International law firm Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Tank & Rast Group (“Tank & Rast”) on developing an electric vehicle fast charger station network for its motorway service stations throughout Germany. To this effect, Tank & Rast entered into co-operation agreements with EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG, Innogy SE, E.ON SE and IONITY GmbH (“IONITY“), a joint venture between BMW, Daimler, Ford, Volkswagen, Porsche and Audi for developing an electric vehicle high power charging network.
With these agreements, Tank & Rast pushes forward its plan to equip almost all of its circa 400 motorway service stations with modern fast charger stations. The service stations will then form a comprehensive fast charger station network that aims to significantly increase the attractiveness of long-distance electrical travel in Germany. Several Tank & Rast sites will also form part of a cross-border high power charging network with the circa 400 stations IONITY aims to establish across Europe by 2020.
Most of the new fast charger stations have a maximum capacity between 50kW and 150kW. The HPC charger stations, which will be installed at several of Tank & Rast’s sites, allow for charging up to 350kW at a time. Depending on vehicle design, this ensures significantly shorter charging times.
The WFW Frankfurt team advising Tank & Rast was led by Corporate Partner Dr Torsten Rosenboom, assisted by Associates Nicolas Persch and Sebastian Ens. They worked closely throughout the transaction with Tank & Rast’s Head of Legal Projects Nadine Eichler.
Torsten commented: “We are delighted that once again Tank & Rast opted for WFW to advise them on such a major project. Our longstanding experience advising on energy-related infrastructure projects, as well as our deep understanding of Tank & Rast’s business, enabled us to successfully advise them on their entry into this important new sector”.
