• by Karl Greenberg , December 22, 2015

BMW is banking on fast-charge DC stations to juice the market for vehicles like its i3 and i8 electric cars, as it prepares to electrify its entire range of vehicles with its eDrive technology. 

The latest in the automaker's comprehensive plan to be the Johnny Appleseed of juice with its ChargeNow program (launched in 2014, and administered by charging-station network ChargePoint), is a partnership with Nissan. The program involves 120 fast charging locations in 19 states, benefitting both Nissan's LEAF electric car and BMW's i3 owners. 

The new program puts BMW's ChargeNow DC Fast stations, which can complete an 80% charge in about 20 minutes, in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, North and South Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin. 

But that is one network among several that BMW has helped develop with automakers like VW, leading to a footprint that covers 100% of the automaker's market for its electric vehicles, per Robert Healey, electric vehicle infrastructure manager at BMW of North America. The new chargers work, obviously, both for Nissan and BMW electrics.

Healey tells Marketing Daily  that the company learned a lot from large-population field tests of its ActiveE and Mini E electric vehicles in 2009. That was a real lack of public infrastructure. “Back then the goal was installing a charging station in each garage. We then turned to level-two (four hours or to charge) pubic infrastructure; DC Fast charging is the next step.” 

ChargeNow is BMW's program to let its customers use a dedicated card to access networks run by ChargePoint, which has about 20,000 charging stations nationwide. ChargeNow DC Fast, developed with NRG EVgo, debuted in California last year, involving 100 EVGo charging stations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

In January this year, BMW launched a partnership with VW to create express charging corridors along heavily traveled routes on the east and west coasts — 100 stations along U.S. 95 on the East Coast, from Boston to Washington, D.C., and on the West Coast between Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. At the Los Angeles Auto Show, the automaker announced 100 additional DC Fast charge stations in 25 markets. 

BMW lets drivers find its charging stations via its ConnectedDrive app either in-vehicle Navigation or via BMW i Remote App—or via the Nissan EZ-Charge smartphone app. Healy says BMW i3 customers in ChargeNow DC Fast markets who purchase or lease the BMW i3 can sign on to get free, unlimited 30-minute DC Fast charging and free one-hour Level Two charging for their BMW i3 at EVgo Stations, for 24 months from date of enrollment.

Cliff Fietzek, manager, connected e-mobility at BMW of North America, tells Marketing Daily that BMW’s retail program for electric vehicles is key to the process. “We found that EV's can't be sold as easily as combustion, because there are interested people who get it but lots of people somewhere in between.” BMW created an i-genius program for all retailers selling EV's —  a dedicated person to help customers to understand their cars, energy prices, and infrastructure. “They are not paid to sell cars but to consult with customers. They are also the first ones to engage a consumer looking for an EV.”

BMW also announced at the L.A. Auto Show a plan to promote an ATM-style interchangeability program where customers can use one card at any and all chargers, rather than a dedicated card for each. Says Fietzek, “There are a few different network operators for the charging stations. The EV customer has had to have separate accounts with different operators. So, from a customer perspective, interoperability across networks is critical, like using your card at any ATM.”