OREANDA-NEWS. November 30, 2012. A total of 97 fast chargers, more than half of the 163 such units that will make up the nationwide charging network to be completed by the end of this year, are operational at this point, the Estonian Kredex foundation said.

Jarmo Tuisk, manager for the electrical mobility program (ELMO) at Kredex, said that while in general the pace at which the network was being built was in line with expectations, extra time required to agree building permits with local authorities had caused certain delays. From the end of November owners of electric vehicles will be offered full-scale customer support in fast charging both by telephone and over the internet.

Criss Uudam, project manager for the fast charger project with ABB, said that in terms of the number of chargers installed the Estonian fast charging network was the world's largest fast charging infrastructure. "By today more than 10,000 kilowatt-hours of electric energy has been loaded from fast chargers into electric cars," he said.

The security company G4S exercises supervision over the fast charger network and ensures its functioning. "Concluding of agreements with end users, issuing of user cards and bills are also the domain of G4S," said Jaan Nappus, development manager for G4S Eesti.

Using of the fast chargers is free until the end of January. After that a price of approximately two to three euros will be charged from customers for an instance of charging. From December 1 customers are required to have a contract to be able to use the service.

A fixed monthly fee of approximately 15 euros will have to be paid by users of the service in addition to the per-visit charge starting from February 1. The per-visit charge will be higher for customers opting for a package without a monthly fee. The price lists are to be published at the end of November.

A fast charger enables to charge the battery of an electric vehicle to up to 80 percent of its volume.

The 163 DC fast chargers will be set up at 149 locations all over Estonia, including 27 points in Tallinn, 10 in Tartu, five in Parnu and two in Narva. Along the major roads the charging points will be located at a distance of 40-60 kilometers from one another.

As of now 99 purchase grant applications for an electric car have been submitted to Kredex and Kredex has ruled positively on 80 of these applications.

The fast chargers installed by now have been used on more than 1,700 occasions, with the charging points located on Lootsi Street in Tallinn and Ringtee Street in Tartu finding the most intense use.