In Nuremberg, Germany, Audi recently launched its first charging hub with reservable high-power charging areas oriented toward electric car owners who don’t have any charging opportunities at home. Moreover, the Audi charging hub is intended to serve future peak demand for charging in urban environments. A connected lounge area offers a premium charging experience, the company says
With the pilot location, Audi is road-testing its new charging concept for the first time. “We want to use it to test flexible and premium-oriented quick-charging infrastructure in urban space,” says Ralph Hollmig, Audi charging hub project manager. “We’re going where our customers don’t necessarily wake up in the morning with a fully charged electric car and at the same time thinking about increasing charging demand in the future.”
Cubes are the foundation of the Audi charging hub, the company says. The flexible container cubes can be assembled and disassembled again in existing areas in a few days. The cubes provide two fast-charging stations for each unit and can be combined in various constellations. Used and processed lithium-ion batteries function as energy storage systems – what are known as second-life batteries taken from dismantled development vehicles. The Audi charging hub’s battery-storage solution will bring quick-charging infrastructure where the electric grid is not enough.
Thanks to the roughly 2.45 MWh of interim storage, the charging stations in Nuremberg need only a 200 kW green power connection to the low-voltage network that is already available, which is entirely sufficient for operating the Audi charging hub, the company says. The 200 kW are enough to continually fill the storage modules. Solar panels on the roof additionally provide up to 30 kW of green energy. Customers can charge electric cars with up to 320 kW of power at six charging points. A total of about 80 vehicles can be charged here per day without reaching the limits of the energy storage system’s capacity combined with the hub’s 200 kW power input.
The Audi e-tron GT reaches a charging capacity of up to 270 kW. That allows the four-door Coupé to charge enough energy for up to 100 kilometers (approx. 62 miles) in about five minutes. A charge from 5-80% takes roughly 23 minutes, Audi says. Currently, anyone who chooses to use the high-power charging stations at the Audi charging hub in Nuremberg and have an e-tron charging service contract can charge for 31 cents per kWh, regardless of the rate.
