SMATRICS EnBW: 8 charging stations with up to 480 kW in Vienna
SMATRICS EnBW has installed eight fast charging stations with up to 480 kW at the BILLA Plus location in Vienna-Liesing. These are the first C7 type charging columns from manufacturer XCharge in Austria, with more locations planned to follow.
Advertisement
In September, EnBW integrated XCharge’s C7 fast charging station with a capacity of up to 480 kW into its German charging network, with the first location being the charging park at the company’s headquarters in Karlsruhe. Now, SMATRICS EnBW is also adopting this technology. The joint venture between the Austrian company SMATRICS and EnBW operates what it claims to be Austria’s largest fast charging network. According to SMATRICS, EnBW, and XCharge, the location with the new charging stations in Vienna is now available.
Eight charging points at BILLA Plus
The location is at the parking lot of a BILLA-Plus store at Sterngasse 6 in Vienna’s 23rd district, Liesing. There are eight fast-charging stations (HPC, High Power Charging) available with a charging capacity of up to 480 kW. Each C7 facility has two charging points where two vehicles can charge simultaneously. This amounts to four charging columns in total, though the companies themselves do not disclose this exact number.
According to SMATRICS EnBW, the new charging stations can deliver up to 640 kilometers of range in 20 minutes, depending on the vehicle. This figure should be considered an optimal value: with a consumption of 15 kWh per 100 kilometers, 640 kilometers requires approximately 96 kWh, which would necessitate an average charging power of just under 290 kW over 20 minutes. The communications do not specify which vehicles can achieve this. The operator claims this setup is intended to prepare the network for future vehicle generations that can handle higher charging powers.
Ad
Powersharing and Charging While Shopping
SMATRICS EnBW sees an advantage in so-called powersharing as well. When two vehicles charge simultaneously at a station, they share its total charging capacity. The higher this capacity is, the more power is available for each individual vehicle. According to the operator, the C7 provides a high and consistently available charging power, which can help significantly reduce charging time during powersharing. This is particularly advantageous in retail locations where customers charge while shopping. The companies do not specify how much power a single charging point outputs when both points at a station are in use. The announcements also do not include information on charging prices at those locations.
SMATRICS-EnBW CEO Thomas Landsbek discusses the Austrian launch of the new charging stations in the company’s own fast-charging network. The company is investing strategically in new charging technology to continue meeting customers’ needs in the future. Albina Iljasov, Co-CEO of XCharge, describes the first installation in Austria as a milestone in expanding the company’s presence in Europe.
Partnership with EnBW since February
XCharge is listed on Nasdaq and has its headquarters in Hamburg and Austin, Texas. The European company XCharge Europe has been based in Hamburg since 2017 and opened its own testing laboratory there in 2024. EnBW and XCharge announced their partnership in February 2026, following a field test with XCharge charging stations. According to EnBW’s September report, Germany should see a two-digit number of fast charging parks equipped with 480-kW technology connected to the grid by the end of 2026, primarily along highways. With the new location in Vienna, the partnership is now being expanded to Austria.
Expansion of the network in Austria
SMATRICS EnBW will soon equip additional fast-charging locations in Austria with XCharge’s charging stations. The companies do not specify which locations these are or by when they are scheduled to open. As of October, SMATRICS EnBW operated 815 HPC charging points across Austria, 74 of which were added in the third quarter. The goal is to reach over 880 by the end of 2026. According to the operator, the electricity used comes 100 percent from renewable sources supplied by energy provider VERBUND.
In Vienna, SMATRICS EnBW opened a fast-charging park with twelve charging points in Penzing in July 2025, in partnership with hardware store chain ZGONC. Each charging point at that time had a capacity of up to 400 kW. The operator had announced plans to add more than 30 ultra-fast charging points in Vienna by 2026.
Would you charge at a pillar with up to 480 kW when shopping, or would a much lower charging power be sufficient for you there?
Advertisement