The first good news is that the installations will begin as early as next February. To carry out this project, the new company Free To Xperience which will develop new services for travelers such as digital and cashless payment systems in parking areas, the management of sustainable mobility services and much more. In any case, his first step will be the construction of this charging infrastructure that ASPI defines as the largest in Italy on the motorway network.
The project provides that within all 67 major stations are install 4-6 high power multi-client columns which will allow cars to be recharged in 15-20 minutes. It will therefore be a question of columns of the HPC type up to 350 kW. The goal is to facilitate long-distance travel by battery-powered vehicles. Free To Xperience will manage the installation of the network of columns as well as all the systems for relating to users.
Overall, it means that 268-402 columns will be installed on the motorway network. This is good news after so many promises and a thousand postponements. Until now, the lack of fast charging stations on highways had always been seen as a major problem. The owners of electric cars are forced, except in very rare cases, to leave the motorways to fill up on energy.
Obviously, now we need to move on to the facts but this will happen shortly since, as mentioned, the installations will start as early as next February. Once the first infrastructures are available it will also be interesting find out the cost of charging.
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But the new business plan offers further interesting insights. Another goal is to transform the motorway network in a real “Green Infrastructure”, through an increase in the production of energy from renewable sources, so as to cover more than 25% of the needs. To achieve this goal, the photovoltaic park present on the grid will be doubled, so as to be able to power all 240 stations and 204 service areas.
In addition, the lighting system replacement plan will be completed by installing over 30,000 LED lamps in the tunnels, with the aim of reducing overall consumption. The focus will then be on the complete digitalisation of infrastructure management to transform the motorway network in a real “smart road”, in which connected cars, infrastructure and travelers will interact.
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