BTC Power’s survey of EV charging infrastructure customers reveals some surprises

We all know that the commercial EV charging industry is maturing, and that EV charging is increasingly considered critical infrastructure. But what are the reasons companies are deploying charging infrastructure, and how do execs view the future of government incentives?

Commercial EV charging system manufacturer BTC Power has released findings from its State of EV Charging survey, a proprietary study of more than 200 commercial decision-makers in the US who are deploying EV charging infrastructure across retail, fleet, hospitality, corporate campuses, fueling/convenience stores, and multi-family housing.

According to the company, the data from the survey “signals a market that has crossed a critical threshold.” Some 94% of respondents report that EV charging has become essential to how they operate and compete, and 97% plan to increase EV charging investment.

However, there are still significant roadblocks along the road to electrification, and as BTC points out, the way organizations deal with these challenges may separate leading operators from those left behind.

“Performance and reliability now outrank cost as the primary reasons charging network operators change vendors,” said SJ Oh, Chief Revenue Officer, BTC Power. “That tells us the EV charging market has matured beyond a lowest-price mindset. Decision-makers have experienced installations that failed to meet expectations, and they now recognize that the true cost of unreliable hardware—downtime, maintenance, lost revenue and poor driver experiences—far exceeds any upfront savings.”

A couple of findings from the survey may be surprising to some.

Despite the US government’s well-publicized hostility to EVs, 90% of BTC’s respondents expressed confidence that government and industry policies will sustain EV charging growth. Federal tax credits, NEVI funding and utility incentives influence 61% of deployment plans, and state incentives affect 58%.

In today’s cynical world, many might assume that corporate decision-makers think only of the short-term bottom line. But BTC’s survey found that environmental sustainability was tied with customer demand as the top driver of EV charging adoption, at 46% of respondents, outpacing revenue generation (36%) and fleet transition (32%).

Less surprising: some 60% of decision-makers prefer a full-service partner that handles all phases of infrastructure deployment, from planning through ongoing support, while only 17% said they prefer a hardware-only provider.

“A few years ago, sustainability was the reason companies started looking at EV charging. Now it is one of several reasons they cannot stop,” Oh said. “Among corporate campuses specifically, 55% cited ESG progress as their top realized benefit from EV charging programs, the highest single-category score across all facility types in the survey.”

Source: BTC Power

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Electrified Automation’s 193-120 IPM motor delivers 210 Nm for off-highway machines

Electrified Automation has added the 193-120 to its 193 Series of electric motors, a low-voltage interior permanent magnet (IPM) unit built for off-highway machinery. It produces up to 210 Nm of peak torque from a 25 kg package.

The 193-120 comes in 48 V and 80 V configurations. Both reach 210 Nm of peak torque and a maximum speed of 7,000 RPM, and both weigh 25 kg. Peak power is 26 kW for the 48 V version and 49 kW for the 80 V version, and rated power is 14 kW and 16.5 kW respectively.

The 193-120 uses an interior permanent magnet layout that places the magnets inside the rotor, and it offers through-shaft capability. Interior permanent magnet designs are common in traction applications because burying the magnets lets the rotor add reluctance torque and hold output at higher speeds. Electrified Automation describes the 193-120 as combining high torque density with compact packaging.

Electrified Automation positions the 193-120 for off-highway machinery, listing last-mile delivery vehicles, construction equipment, material handling and utility vehicles among its target applications.

The 193-120 sits within the EA 193 Series, a permanent magnet line Electrified Automation launched after expanding from automated manufacturing equipment into supplying its own motors. The company designed the range for high-volume automated production.

“We also know that a major priority for OEMs is a reliable and responsive supply chain that can deliver the volumes they want when they want them,” said Jim Winchester, Managing Director at Electrified Automation. “That’s why we have designed the motor architecture to maximise the automation potential, so it is fully optimised for high volume production.”

Source: Electrified Automation

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Pickering’s 60-191 LXI family switches currents up to 80 A

Pickering Interfaces has introduced the 60-191 LXI high-current and sense switching family, which Pickering calls its highest-current switching products to date. Each unit switches signals up to 80 A and 300 V and is built to connect, disconnect and sequence multiple high-current power supplies in an automated test system.

