February 14 (SeeNews) - Croatian state-owned energy utility HEP said it put into operation its first ultrafast electric vehicle charging station, which enables full charging within 15 minutes.
The 175 kW facility was opened in partnership with local energy firm INA and is located at INA's petrol station at the Vukova Gorica rest area on the northern A6 motorway linking the capital Zagreb with the coastal city of Rijeka, HEP said in a statement on Thursday.
At Vukova Gorica, HEP already has four fast AC/DC charging station of 50 kW capacity each, the statement reads.
"The ultrafast charging station is reducing to the minimum the stay time of electric vehicle drivers, our citizens and guests, at the rest area and helps them to arrive as quickly as possible at their destinations. Therefore, we plan to install at motorways several more charging stations of this and higher capacity," the head of HEP, Frane Barbaric, said in the statement.
Vehicles which can exploit the full capacity of the ultrafast facility can charge for an average of 15 minutes their batteries to a level that enables them to drive for 300 kilometres.
HEP's first ultrafast EV charging station was installed as part of the NEXT-E international project, co-financed by European Union funds, the company said.
The NEXT-E project represents a cooperation of four leading companies (E.ON Group, MOL, HEP and Petrol) from the electricity and oil & gas sectors joining forces with OEMs (car manufacturers - Nissan and BMW) to create interoperable and non-discriminatory EV charging network, as a viable alternative to the combustion engine vehicles.
Barbaric also said that HEP already has more than 120 public ELEN electric vehicle charging station across Croatia.
The company started installing EV charging stations under the ELEN brand in the beginning of 2015, as part of an eMobilnost project that is being implemented in line with the EU energy strategy and is co-financed by EU funds.
Last year, HEP said it plans to have an EV charging station installed on every 50 kilomentres of motorways across the country by 2020, as well as in all areas with more than 20,000 citizens, and in all sea ports, airports and railway and coach stations.
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