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A charging point installer and an electricity network systems specialist say they have developed a combined solution for charging points that will mean they can be installed more cheaply, more quickly and in more locations, and require less space.
The partners, ChargePoint and Eaton, say the development will make the high-capacity charging required for heavy duty vehicles like trucks and buses more affordable and able to connect to the grid more quickly .
Chargepoint says it tailor-makes solutions for the EV side of the ecosystem, ‘from the grid to the dashboard of the vehicle’. Meanwhile Eaton describes itself as an ‘intelligent power management company’, which works within the electricity network to manage technologies like onsite renewables, energy storage and vehicle batteries to take best advantage of grid capacity. Designing and managing these aspects of charge point design together will mean the grid and EV architectures are fully integrated from the start.
‘Power management’ maximises the ability of the charge point to use available grid capacity, speeding up connections and opening up new locations.
Eaton will engineer each Express charging point configuration with comprehensive power infrastructure delivered site-ready with the option of a skid-mounted solution to expedite installation, reduce equipment requirements and simplify connection to the grid. As a result they claim the points can be deployed 30% faster, with a 30% smaller footprint and with 30% reduced operational costs.
The Express and Express Grid variants of the product will allow for megawatt charging for heavy-duty commercial applications, including fleets, the companies say, and they are scalable, allowing additional 600kW chargers to be added.
ChargePoint chief executive Rick Wilmer said, “The new ChargePoint Express architecture, and particularly the Express Grid variant, will take DC fast charging to levels of performance and cost not previously imagined.”
The DC fast-charge architecture is fully compatible for European markets, including the UK, and ChargePoint said it unlocks much of the technology that has been in the pipeline for many years including exporting power ‘vehicle to grid’, or using charge points within a so-called ‘microgrid’ (a small network typically with local generation, storage and users, which is locally managed and only interacts with the wider grid when required).
ChargePoint highlighted the opportunity for charge point operators, saying “Ultrafast charging speeds can be marketed at all locations, while minimising upfront investment, and charging businesses can recuperate their investment much sooner.”
