in Paris that was once the opulent home of Baron Rothschild and is located just five metres from the Élysée Palace, the four CEOs on Wednesday presented the “Spark Alliance.” It’s a commercial agreement that has no legal structure for the moment, but aims to enable any user of one of their technologies to recharge their car on the networks of the other three--without having to do anything more. Better still, data on prices and availability will be accessible in real time when the network officially launches in June.
“We cannot afford to let poor infrastructure and the complexity of fragmented systems hold back progress in mobility. Drivers of electric vehicles don't want to spend time thinking about where and how to recharge," Fastned CEO Michiel Langezaal told a press conference attended by some 30 journalists from ten European countries. He said publicly that he was convinced that this was the right solution to global warming, but also privately that it was the right thing to do from a business point of view. These pure players in recharging--who only earn money on what they sell as electricity and therefore have no choice but to deliver quality--need to create infrastructure and size them for the future, in line with European forecasts. If Europe were to slow down in its objectives of going oil-free by 2035, it would be their business models that would suffer.
With 11,000 fast-charging stations (over 150 KWH and up to 400 KWH for the moment) in 25 countries, the Spark Alliance is Europe’s largest charging network. It’s built on three pillars: fast charging in 20 minutes, frictionless payment and simple, transparent prices, pointed out Electra CEO Aurélien de Meaux. , could have as many as 15 or 20 under the framework contract with Delhaize for the Benelux countries.
“Fundamentally, the four of us are coming together to raise the level of the industry, to innovate, and the idea is very simple: we want to combine our four networks so that users feel like it’s one big network," de Meaux explained. “Together, we will work together to eliminate bottlenecks, to accelerate technological development in our infrastructure sector to make charging in Europe excellent.”
The four companies complement each other in terms of geographical coverage, since of the 11,700 charging points, only 25 are within three kilometres of each other. This guarantees that users will be able to find a quality fast-charging station--the four partners are only aiming for ratings above 4--but that they will also be able to charge from the same application they normally use, since each company will retain its own pricing. In their app, the user will know the prices before deciding to charge their car. And if they have not subscribed to a service, they will have to refer to the tariffs directly on the charging point, as they do today.
The charging tariffs will remain specific to the business model of each company, but also linked to the price of electricity, with Italy’s Atlante having the least favourable tariffs in Europe.
Four competing and complementary players
Atlante is the fast and ultra-fast charging operator of the NHOA technology group (formerly Engie EPS), It operates in southern Europe (Italy, France, Spain and Portugal). The company’s model is based on the installation of high-performance multi-charger stations at strategic sites (motorways, airports, commercial and urban areas), with a sustainable energy approach: each Atlante station incorporates photovoltaic canopies and storage batteries, making it possible to supply the charging points with 100% renewable electricity while relieving the strain on the grid. The chargers deliver up to 400 KW per point. Atlante is positioning itself as a pioneer in combining charging infrastructure and clean energy. Its stated ambition is to build the largest fast-charging network in southern Europe, with 5,000 charging points targeted by 2025 and more than 35,000 by 2030. By the end of 2024, Atlante was already operating more than 800 stations in its four target countries , confirming a very rapid ramp-up since its launch in 2021.
Ionity is a network founded in 2017 by a consortium of major carmakers (BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen/Audi/Porsche, Ford, Hyundai-Kia) joined by Blackrock’s Climate Infrastructure fund. Its core business is the creation of a network of ultra-fast charging points along European motorways to facilitate long journeys by electric vehicle. Today, Ionity builds and operates the largest pan-European multi-brand high-power recharging network, present in 24 countries. Its stations offer power of up to 350 KW per point. Ionity is supplied exclusively with 100% renewable electricity, contributing to decarbonised mobility.
At the end of 2024, the network had more than 690 stations and 4,400 charging points (HPC charge points) in service. By early 2025, Ionity will have reached around 700 stations (nearly 5,000 active charging points) in Europe, including 168 stations and 1,000 charging points in France alone. Initially focused on motorways (with the aim of guaranteeing a station every 150km), Ionity is now beginning to expand into urban and suburban areas to address everyday recharging needs.
