While ultra-fast chargers are often associated with long journeys, it’s in everyday life that they truly transform the electric experience. In cities, shopping areas, or leisure destinations, they have removed the main barriers: waiting time, payment complexity, and uncertain availability. The result: driving electric has become more seamless and practical than ever.
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Charging Your Electric Car Without Wasting Time
The promise is in the name – speed: filling up in about 20 minutes. This short time changes the relationship to charging. It no longer needs to be anticipated over hours but becomes part of routine activities: just enough time for lunch, a workout, or a coffee break.
For users, this eliminates one of the most cited barriers: the fear of waiting too long. With fast and ultra-fast charging stations, charging is no longer a constraint – it adapts to your lifestyle rhythm.
Simplified Payment at Charging Stations
Another point that has long complicated the electric experience is the payment method. Between badges, apps, and subscriptions, the procedures discouraged some drivers. This is no longer the case.
Since 2024, European regulations require the acceptance of bank cards at all new fast and ultra-fast charging stations. Today, paying for electric charging should be as simple as filling up at a gas station. You plug in, validate, and leave.
However, many regular users continue to appreciate apps, which offer tracking and history benefits. But bank cards allow universal access, even for occasional drivers. This fluidity reassures and expands the audience ready to make the switch to electric.
A Network of Fast and Ultra-Fast Charging Stations That’s Rapidly Expanding
The annual growth of the network now exceeds 30%, driven by both public and private investments. The State has set an ambitious goal: 400,000 public charging points by 2030, including at least 50,000 fast or high-power charging stations. However, projections show that, at the current pace, achieving these objectives will require a strong acceleration of deployments.
This rapidly expanding network is profoundly changing usage patterns. Where fast charging was still rare three years ago, it’s gradually becoming accessible in city center parking lots, commercial areas, and daily transit locations.
This visibility changes the relationship to range: drivers no longer calculate their route with apprehension. Unless they’re in the middle of a desert, they know solutions exist nearby.
Transparent Availability
A charging station’s power isn’t enough – it must be available when you need it. Charging operators have integrated this need for visibility.
Most fast and ultra-fast charging stations are now connected to apps that display their real-time status: free, occupied, or under maintenance. Drivers therefore know in advance whether they’ll find an available spot.
This real-time information reduces stress and avoids unnecessary detours. It contributes to the overall practicality of charging and reinforces confidence in electric vehicles.
Technology That Continues to Progress
Current fast charging stations deliver between 50 to 400kW. Concretely, this allows gaining up to 400km of range in about twenty minutes, depending on vehicle models.
Upcoming innovations will further enhance this efficiency. Buffer storage, for example, allows installing ultra-fast charging stations even in areas where the electrical grid couldn’t have supported such power demands.
This technical evolution paves the way for even wider deployment and total democratization of ultra-fast charging.
Fast Charging as the New Standard
Certainly, slow charging retains its value for long parking durations (overnight at home, workday), but fast charging is becoming essential for everything else.
It meets the flexibility needs of drivers who want to travel without constraints and regain the immediacy they were accustomed to with fuel.
This evolution helps normalize electric vehicles and convince the last holdouts.
And DRIVECO’s Role?
In this transformation, specialized operators handle the deployment, operation, and maintenance of charging stations. DRIVECO is among the players accelerating this transition. The company focuses its development on living and destination areas: urban parking lots, commercial zones, hotels, and leisure sites.
With more than 1,400 stations installed in Europe, including several hundred in fast charging, DRIVECO supports site managers in the integration and complete management of fast and ultra-fast charging infrastructure, accessible and visible on all e-mobility applications. Our ambition: to reach 1,600 deployed stations by the end of the year.
By positioning itself where motorists live and consume, DRIVECO directly contributes to making electric driving more practical and more obvious in daily life.
