向你推销电动汽车的销售人员或许需要接受速成培训，才能掌握充电相关知识。Ionna是一家由八家大型汽车制造商联合打造的快速充电网络，其首席执行官塞思·卡特勒向《商业内幕》透露，公司正计划为数百家经销商的员工提供相关培训。培训对象将主要集中在杰克逊维尔、奥兰多、坦帕、达拉斯、旧金山、圣何塞以及罗利等地的经销商。
The person selling you an EV may need a crash course in how to charge one. Ionna, a fast-charging network backed by eight large automakers, is preparing to train dealership staff at a few hundred locations, its CEO, Seth Cutler, told Business Insider. The company expects to target dealers in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Dallas, San Francisco, San Jose, and Raleigh.
该培训计划预计于2027年第一季度启动，面向那些销售Ionna投资方旗下品牌汽车的经销商——这些品牌包括丰田、本田、通用汽车、现代、起亚、宝马、梅赛德斯-奔驰以及Jeep的制造商斯特兰蒂斯。对卡特勒和Ionna而言，此次培训意义重大。“我常对大家说，如果到本世纪末我们仍未能推动电动汽车的普及进程，那Ionna就算失败了，”卡特勒说道。
The program, expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027, will operate at dealers that sell cars made by Ionna's investors: Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Jeep-maker Stellantis. The stakes are high for Cutler and Ionna. "I tell people, if at the end of this decade, we haven't helped move the needle along on EV adoption, then Ionna's failed," Cutler said.
他指出，多年来整个行业都在致力于提升电动汽车本身的性能——如续航里程、动力表现以及充电速度——但可靠的公共充电设施，尤其是高速公路沿线及城市区域内的充电点，始终是一道难以逾越的障碍。“我们坚信，只要把这件事做好，就能切实推动电动汽车的普及，”卡特勒补充道。目前，Ionna正努力跻身由特斯拉主导的电动汽车充电市场。
He said the industry has spent years improving EVs themselves — range, performance, and charging speed — while reliable public charging, especially along highways and in urban environments, has remained a stubborn barrier. "We very much feel that if we can do this right, we can enable EV adoption," Cutler added. It all comes as Ionna's attempts to become a contender in the electric-vehicle charging race that Tesla has dominated.
今年，该公司在美国境内的充电站数量增长了一倍有余：1月份时仅有90座运营中的充电站，到10月初这一数字已升至191座。卡特勒预计本月就会迎来第200座充电站的落成。不过与特斯拉在美国境内超过3000座的充电站相比，这一规模仍相形见绌。此外，Ionna还需与沃尔玛展开竞争——后者正在快速建设自身的电动汽车快速充电网络，目前已有约300个充电站点正在其门店外施工。
This year, Ionna has more than doubled its charging stations across the US — jumping from 90 active stations in January to 191 at the start of October. Cutler expects to cut the ribbon on the 200th location this month. That's still tiny compared to Tesla, which has more than 3,000 across the US. Ionna also has to compete with Walmart, which is rapidly building out its EV fast-charging network, with roughly 300 locations under construction outside its stores.
Ionna则着重于为充电站配备各类便利设施：不少充电站都配有车窗清洁刮水器、垃圾桶、全天候开放的卫生间、休息区，部分站点甚至还设有配备亚马逊“无感支付”技术的便利店。在2026年的一项测评中，J.D. Power将Ionna的充电站评为全美最优质的快速充电网络。
Ionna has focused on pairing its charging stations with amenities. Several charging sites come with window-cleaning squeegees, trash cans, all-day bathrooms, lounges, and, in some cases, convenience stores with Amazon's Just Walk Out tech. JD Power ranked its stations the best fast-charging in the country during its 2026 test.
不过，随着电动汽车销量增速放缓，各大汽车制造商纷纷缩减相关产品线，此时Ionna仍需继续完善其充电网络。明年，作为Ionna支持方的本田公司不会在美国市场推出任何可接入该充电网络的新款电动车型。但卡特勒并不担忧。他将电动汽车比作早期的平板电视：起初价格昂贵且受众有限，但随着全球产量提升，价格逐渐下降且性能也愈发出色。
Still, building out the rest of its charging network will come as automakers pare back their EV offerings amid cooling sales growth. Next year, one of Ionna's backers, Honda, won't have a new vehicle on sale in the US that can plug into the network. Cutler isn't worried. He compared EVs with early flat-screen TVs: initially expensive products with limited appeal that became cheaper and more capable as production scaled globally.
Ionna接下来的重要举措便是助力培训那些负责销售电动汽车的人员。“五年前、十年前，‘未来是否属于电动汽车’还算是个值得探讨的哲学命题，”他说道，“如今这已是必然趋势，问题只在于电动汽车在整体销量中所占的比例罢了。”
Ionna's next big bet is that it can help educate the people who will sell them. "I think this idea of whether the future is electric — five, ten years ago, that was an interesting question to ask philosophically," he said. "I think it's a foregone conclusion; it's just a question of that percentage of sales."