EV startup Polestar has begun production of its Polestar 2 in Luqiao, China, and hopes to begin deliveries this summer, starting in Europe and followed by China and North America.

Now Polestar has announced a partnership with European public charging network Plugsurfing, which will give Polestar 2 drivers in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK access to over 195,000 EV charging points across Europe, using the Plugsurfing charging key and app.

Polestar 2 buyers will receive a Plugsurfing RFID charging key. After registering for an account, they will benefit from Plugsurfing’s unified solution for payment and authentication.

Polestar is following the lead of other automakers that announce “partnerships” with public charging networks. The apparent goal is to give EV buyers confidence that they will have easy access to public charging, which is commendable. However, some buyers may be misled into thinking that a particular automaker is offering exclusive access to a particular network. In fact, the only automaker that follows such a model is Tesla. Plugsurfing is a public network that’s open to all EV drivers on payment of a fee of €9.95. Polestar has not said whether this fee will be waived for its customers, or if they will receive some other type of discount.

Polestar drivers in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands can also sign up for Plugsurfing Plus, a monthly subscription that offers flat rates for AC and DC charging. Several automakers are now offering “mobility services” of this kind, which generally offer their customers a discount on the rates charged by European charging network IONITY, which many consider exorbitant.

“Our focus is on delivering true value to customers by making public charging as easy as filling up with petrol,” says Adam Woolway, Plugsurfing co-founder. “Our obsession to innovate in a way that challenges the EV industry to move forward together is driven by this close, consolidated view on what we can do to improve the driver experience by making car charging easy.”

Source: Plugsurfing