BMW And Volkswagen Team Up With ChargePoint To Expand Electric Car Fast-Charging Sites

DC fast charging can make owning an electric car a lot more convenient, but only if the driver can find abundant stations. There are three major standards for fast charging, and while Nissan and Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] have done a lot of work to promote the standards used by their cars (Nissan uses CHAdeMO while Tesla developed its own Supercharger standard), there's been less love for option three—the Combined Charging Standard (CCS).

CCS has been endorsed by most U.S. and German automakers. And with more electric cars from those companies on the way, BMW and Volkswagen decided to team up to expand the network.

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At this week's Washington Auto Show, the two German automakers announced they would partner with network operator ChargePoint to build around 100 fast-charging station sites along heavily-traveled routes along the East and West Coasts. One corridor will run from Boston to Washington, D.C., along Interstate 95, and another will connect Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The fast-charging sites will be spaced no more than 50 miles apart—making road trips possible even in cars with ranges under 100 miles.