BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create the highest-powered charging network in Europe. The goal is the quick build-up of a sizable number of stations in order to enable long-range travel for battery electric vehicle drivers. This will be an important step towards facilitating mass-market BEV adoption.
The projected ultra-fast high-powered charging network with power levels up to 350 kW will be significantly faster than the most powerful charging system deployed today. The build-up is planned to start in 2017. An initial target of about 400 sites in Europe is planned. By 2020 the customers should have access to thousands of high-powered charging points. The goal is to enable long-distance travel through open-network charging stations along highways and major thoroughfares, which has not been feasible for most BEV drivers to date. The charging experience is expected to evolve to be as convenient as refueling at conventional gas stations.
The network will be based on Combined Charging System (CCS) standard technology. The planned charging infrastructure expands the existing technical standard for AC- and DC charging of electric vehicles to the next level of capacity for DC fast charging with up to 350 kW. BEVs that are engineered to accept this full power of the charge stations can recharge brand-independently in a fraction of the time of today’s BEVs. The network is intended to serve all CCS equipped vehicles to facilitate the BEV adoption in Europe.
Six years after the current-generation of the first high-volume modern battery-electric car went on sale in the U.S., the 2017 Nissan Leaf carries on virtually unchanged from the previous model year. The Leaf remains the best-selling electric car in history, although its sales have slowed recently—perhaps due to the design's age and... 
Tesla Motors will soon begin rolling out software to restore lost Autopilot driver-assistance features, its CEO says, as a prelude to what the company claims will be the launch of genuine self-driving capabilities. Last month, Tesla announced that it was equipping new Model S and Model X electric cars with a more elaborate suite of sensors, known... 
Today, read our first impressions of the 2017 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive, see why the U.S. may be experiencing a hatchback renaissance, and find out the Environmental Protection Agency's goals for ethanol in 2017. All this and more on Green Car Reports. In its review of the Tesla Model X P90D, Consumer Reports declares the electric crossover... ![2017 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive - first drive, Miami, Nov 2016 [photo: Jeff Jablansky]](http://images.hgmsites.net/tmb/2017-smart-fortwo-electric-drive--first-drive-miami-nov-2016-photo-jeff-jablansky_100583828_t.gif)
On a hot, muggy day in south Florida, nothing is more comforting than knowing that your well-cooled car will make it to its destination. When that car is a reboot of the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive, the tiny battery-powered European city slicker—and you’re surrounded by a sea of drivers who couldn't care less about keeping to a speed... 
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