Tesla Navigation: All Fastned Stations in Europe Now Available Within The System

Starting this weekend, all Fastned stations in Europe are included in the @Tesla Navigation system. Fastned stations feature "Autocharge", a charging system whereby you only have to set it up once and then charging will begin automatically after plugging in.

Fastned is a Dutch company that owns and operates a network of EV charging stations in the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Switzerland. A large majority of its stations are located at Dutch highway rest areas. Fastned was founded in 2012.

As of March 2021, Fastned's network consists of 134 EV charging stations, of which 105 are located in the Netherlands. The lion's share of Dutch charging stations are located at highway rest areas. Three are located at Albert Heijn supermarkets, and some more are situated in cities. The charging stations outside the Netherlands are in Germany (19), the United Kingdom (6), Belgium (2), and Switzerland (2). Four German locations are at hotels of Van der Valk, while the remaining are close to highways. The first British location was in Sunderland, and the company has won a tender to expand to London. In Switzerland, Fastned had won a tender to build twenty charging stations. Fastned's stations were used a total of 194,000 times during the last quarter of 2020 by 53,000 different customers. The company has plans to expand to France.

The earlier charging stations are characterized by two yellow arches with a curved roof, consisting of solar panels, in between. The company introduced a new station design in 2016 with a higher roof in order to accommodate electric trucks. Additionally, it is better suited to increases in the number of individual charging points at a station. The roof is still composed of solar panels, but they are see-through in the new design.

All cars that use a CCS connector to fast charge can make use of Autocharge. These cars can start a charge session without using an app or EV charge card after activating Autocharge. Just plugin and the session will start.

As per the information provided by Fastned support, to use Autocharge you first need to create a Fastned account. In the registration process you will be able to add autocharge for your vehicle, if supported for your car.

1- Open the Fastned app, go to your profile and choose under ‘My Vehicles’ the vehicle you want to connect to Autocharge. Choose “yes” for ‘autocharge activated’.

2- Start the next charging session with the Fastned app. During this charging session your car is connected to your Fastned account.

Note: For activating Autocharge; first insert the connector into the vehicle and then start a charge session via the Fastned app. When your Autocharge is succesfully activated, you'll be notified in the app.

From now on you can charge at Fastned without the app or your EV charge card. Just plug in and your session will start. You can stop charging by pressing the 'Stop' button in the screen of the charger.

Some social media users on twitter asked interesting questions earlier today, like if it would be available as automatic intermediate stops or only for destinations in the "Nav"; to which other users answered that they "...believe only destination or (in the near future with 2021.40 firmware) as manually planned intermediate stops."
We will be providing more details on this issue as more information arrives to our desk, but in the meantime Tesla Model 3 and Model Y drivers in Europe have even more options for charging on the road.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.