# Ionna

Ionna is a HPC charging network for electric vehicles to facilitate long-distance travel across North America. With a concept to put its locations along highways it is similar to the Ionity network in Europe.

## History

The American government recognized that a key element in expanding electromobility is the establishment of public charging points. From 2022 it started to fund the construction of fast charging stations ($7.5 billion for 500,000 charging points). Tesla began opening its superchargers to third-party brands in 2023. In 2022 they also made their previously proprietary charging plug available for standardization under the name North American Charging Standard (NACS).
After opening, the Tesla Superchargers developed a dominant position in fast charging. In addition to the number of charging points, availability, the ease of activation also played a role. In mid-2023, many manufacturers began licensing Tesla's technology and the access to Tesla's Supercharger network - at which point the ratio of NACS to CCS charging points in North America's fast charging landscape was already 60 to 40 percent. The Volkswagen Group, as the main shareholder of Electrify America, also announced that its vehicles will have access to superchargers from 2025.
In this market environment, Mercedes, BMW, GM, Stellantis, as well as Honda, Hyundai and Kia announced in July 2023 that they would combine their plans in order to build an independent network of HPC fast charging stations in North America. In February 2024, the IONNA LLC company began operations of the network under the name IONNA. The goal is to set up 30,000 HPC charging points. For comparison, there were 12,000 charging points in operation at Tesla and 4,000 at Electrify America at that time.
The first new charging location is expected to open at the end of 2024. Headquarters will be moved from Torrance, California to Durham, North Carolina. $10 million will be invested into the new site along with the creation of over 200 jobs; over the next ten years 725 million of investments are expected.
In July 2024, Toyota announced it would join the IONNA joint venture.
On October 3, 2024, IONNA announced its Chief Technology Officer as Jackie Slope, who previously worked at Crypto.com Arena and Madison Square Garden.
As of December 2024 it was planned to build 50 stations until end of 2026, each with 10 charge points at Sheetz locations, and to get to 1000 stations until 2028.

## Charging stations

In October 2024, IONNA broke ground on its first 'Rechargery' charging location, in Apex, North Carolina. The location is planned to include a lounge, bathrooms, and food and beverage service. 10 covered DC fast charging stalls will be capable of 400kW and 800 volt output with both CCS1 and NACS connectors. The first location has been equipped with Alpitronic 400. The Hypercharger HYC400 have a liquid-cooled cable for 500 A [and a 600 A boost] allowing up to 1000 V (as known from Ionity charging hubs). Each charger has two cables being either CCS or NACS.
Im December 2024 four stations were opened, with four more planned for the first quarter of 2025. Also in December 2024, a cooperation with Sheetz has been announced, a chain of 24/7 convenience stores. Among the 750 locations in the northwest of the USA about 50 truck stops will be converted into a 'Rechargy' until the end of 2026. From the four openings in December 2024, three of them had already been at Sheetz locations.