The third and final part of State Of Charge’s coverage from the recent Ionna Media Day is a panel discussion featuring representatives of the founding members of the Ionna DC fast-charging network.

The joint venture was founded by eight carmakers (BMW Group, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota). Seven of them were present at the event, sharing their views on the entire project.

See also: Part 1: Ionna Explains How It Is Building Its Massive Nationwide Charging Network, and Part 2: The Ionna Network Will Double In Size In the Next Month: Interviews

While the third part is dedicated more to hardcore EV charging enthusiasts, without flashy presentations, we noted a few interesting things.

The founding members of Ionna are EV manufacturers and competitors. However, they say the Ionna joint venture is a shared effort to address EV charging infrastructure challenges.

The companies agree that range anxiety is not as big an issue today as it was 10 or 15 years ago. There are already 300-mile EVs on the market. On the other hand, charging is a major barrier to growth in the EV segment.

The founding members agree that there is a gap between the EVs in North America and the available EV charging infrastructure. This specifically concerns DC fast chargers, but home charging has its issues, too, they believe.

The Ionna joint venture is intended to expand EV charging infrastructure, increasing the number of available chargers. We assume, although it was not said, that it’s important for other EV manufacturers to have a counterweight for the Tesla Supercharging network, which accounts for more than half of all DC fast-charging stalls in North America.

Ionna is expected to improve the situation quickly (“Ionna Speed”) and simultaneously enhance the overall user experience (reliability, amenities, Plug & Charge feature, high 400 kW power, and NACS connectors from day one).

A side element of the collaboration is the joint efforts and laboratories working to improve the reliability of charging by testing new models and developing software updates.

An Ionna DC fast-charging station. (Source: Ionna)

An interesting point is that, about two years ago, the founding members initially wanted to deploy CCS1 chargers exclusively. However, after adjusting the plan, the Ionna network launched with a 60% CCS1 / 40% NACS (SAE J3400) connector mix. In the future, the share of NACS chargers is expected to increase.

Ionna’s founding members are investing serious money into the company to install 30,000 DC fast-charging stalls by 2030. The financial aspects of the company’s plans were not discussed, although it was repeatedly stated that the goal is to make the network profitable at some point in the future.