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LOTOS has begun testing the first 12 electric vehicle charging points on the A1 and A2 motorways between Warsaw, Gdańsk and Gdynia. Since October 26th 2018, drivers of electric vehicles have been able to travel from Warsaw to the Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot) and back. Charging will be free until further notice.

LOTOS has begun testing the first 12 electric vehicle charging points on the A1 and A2 motorways between Warsaw, Gdańsk and Gdynia. Since October 26th 2018, drivers of electric vehicles have been able to travel from Warsaw to the Tricity (Gdańsk, Gdynia, Sopot) and back. Charging will be free until further notice.

“We have set the course for the future. LOTOS is developing to keep pace with the automotive market, which is why we embark on innovative projects that support the advancement of alternative fuels, in line with our strategy until 2022,” said Mateusz A. Bonca, President of the Grupa LOTOS S.A. Management Board.

“LOTOS is seeking to leverage its competitive advantage on major routes. The Company has selected 38 more stations where EV charging points are to be deployed in the future,” says Wojciech Weiss, President of the LOTOS Paliwa Management Board.

It should be noted that out of the first 50 service stations where LOTOS plans to install EV charging points, as many as one third will be located at Motorway Service Areas (MSA).

The maximum distance between two charging points does not exceed 150 km, which is the distance between Krzyżanów MSA and Malankowo MSA on the A1 motorway, allowing motorists to easily cover the route, regardless of the type of battery installed in their vehicles, their driving style or weather conditions.

EV charging technologies are constantly in development, but for some time it will still take longer to charge an electric vehicle than to refuel a conventional car at the pump. It turns out, however, that the time spent at MSAs by users of electric cars and those who drive combustion engine cars is similar, ranging from around a dozen to several dozen minutes. Electric cars are gradually changing the way we perceive transport.

“All motorists are welcome at LOTOS service stations − and that includes owners of electric and hybrid cars. During the wait, our customers can shop in the store or just relax over tea or coffee and a newspaper in the Cafe Punkt food point,’ said Paweł Wachnik, Vice President of the Management Board for Infrastructure and Operational Support, LOTOS Paliwa.

Blue Trail

Each of the 12 LOTOS service stations along the Blue Trail has four charging stations and has been equipped with a 150 kW charger compatible with the following three international standards:

  1. CHAdeMO – for Japanese and Korean vehicles (direct current),
  2. CCS (Combined Charging System) – for European vehicles (direct current),
  3. Type 2 – (alternating current) with an adapter for Tesla vehicles (a separate standard).

Having chargers in place that use all these three protocols will meet the needs of the entire e-mobility market.

Interestingly, the name of the CHAdeMO standard is an abbreviation of charge de move and a pun for O cha demo ikaga desuka in Japanese, translating as ‘Let’s have some tea’. The name became popular because of the simple association − charging an electric car takes as much time as brewing and drinking a cup of tea.

All chargers have the same technical parameters but different management systems. Such an approach enables testing alternative solutions to find the optimum one in the next phase of the project.

The Blue Trail charging point locations:

1 Gdynia, al. Zwycięstwa 165
2 Gdańsk, ul. Jana Pawła II 25C
3 Gdańsk, ul. Odyseusza 18
4 Gdańsk, ul. Spacerowa 50
5 Malankowo Zachód MSA
6 Malankowo Wschód MSA
7 Krzyżanów Zachód MSA
8 Krzyżanów Wschód MSA
9 Brwinów Północ MSA
10 Brwinów Południe MSA
11 Warsaw, ul. Radzymińska 160
12 Warsaw, ul. Łopuszańska 29

The future of alternative fuels

The development of the alternative fuels market, supported by Grupa LOTOS, is vital for Poland, primarily because it offers the chance to gain a competitive edge in a new area of the European economy. This is a great opportunity and also a chance to create a new branch of economy and a sector of sub-suppliers of key components. Grupa LOTOS sees the scientific potential of Polish universities and businesses, which are already supplying many components to global majors. At the governmental level, this opportunity has been recognised and highlighted in the Sustainable Development Strategy prepared by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki as well as in the Electromobility Development Plan and the Development Directions of Energy Innovations, a document prepared by the Ministry of Energy.

Under the Strategy, Grupa LOTOS strives to become a leader in new generation fuels. In order to turn these plans into reality, in September 2018 representatives of Grupa LOTOS and LOTOS Lab, which is the entity responsible for initiating, coordinating, financing and implementing R&D projects at the LOTOS Group, signed documents initiating a joint R&D project with the Warsaw University of Technology. The project will be to prepare the prototypes of selected equipment for low emission transport and energy storage.

To meet the increasingly stringent environmental requirements in maritime transport, LOTOS is also running a project which will help increase the share of low emission fuels thanks to using LNG as bunker fuel. In addition to the cooperation with Remontowa LNG Systems, in April this year LOTOS Asfalt and PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny signed an agreement on joint offering of ship bunkering services using LNG from the Świnoujście LNG Terminal. The agreement has a commercial and environmental dimension and will also allow the LNG Terminal in Świnoujście to expand its commercial operations.

In addition to its purely business efforts, Grupa LOTOS S.A. is taking measures to raise the awareness of the use of hydrogen in transport. Last year, the Hydrogen Technologies and Clean Energy Technologies Cluster was established on the initiative of Grupa LOTOS S.A. Its mission is to initiate efforts aimed at increasing the importance of hydrogen technologies. The Cluster and the Gdańsk Regional Chamber of Commerce were the organisers of the 1st Polish Conference on Hydrogen Technology (PCHET 2018), held in Gdynia on October 25th 2018.

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LOTOS is a Polish corporation whose business is of strategic importance to the national and European energy security, as well as to Poland’s economy. It produces natural gas and crude oil in Poland, Norway and Lithuania. The company owns a refinery in Gdańsk, one of Europe’s most advanced oil refining plants, where crude is processed mainly into high quality fuels, including the LOTOS Dynamic premium brand, as well as aviation and bunker fuels.

LOTOS also operates a chain of close to 500 service stations conveniently located at motorways and expressways, in all large cities and many other locations across the country. As a retailer and wholesaler of fuels, it has nearly a one-third market share at home. It is also Poland’s second largest railway carrier. LOTOS is a leading manufacturer of road bitumens, engine oils and lubricants used in road vehicles, aeroplanes, trains, ships, and even military vehicles.

External Communication Office, Grupa LOTOS S.A., ul. Elbląska 135, 80-718 Gdańsk, Poland, tel. (+48) 58 308 83 88, (+48) 58 308 72 29, email: media@grupalotos.pl

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