The family comes in four standard configurations, combining up to twenty 40 A and four 80 A hermetically sealed SPST-NO contactors with a complementary set of 1 A SPST relays for sense lines. Each unit occupies a 4U enclosure, and high-current and sense-line connections are made through front-panel screw terminals. Custom relay combinations and alternative connectors are available on request. All four configurations carry a three-year warranty.

In use, a unit sits between several power supplies and the device or system under test, connecting and disconnecting each supply's positive and negative outputs and their associated high- and low-sense lines under program control. Engineers can switch every relay independently or operate two high-current and two low-current relays together with a single command, matching the four connections a power supply typically uses.

A built-in sequencing service stores up to 5,000 predefined switching sequences and runs them from software or configurable hardware triggers. Holding the sequences on the LXI controller cuts host transactions and system latency, according to Pickering. Front-panel LEDs show switch status, and relay cycle counting supports preventive maintenance and spreads wear across the available paths.

The units use an LXI 1.5-compliant 1000Base-T Ethernet interface and are controlled through an API or a built-in soft front panel. IVI and direct I/O drivers cover Windows and Linux and development environments including LabVIEW, Python, C/C++, C#, MATLAB and Simulink.

Pickering lists typical applications as EV battery and high-drain automotive electronics testing, fuel-cell and hydrogen-electrolysis research, solar inverter and energy-storage testing, aerospace development and functional or production testing of high-current power supplies.

"High-current switching in automated test systems is often implemented as a custom assembly using contactors and digital output modules," said Steven Edwards, Head of Product Management at Pickering. "The 60-191 family provides fully tested, easily maintainable LXI alternatives in standard 4U enclosures, with the switching capacity, control features, and software support needed to integrate high-current supplies more quickly."

Source: Pickering Interfaces

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ChargePoint and Mercedes-Benz partner to offer fleet charging solutions

EV charging giant ChargePoint has partnered with Mercedes-Benz to offer a new fleet charging service. The partnership provides Mercedes-Benz business customers with “a fully integrated charging solution, from initial site planning through to installation, operation and ongoing service.”

The new service covers charging for drivers of company cars, including passenger cars as well as light- and medium-duty vans. The companies are now rolling the offering out in the UK and Germany, and plan to expand it to other markets later this year.

Mercedes-Benz fleet customers will have access to ChargePoint’s AC and DC charging hardware, smart energy management and fleet charging software, as well as the company’s expert team for site assessment, infrastructure planning, professional installation and ongoing support.

“As part of our long-standing relationship with Mercedes-Benz, we have been providing the company with a range of charging solutions,” says Rick Wilmer, CEO of ChargePoint. “We are now taking our partnership to a new level, delivering a seamless, comprehensive experience that helps business customers lower the total cost of ownership with charging infrastructure that meets operational requirements.”

“Our business customers expect solutions that extend beyond the vehicle itself,” says Nico Dettmer, Global Head of Mercedes-Benz Charging Solutions. “With our new workplace charging offering, we are closing a key gap in the charging ecosystem for fleet customers, complementing both home and public charging.”

Source: ChargePoint

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Kite Magnetics secures A$2-million grant to scale Aeroperm motor core material

Melbourne-based advanced materials company Kite Magnetics has secured an A$2-million grant (about US$1.4 million) through the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Program, funding an A$4.1-million project to commercialize its Aeroperm stator core material.

The money will go toward scaling the company’s pilot manufacturing line in Victoria, generating automotive-grade validation data and delivering prototypes to customers. Kite Magnetics expects the work to move Aeroperm from Technology Readiness Level 4 to Level 6.

Aeroperm is a nanocrystalline soft magnetic material intended to replace conventional electrical steel in electric motor stator cores. The company rates its stator core losses at up to 97% below electrical steel under specified operating conditions, and says the substitution neither requires a full motor redesign nor compromises motor torque.

“Electric motors are one of the most important technologies in the electrification economy. Electric motor-driven systems account for around half of global electricity consumption, but the materials inside our motors have not fundamentally improved in decades,” said Kite Magnetics founder and CEO Richard Parsons. “This support from the Australian government helps us bridge a critical commercialization gap,” he said. “It allows us to turn breakthrough material performance into a scalable and repeatable manufacturing process.”

