MRH has announced a partnership with IONITY - a joint venture formed by leading car manufacturers which develops and implements a High-Power Charging (HPC) network for electric vehicles across Europe.  

It is the same organisation Shell recently announced it is working with across 10 European countries. 

IONITY is a joint venture between BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford Motor Company and the Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche, which aims to build 400 fast-charging stations across Europe by 2020. MRH will be responsible for a significant number of sites across the UK by that time.

The network will use the European charging standard Combined Charging System to significantly reduce charging times compared to existing systems. Each station will offer a capacity of 350 kilowatts, greater than the input capacity on any EV today. The current industry standard is just 50kW.

Karen Dickens, chief executive of MRH, said: “We are delighted to be the first UK-based partner in this joint venture with the leading European car manufacturers. At MRH, customer experience is at the heart of our proposition. This joint venture will allow to meet the needs of our customers who drive electric vehicles. MRH, with its high-quality estate across the UK, and growing retail offer, is particularly well positioned to cater for drivers when stopping to charge their electric vehicles. While the technology is still being developed it is important that MRH partners with those leading this thinking and development.”

“We are excited to welcome MRH in the IONITY network. The partnership with MRH is key for us to leave a significant footprint in the United Kingdom as one of the major EV markets in Europe. It’s great to see how we are getting closer to our goal of enabling EV travel throughout Europe”, says Michael Hajesch, IONITY’s chief executive officer.

The MRH estate consists of 491 sites.