It has been about 10 months since Ionna opened its first four Rechargery on December 27, 2024, following the soft opening of the first site in Apex, North Carolina. State Of Charge‘s Tom Moloughney has taken the opportunity to revisit Ionna and discuss its accomplishments, challenges, and future outlook.

The visit to the company’s headquarters and its Quarterback engineering lab in Durham, North Carolina, for the Ionna interview was quite fruitful and will result in two videos. The first one is an in-depth discussion with Dan Bryant, Ionna’s senior vice president of Site Operations, about the network’s current state of affairs.

How Many Bays?

The Ionna DC fast-charging network is a joint venture between eight global automakers: BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and Toyota. This provides it with the opportunity for significant funding to jump-start its expansion, and it appears that this is exactly what is happening, as the network is the fastest-growing new DC fast-charging network in the US.

According to Bryant, the number of stations (called Rechargeries) has increased to 31-32. The number of individual stalls (or bays) now exceeds 300. The company has 900 stalls under construction or beyond, and 3,600+ stalls contracted (up 20% from July 2025, when it was 3,000+).

When asked about the possibility of achieving the target of 1,000 bays in 2025, Bryant answered that “we will be pleasantly surprised by what we are going to hit this year”, which makes us believe that there will be a very strong fourth quarter.

Let’s recall that on average, Ionna’s Rechargeries have 10 stalls (five dual-head chargers), so the first 100 sites will mark an important milestone that could be reached within a few months. By the end of 2026, the number of Rechargeries should exceed 200 (with over 2,000 bays).

According to what we learned during Tom’s Ionna interview, Ionna’s long-term target is to deploy more than 30,000 fast-charging stalls by 2030. The average number of stalls might be higher than 10 at that point, so we are talking roughly 2,500 stations.

Nonetheless, as of today, the company’s primary focus is on quality, reliability, and refining all aspects of the stations, rather than on quantity. If necessary, Ionna adjusts its original design to improve the user experience (for example, installing better lighting). By the way, small details not directly related to charging are often the most challenging when building the stations (such as the placement of trash cans, canopies, lights, etc.)

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

Chargers & Stalls

Ionna currently uses Alpitronic HYC400 (Hypercharger 400) chargers with a power output of up to 400 kW and up to 1,000 volts. They have two charging ports each and can simultaneously charge two EVs (allocating power between them). In the future, power levels might even be higher.

In the case of Ionna, about 60% of the chargers have CCS1 charging connectors, while the other 40% have NACS (SAE J3400) charging connectors. This enables the locations to serve all EVs, aside from a few corner cases (such as older CHAdeMO models). It’s worth noting that Ionna is the only DC fast-charging network with both CCS1 and NACS connectors at all sites.

According to the company, so far, both CCS1 and NACS charging connectors have been relatively well utilized. Depending on the future demand, the company might gradually add more NACS chargers (or even switch CCS1 connectors to NACS).

An important challenge concerns pull-through stalls for larger EVs or EVs with trailers. At the moment, there are two Rechargeries with pull-through stalls and a couple more in the pipeline. Ionna knows the importance of this type of charging stall and plans to deploy them wherever possible to customize the station layout.

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

Geographic Expansion and Canada

According to the interview, Ionna’s expansion strategy includes various factors — sometimes it’s a particular area, sometimes a corridor, or sites at partners’ locations. There is no single approach, and the Rechargeries are gradually opening in new US states. In September, the network opened its first site in California — the US’s largest EV market.

Regarding Canada, there will be no Rechargeries planned in the short term, but the country is part of the company’s long-term strategy, it says.

Network Operation

According to Ionna, the network already notes a very high uptime of 99%. Uptime is defined in accordance with the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program (although Ionna is not much engaged in the NEVI itself).

The company places strong emphasis on the reliability and prompt repair of charging ports.

A positive thing is that so far, the network has no issues with vandalism. There was also no issue with queues, and users reported very positive feedback on that topic. That’s probably why Ionna still does not have an idle fee, but it might have one in the future.

Another good thing is the Plug & Charge feature, which Ionna offers to several brands already, including BMW, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, and Mercedes-Benz. This list recently expanded as Rivian joined the party.

A little surprising subject of discussion concerned app development. Ionna does not yet have an app, and according to the interview, it’s not focusing on this topic right now.

Pedal to the Metal

Amid policy changes in the US, Ionna says it is pushing hard on expanding the network, so we should see many new high-quality, high-power charging stations soon. Ionna network’s map can be seen here.

Our attention caught the upcoming new type of Rechargeries: Rechargery Beacon. Details about that are coming soon.

Types of Rechargeries you will see on your journey. (Source: Ionna)

Video timestamps for Tom’s Ionna interview:

02:24 The interview starts
06:52 How does Ionna select where to locate sites today?
08:02 How many pull-through sites does IONNA have?
09:26 How many stalls per site will IONNA install in 2026?
10:08 Do many NACS-equipped vehicles use Ionna sites?
12:10 Uptime and the repair process
14:58 Queuing and limiting the customer charging to 85%
16:42 Does Ionna charge idle fees?
18:00 How many OEMs have Plug&Charge on Ionna
19:10 Will Ionna offer higher-powered charging?
21:02 Will Ionna install Rechargeries in Canada?
22:02 What turned out to be more difficult than expected?
24:00 Has Ionna had any vandalism issues?
24:54 Is Ionna concerned with Walmart?
27:07 Will the new administration’s anti-EV policies change Ionna’s plans?
28:25 Ionna’s four different types of Rechargeries
32:37 Tom’s thoughts on Ionna’s facility – and the gong!