Energy lost in a stator core becomes heat, and that heat raises cooling requirements and forces compromises across the battery, inverter, motor and thermal management system. Kite Magnetics estimates the resulting battery and system savings at up to about A$1,140 per vehicle, equivalent to up to about A$1.14 billion per million vehicles produced, depending on the vehicle platform and motor design.

The company is delivering samples and paid prototypes to more than 20 organizations, including OEMs, Tier 1 and 2 suppliers and electric mobility partners.

Kite Magnetics is also preparing an A$22-million Series A funding round to scale manufacturing and complete customer qualification.

“Most EV range increases are fought for at the battery pack, software or power electronics level. We are attacking a more fundamental source of loss: the magnetic material inside the motor,” said Parsons.

Source: Kite Magnetics

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Integrals Power to supply cathode material for UK project to develop LMFP battery technology

UK battery materials company Integrals Power has been chosen as the cathode active material supplier for a £2-million UK government-funded project to develop lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) battery technology for defense and electric vehicle applications. The 30-month program is led by battery supplier Denchi Group and funded through the Battery Innovation Programme.

Integrals Power will produce hundreds of kilos of its manganese-rich LMFP cathode material at its multi-tonne facility in Milton Keynes. The material will go into pouch and cylindrical cells, the latter in 21700 and 4695 formats, manufactured on the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre’s new Flexible Pilot Line in Coventry. Denchi will then assemble the cells into battery packs at its Thurso, Scotland plant, including its BB-2590 design, a rugged, waterproof pack built for military communications equipment, sensors and drones. Initial validation trials will replace the nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells in BB-2590 packs with the new LMFP cells.

Integrals Power’s LMFP has a manganese content of 80%, which the company says delivers up to 20% greater energy density than conventional lithium iron phosphate (LFP).

“By eliminating reliance on critical minerals such as cobalt and nickel while delivering higher energy density than LFP, LMFP is well suited to the evolving requirements of both defence and automotive applications,” said Behnam Hormozi, Integrals Power’s founder and CEO.

China currently dominates global LFP supply. The International Energy Agency estimates that a halt in battery supply chain exports from China would cost EV plants outside the country about $17 billion a month in lost output. This program uses an end-to-end battery supply chain based in the UK and Europe, and Integrals Power regards it as a demonstrator for the sovereign capability needed for defense applications within NATO.

“With more than 20 years’ experience supplying the military with British designed and built battery systems, we have a very clear understanding of what the defence sector needs as electrification becomes a core element of future strategy,” said Andrew Cowie, CEO of Denchi Group. “We look forward to building the first LMFP battery packs and getting them out into the field for validation trials.”

Source: Integrals Power

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i-charging secures Intertek ETL certification for its i-light 1.5 MW charger, clearing the way for North American deployments

i-charging, an EV charging company with headquarters in Atlanta and Portugal, has achieved Intertek ETL certification for its i-light charger, a key milestone in validating the equipment’s safety and compliance for the US and Canadian markets.

ETL certification, issued by Intertek and recognized by US and Canadian certification authorities as demonstrating compliance with the electrical safety standards required for high-power DC charging equipment (UL 2202 and UL 2231 and CSA C22.2#346), confirms that i-light meets the technical requirements to operate safely in commercial and industrial charging environments.

i-light is i-charging’s solution for medium and heavy-duty EVs. It delivers up to 1.5 MW per output using MCS (Megawatt Charging System) or up to 800 kW using CCS. It features a 10-inch touchscreen for the user interface and an available 37-inch transparent display designed to be visible from the driver’s seat.

ETL certification, issued by Intertek, verifies that electrical equipment meets applicable US and Canadian safety standards and can be legally installed and operated in these countries. For charging infrastructure operators, it removes a key barrier to deployment, confirming that the equipment has been independently tested for electrical safety before it reaches the field. This follows a series of certifications already secured across i-charging’s product range.

“ETL certification is a decisive step in bringing i-light to North America,” said Jeff Cohen, CEO of i-charging USA. “Fleet operators demand charging infrastructure that meets the mission-critical duty cycles of the medium- and heavy-duty EVs on the road today, and is ready for MCS as the standard matures. This certification confirms that i-light meets all the safety requirements to support CCS and MCS charging.”

Source: i-charging

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