Image Source: Europa Wire
Siemens AG is the first outside investor in the North American network of electric vehicle charging stations, putting more than $100 million into Volkswagen AG’s Electrify America division.
According to the firms, the Electrify America division would receive $450 million in total, including fresh funding from its parent company Volkswagen. The collaboration with Electrify America is “part of a much broader commitment that Siemens is making in the electrification sector,” according to John DeBoer, head of Siemens’ North American e-mobility unit.
In response to the German automaker’s controversy involving the tampering of diesel emissions, VW formed Electrify America in 2017 with a 10-year, $2 billion investment pledge.
The two businesses only stated that Siemens’ portion of the latest investment is more than $100 million without going into greater detail about the precise amounts each is investing.
The financial arm of Siemens, Siemens Financial Services, which is funding the investment, will have a seat on the board of Electrify America and will be a minority investor.
The manufacturer aimed to raise up to $1 billion in outside funds to support the expansion of infrastructure for electric vehicles, according to a story from Reuters published a year ago that VW intended to sell a stake in Electrify America.
According to Giovanni Palazzo, president and CEO of Electrify America, the business still intends to more than treble its charging infrastructure by 2026, adding more than 10,000 fast chargers and 1,800 charging stations.
Ford Motor Company, Hyundai/Kia, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Geely Automobile’s Volvo and Polestar, and Tesla challenger Lucid are just a few of the automakers outside the Volkswagen Group with which Electrify America has EV charging relationships.
According to the investment website PitchBook, Siemens, a company that creates charging stations for commercial fleets and other clients, has invested in a number of electrification firms, including ChargePoint and Electrify America rivals Electrify America and Northvolt.