STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - Automaker Mercedes-Benz wants to build its own charging network for electric cars. More than 10,000 fast-charging points are planned at 2,000 locations in North America, China or Europe by the end of the decade, the Stuttgart-based company announced on Thursday. The first charging parks in North America are to be built as early as later this year. They are to be usable not only by Mercedes drivers, but open to all brands.

"We don't want to stand by and wait until it's built. That's why we are building a global fast-charging network ourselves," said Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius. For this, he said, the company wants to put its hands on a single-digit billion euro sum.

Investments of more than one billion euros are planned for North America alone, with local partner MN8 Energy taking on about half of that. Around 400 charging parks with 2500 plugs are to be built in the USA and Canada by 2027. Mercedes customers are to have preferential access to the charging points with up to 350 kilowatts of charging power, for example through a reservation function. The batteries could be charged in under half an hour, it said.

Källenius added that the company is also in talks with potential partners for Europe and China. The carmaker did not say exactly when construction would begin there or how many charging points would also be created in Germany. Mercedes-Benz wants to be in a position to sell only fully electric cars by 2030, wherever market conditions permit.

Other car companies are also working on charging infrastructure. The U.S. electric car company Tesla says it already operates around 40,000 fast-charging points worldwide. The VW Group plans to set up a good 45,000 high-performance charging points with partners by 2025. Mercedes-Benz and other automakers have also joined forces for charging services such as Ionity or Chargenow./dhu/DP/ngu