Stellantis' network of electric car charging stations expands in France

Atlante inaugurated its fourth charging station on Tuesday in a commercial area near Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne), with 8 fast charging points.

A hundred other fast and ultra-fast stations should follow in France in the next 18 months, according to Atlante, on the Vinci motorways in the south of France for example.

Atlante is the result of a partnership between Stellantis, number two in the European automotive market, and the Italian company NHOA (formerly Engie EPS), number three worldwide in energy storage and a subsidiary of the Taiwanese group TCC.

Stellantis is thus strengthening the network available for recharging electric cars and will soon be offering preferential rates to customers of its brands, such as Peugeot, Fiat, Opel and Alfa Romeo. Atlante currently offers refills at 0,58 euro per kilowatt hour, in the low market average.

Founded in 2021, the operator wants to be very ambitious in the long term, while its competitors Tesla, Ionity (which brings together BMW, Ford, Hyundai, Mercedes and Volkswagen), Fastned or TotalEnergies have already shared Northern Europe.

Atlante thus aims to build the first charging network in Southern Europe, with 3.000 terminals by the end of 2023, and 35.000 terminals by 2030. It already has charging stations in Italy (34 open), Spain, Portugal, and in France, which should eventually constitute its largest market.

Atlante will install the majority of the terminals on "transit locations", such as national roads, motorways (four stations planned on the Vinci network) but also on car parks in commercial areas, such as in Châlons, indicated its general manager for the France, Jacques Galvani.

As a subsidiary of NHOA, Atlante plans to equip its stations with electricity storage capacity. Added to photovoltaic panels, these resources will be necessary to "manage the rise in power of the electric vehicle", according to Mr. Galvani, with in particular peaks of use on weekends or during departures on vacation.