In the rapidly evolving automotive landscape, electrification is reshaping the industry, driving companies like ENNOVI to innovate specialized solutions. Charged recently chatted with ENNOVI’s team—CEO Stefan Rustler, Managing Director Michael Meckl and Product Manager Till Wagner—to learn more about its approach to automotive interconnects.
Founded just over a year ago, yet built on a foundation of 60 years of automotive manufacturing expertise, ENNOVI emphasizes five strategic pillars: speed, innovation, talent, global outreach, and sustainability. These pillars position the company as a significant player in electric vehicle technologies, particularly within battery interconnect, power solutions, and signal interconnect applications.
ENNOVI’s strength lies in its capacity to customize interconnect solutions tailored specifically to customer requirements. Early engagement and collaborative approaches ensure their global teams effectively anticipate and fulfill client needs. Through regional teams, competence centers, and extensive factory networks—comprising 14 facilities and four innovation hubs globally—ENNOVI guarantees a smooth transition from concept to production, helping clients rapidly scale solutions.
A vital component of ENNOVI’s strategy is sustainability, integral to both its operational practices and product design. Achieving five consecutive EcoVadis Platinum awards underscores ENNOVI’s long-term commitment to environmental responsibility. This commitment encompasses reducing material and electricity consumption, implementing recyclable packaging solutions, and establishing closed-loop water systems within their manufacturing processes.
Innovative battery module design remains critical to the EV industry’s evolution. ENNOVI specializes in manufacturing battery module components, such as advanced cell contacting systems. Aware of ongoing challenges such as varying cell form factors and chemistries, ENNOVI has developed adaptable manufacturing technologies, including stamping, molding, lamination, and laser welding. These solutions offer flexibility in meeting dynamic market demands and enable more efficient production processes.
One specific innovation highlighted by ENNOVI is the advancement of adhesive-free lamination technology for cell contacting systems. Traditional plastic trays, heavy and space-consuming, reduce overall battery energy density. ENNOVI’s adhesive-free lamination approach eliminates environmental impacts associated with adhesives while improving cycle times, demonstrating significant advancements in both ecological efficiency and performance optimization.
Additionally, ENNOVI is responding effectively to the increased demand for higher voltage and faster charging capabilities in EV power systems. With typical EV voltages rising from 400–500 volts up to 800–1000 volts, ENNOVI addresses these challenges by innovating more compact and cost-effective bus bar connections. Their new sealing technologies shorten production cycles, reduce costs, and expedite market entry, reinforcing ENNOVI’s role in accelerating the automotive industry’s electrification journey.
Power Innovations International’s new line of DC fast chargers can accept a wide range of input voltages.
The utility connection bottleneck has become the bête noire of the EVSE world. But sometimes the problem isn’t getting enough power, but rather getting the right kind of power—and sometimes the real bottleneck is getting the transformers and switchgear needed to work around these issues.
Power Innovations International has a solution—its new line of EV chargers can handle a wide range of input voltages, eliminating the need for step-up transformers and 480 V switchgear, which can translate to big savings of time and money.
Pii’s new chargers have several other features that customers have been asking for, including a modular architecture that’s designed to simplify installation and improve reliability.
There are three things everyone in the EV industry seems to agree on: (1) we need more charging infrastructure; (2) it needs to be more reliable; and (3) installation often takes much too long. Project delays very often have to do with getting a site connected to the grid, but it isn’t (always) the fault of local utilities—high demand for essential power equipment such as transformers and switchgear has created a shortage, and wait times can stretch into months or even years.
In addition to equipment shortages, many sites have problems obtaining the right kind of power. The majority of DC fast chargers on the market today require 480-volt, 3-phase power, instead of the 208 V and 240 V supplies found at many commercial and residential properties. And there are some areas in the US where 480 V is simply not available.
In addition to equipment shortages, many EV charging sites have problems obtaining the right kind of power.
Several EVSE industry pros have told us that this is a major bottleneck. CEO Alex Urist of XCharge, which makes battery-integrated chargers, raised the issue in an interview with Charged (see our Oct-Dec 2023 issue). If 480 V isn’t available at your site, you’ll need an extra piece of equipment called a buck-boost transformer to step the voltage up to what you need. Charging industry consultant Forest Williams told us that this item can cost thousands of dollars, and the lead time for obtaining the necessary switchgear can stretch to months.
EVSE manufacturer Power Innovations International (Pii) has a solution. The company recently introduced a line of EV chargers that can handle a variety of input voltages, including 240 V single-phase and 208 V/240 V three-phase—all in the same box, without derating the charger. This eliminates the need for step-up transformers and 480 V switchgear, which can translate to big savings of time and money.
Charged spoke with Nick Stone, Pii’s Product and Market Manager.
Charged: What’s the origin story behind your new EVFC line of chargers?
Nick Stone: Pii was started in 1997 as a small business in Utah, and developed a rugged, reliable type of UPS product, focusing on industrial applications. [Taiwanese electronics company] Lite-On acquired Pii in 2013. In the 2020-2021 timeframe, there was an opportunity to complement that business with what Pii can do. Lite-On has a number of Level 2 chargers, but Lite-On didn’t have a Level 3 charger. With DC fast charging, of course, we’re integrating power conversion to convert AC to DC, and that’s one of the core competencies that Pii offers.
At that time there were a lot of customer comments from some of the incumbents in the DC fast charger space. We listened to some of that feedback and tried to understand what customers were saying about their chargers. Of course, uptime is certainly imperative, but we wanted to add some other features.