By 2035, I hope we will have become a global (and not just European) benchmark.
Fastned, a Dutch company founded in 2012, is an independent pure-player that is funded by private investors and listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange. Its business model involves obtaining concessions or long-term leases on strategic locations (motorway service areas, city car parks), building high-power charging stations there, and then monetising the electricity supplied to motorists. Fastned stands out for the recognisable design of its stations: large canopies covered in solar panels, symbols of its commitment to renewable energy.
Each site generally offers several fast charging points (by 2024, most of its new stations were equipped with 300 KW chargers compatible with the Combo CCS standard). Fastned is committed to supplying 100% green electricity throughout its network. The company invests heavily in growth and regularly raises bonds (e.g., €36.5m raised in February) to expand its network. It operates mainly in the Netherlands (201 motorway service areas), Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. By 2023, the network had more than 250 active stations. Growth has been exponential: by the end of 2024, Fastned had reached 346 stations in service (compared with 297 a year earlier), and had 223 other sites in the pipeline in its portfolio. Its plan is to grow to 400 stations by the end of 2025 and then to 1,000 stations by 2030 across Europe.
Created in 2021, Electra is a young French company that primarily targets public car parks, shopping centres, restaurants, hotels and other destination locations in urban areas, where drivers can recharge their vehicles in 20 to 30 minutes during their daily activities. The charge points that have been installed have a capacity of 150-300 KW, with some hubs offering up to 400 KW. The company claims an availability rate of close to 99%, thanks to proprietary software supervision hosted on AWS and proactive maintenance. In two years, Electra has deployed around 50 stations in France, often multi-hubs and located in Indigo car parks, hotels (Accor, Louvre Hotels), shopping centres (Altarea), restaurants (Le Duff Group-Brioche Dorée) or car dealerships (Chopard Group, Stellantis).
At the end of 2022, the company won a major tender with Allego and Delhaize to equip 250 supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg, representing around 1,800 charge points. In 2023, Electra opened a subsidiary in Switzerland (Electra Switzerland & Austria) and joined forces with the AMAG group (via Helion and Clyde), aiming to install 100 stations in urban areas. The first Swiss station was inaugurated in May 2024 in Collombey (Valais), on a brownfield site converted into a new-generation charging hub. By 2030, Electra aims to build a network of 2,200 stations (or around 15,000 charging points) in Europe, alongside major players such as Ionity and Tesla. To support this development, the startup has raised nearly €600m in three years, including a record round of €304m in January 2024, entirely in equity, led by the Dutch pension fund PGGM, with the participation of Bpifrance (Large Venture) and its historic investors (Eurazeo, SNCF, RATP, Banque des Territoires, Allianz, etc.).
The 2035 dream: Spark as a quality standard
The four CEOs delivered their dreams for 2035.
“To be the gold standard in the market,” said Ionity CEO von Tilburg, who previously worked at Google, Netflix, Microsoft and Tesla.
“To have become a global (and not just European) benchmark,” said Atlante CEO Terranova.
“That cars have become 100% electric and cheaper,” said Fastned’s CEO.
“That we are the largest network and that we bring together other stakeholders, such as the automotive industry,” was the contribution from Electra’s CEO.
Intellectual property, on the other hand, will be shared, according to the trade agreement. There is no need for a specific structure. This club of four is not, moreover, closed to other players, but they will have to share the same views: be a pure-player--as opposed to the networks launched by oil companies as a complement to their traditional business--want to develop a fast-charging network and set themselves the highest quality standards.
What about Tesla? “Tesla drivers will certainly be happy to find an alternative with a clear promise,” say the four CEOs as one.
The reality is that for an equivalent service, customers will either look for the cheapest deal for a few cents less, or they will have a tool to reassure them before summer vacation. That’s why the service will be launched in June. The summer holidays as a first full-scale test of an idea that will be continually adapted, iteration by iteration, to continue to make life easier for users.
This article was originally published in .