By Nick Carey
LONDON (Reuters) - Ford (NYSE:F) and fast electric vehicle charging network Allego said on Tuesday they would roll out ultra-fast chargers for Ford customers and public use across many of the U.S. automaker's European dealerships as part of a new partnership.
Allego CEO Mathieu Bonnet said the first chargers should be installed starting in the first quarter of 2025 and would be in place at many Ford European dealerships over the next three to four years. They will be open to all EV owners, he said.
"By enabling any EV driver to charge at these Ford dealerships, we contribute to better EV penetration," Bonnet said in an interview.
A lack of charging infrastructure has been seen as a major roadblock to mass adoption of EVs in Europe and one of the reasons for slowing demand growth for electric cars.
Allego will install charging stations capable of delivering up to 400 kilowatts charging available to EV drivers around the clock.
As Allego is investing in the charging stations, it will receive the revenue from the chargers. But members of Ford's BlueOval charging service will receive preferential rates for using the chargers.
Joerg Hofmeister, Ford Model e Europe's head of charging and energy, said the chargers would be focused initially in the automaker's key markets in the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain, plus some other smaller markets like Norway.
Ford has about 1,800 European dealerships, but mostly those in urban areas or likely to receive high EV traffic will have ultra-fast chargers installed, Hofmeister said.
He said offering the chargers for public use would help overcome charging infrastructure challenges and would b bring the owners of other EV brands in contact with Ford's own offerings at dealerships.
"It's a great opportunity to showcase our products," Hofmeister said.