In 2023, six automakers announced a massive joint venture to develop an extensive nationwide public-charging network for electric vehicles. Now known as Ionna, the partnership has a new member,: Toyota.
Akio Toyoda stepped down as CEO in 2023 and now serves as Toyota’s chairman. While he continues to preach moderation when it comes to EVs, his successor as CEO, Koji Sato, has pushed the company in a different direction. Currently, Toyota sells just three EVs in the U.S., and two of those were not a wholly in-house effort — the Toyota bZ4X was co-developed alongside the Subaru Solterra, and the Lexus RZ is its luxurious spin-off. (The Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedan is the third.) Now, Toyota says it hopes to offer 30 different EVs globally by 2030, building as many as 3.5 million annually. The automaker also recently announced plans to manufacture two new three-row electric SUVs in Kentucky and Indiana, which it expects to be on sale in 2025.
The partnership’s stated aim is to install at least 30,000 public charging ports across North America by 2030, with the first set to open later in 2024. Note that the goal is 30,000 ports, not charging stations; just as a single gas station might have four pumps or many times that, the number of individual plugs at a given charging location will vary.
The Ionna partners intend to have both Combined Charging System plugs — until recently, used by most manufacturers except Tesla — and Tesla’s North American Charging Standard plugs at their stations. Now that every automaker in the U.S. that currently builds EVs has signed on with Tesla to install Silicone Valley-spec ports in their vehicles, Ionna will be contributing to a rapid expansion in public-charging infrastructure.
According to the Energy Department, there are currently some 3.3 million EVs on U.S. roads served by approximately 43,500 public DC fast chargers. If Ionna’s projections are correct, upwards of 30 million electric cars will prowl the nation by 2030. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates we will need more than 180,000 plugs to keep them all moving.
