Toyota Joins Ionna Charging Network Joint Venture
In July 2023, six automakers announced a massive joint venture to develop an extensive nationwide public-charging network for electric vehicles. Now known as Ionna, the partnership has a new member, a company that has mostly made EV headlines for its reluctance to develop them: Toyota.
Related: 6 Automakers Band Together in New EV Charging Network
From Prudence to Partnership
Akio Toyoda stepped down as CEO in 2023 and now serves as Toyota’s chairman. While he continues to preach moderation when it comes to EVs, his successor as CEO, Koji Sato, has pushed the company in a different direction. Currently, Toyota sells just three EVs in the U.S., and two of those were not a wholly in-house effort — the Toyota bZ4X was co-developed alongside the Subaru Solterra, and the Lexus RZ is its luxurious spin-off. (The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedan is the third.) Now, Toyota says it hopes to offer 30 different EVs globally by 2030, building as many as 3.5 million annually. The automaker also recently announced plans to manufacture two new three-row electric SUVs in Kentucky and Indiana, which it expects to be on sale in 2025.
Investing in Ionna helps ensure that when Toyota’s EV fleet begins to grow, the infrastructure to support them is in place. The partnership’s stated aim is to install at least 30,000 public charging ports across North America by 2030, with the first set to open later in 2024. Note that the goal is 30,000 ports, not charging stations; just as a single gas station might have four pumps or many times that, the number of individual plugs at a given charging location will vary.
The Ionna partners intend to have both Combined Charging System plugs — until recently, used by most manufacturers except Tesla — and Tesla’s North American Charging Standard plugs at their stations. Now that every automaker in the U.S. that currently builds EVs has signed on with Tesla to install Silicone Valley-spec ports in their vehicles, Ionna will be contributing to a rapid expansion in public-charging infrastructure.
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Growth and Harvest Simultaneously
Growing pains are likely. According to the Energy Department, there are currently some 3.3 million EVs on U.S. roads served by approximately 43,500 public DC fast chargers. If Ionna’s projections are correct, upwards of 30 million electric cars will prowl the nation by 2030. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates we will need more than 180,000 plugs to keep them all moving.
Large-scale electric transportation is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. You can’t have mainstream EV adoption without a developed nationwide charging infrastructure, but you can’t have an adequate infrastructure if it isn’t supported by a critical mass of users. In joining Ionna, Toyota is demonstrating its commitment to building both the chicken and the egg.
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