Plug-in 2010: Schneider Electric wants to be your full-service charger provider

July 28, 2010 by admin
Filed under Green Auto

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Plug In Conference

It shouldn’t be a surprise that, at a conference called Plug-In 2010, we can find a bunch of plug-in vehicle charger companies. Schneider Electric is here in San Jose, CA and wants to be known not for wireless charging or having a stylish home unit but for being your one-stop shop for “electric vehicle charging solutions.” Rich Korthauer, Schneider’s business director of final distribution, said the company has a presence in most American homes (go ahead, check the name on your circuit breaker. There’s a better-than-70 percent chance it’s a Schneider box) and is a global company with a lot of potential to bring electric-vehicle chargers to a lot of people.

Korthauer showed off a bunch of its Square D smart charging stations to the media, including Level 1 and 2 standard home chargers, a cheaper, economically-priced home charger and a number of Level 2 chargers designed for use in commercial parking lots. Level 3 fast chargers are also part of the portfolio. Schneider is a big electronics company, but has only recently gotten into the EV space: it announced a partnership with Parkeon last month, “to provide local authority clients with a unique solution to manage urban parking facilities integrated with an electrical vehicle charging infrastructure” and has 135 chargers in use as part of a trial in Strasbourg, France with EDF and Toyota. One thing the company has learned: as Coulomb explained last year, charger companies can’t actually sell electricity in the U.S. Instead, Schneider plans to get people to pay to park in the space near the charger and will then charge up for “free.”

Gallery: Schneider Electric