We spent some time around 2022 developing some rectifiers that we use across our product lines, and leveraging the same power supply topology that Lite-On uses in the data center space. This gives us one million hours demonstrated MTBF [Mean Time Between Failures, a measure of reliability] within the data center. We wanted to take that same type of power supply topology that’s been demonstrated in mission-critical applications and integrate that into a DC fast charger.
One of the things that our firmware team does is a lot of embedded control. One of the competitors in this space builds a UL 508 A panel where your power supply and power meter are DIN rail-mounted, and you open it up and it’s a maze of wires. We wanted to take all the control and the power conversion that’s doing the auxiliary power and integrate that into one solution that sits on top of our power conversion. We spent some time developing that to where you take AC power coming into our power conversion block, measure the AC power, do all your low-voltage conversion—12, 24 and 48 volts for all the internal power needs and the auxiliary loads—bring that down to our power supplies, bring it back up through the high-voltage line, back through that same controller, and to the CCS1 output.
Charged: The low-voltage auxiliary loads are things like the video screen and the user interface?
Nick Stone: Yes. Our modem, the display, the buttons, the e-stop, the heat exchangers—all of those are coming from a central power supply that’s built in. There’s no need for a separate DIN rail power supply or a whole bunch of other wiring. Conversion of any type of AC voltage is a core competency that Lite-On has, and we integrated that into our overall design. We don’t have external wires come and go to the power supply, then come out and feed all these loads—we’re doing it all in an integrated, clean solution.
Now, of course, we need an enclosure, we need thermal management, environmental protection, a display, some type of user interface. That’s where we spent some time listening to customers and installer partners. They were saying, “I don’t like to do filter replacements.” Okay, we will integrate that into our design. We will have a way to do thermal management that requires no maintenance.
They were saying, “I need this thing to be easy to install.” How do we do that? One key is having a very wide space to land your cables, so you can do any type of configuration when you’re doing the installation. With a lot of space, you don’t need tweezers. Even if you’re doing 60 kilowatts, 240 single-phase, for instance, your cable bending space, you could struggle with that during the installation.
That was one of the key messages that we heard. Another was, when we’re in existing infrastructure, they don’t always have 480-volt power available. They may only have 208, 240 single-phase or delta, so they have to buy a step-up transformer. That’s another pain point that we heard: “I can buy a charger with maybe six months of lead time, but I have to wait two years to get my transformer.” We came up with a way, which we have a patent pending on, to accommodate any standard US installation voltage out there. We can do 208, 240 delta, 240 single-phase, 480 delta [a form of three-phase that doesn’t have a neutral], 480 wye, all in the same charger.
We came up with a way, which we have a patent pending on, to accommodate any standard US installation voltage out there. We can do 208, 240 delta, 240 single-phase, 480 delta, 480 wye, all in the same charger.
Accommodating the available power can help speed up getting the chargers into the ground. If you’re looking at a hotel or a car dealership or a gas station, they’re probably not going to be installing ten DC fast chargers, so they don’t want to get that additional transformer. In some cases, you would have to pour a pad, get a primary and secondary disconnect, and depending on who owns that station, you might have to get a meter socket to branch off power. There’s a lot of different variables, and we have seen instances where doing that can double your project cost.
Charged: Our Chloe Theobald spoke to your Global Sales Manager Tim Rees at the 2024 ACT Expo, and he explained that Pii’s chargers are based on a modular power architecture that can keep them delivering electrons even if individual modules fail.
Nick Stone: It’s similar to a data center type of architecture. If a power supply goes down, it doesn’t take the rest of the system down. For example, we have nine modules in our 30 kW charger. If one does go down, the other eight are still operational. You’re running at 26.7 kilowatts instead of 30, but your whole station doesn’t go down. And to replace a power supply, the module slides right in and out in a matter of seconds. Any other type of charger, you have to take that whole 30 or 40 or 50 kW block out, and it’s a pretty serious level of effort. For us, we ship out another module, you take the top off, there’s a little tab that you pull out, slide another one in, and you’re back up and running at full capacity.
Charged: Your chargers can accept not only a wide range of voltages on the input side, but on the output side too, so they can already accommodate the new EVs that are moving to 800-volt systems.
Nick Stone: Correct. We have the dual drivetrain in our rectifier that can do that. Some of the first Hyundai/Kia 800-volt vehicles out there, we’ve already been charging those for a couple years now. We know that’s where the industry’s heading, because you can lower your current and increase your overall power.
Charged: It all seems like a no-brainer. You’ve got a charger that can eliminate the need for a transformer. Why isn’t every EVSE manufacturer offering that?
Nick Stone: I’ll say a couple things. One, we’re one of the only ones that are vertically integrated in this space, so we are able to configure our power supplies to the application that we have. And looking at the power supply topologies that are used in the data center space, we have to have a wide input range to accommodate that market segment. Also, the way we’ve arranged our rectifiers within what we call our power shelf is a proprietary arrangement, and that’s something we do have a pending patent on.
Now, there are a few manufacturers that can take a 240 delta input, but you’re derating the amount of power. For instance, if you go to that 30-kilowatt charger, it’s 30 kilowatts if you feed it 480 three-phase. You can apply 240 to it, but you may derate to maybe 22 or 24 kilowatts of power. We’re the only ones that we’ve seen that can take any of those different input voltages without derating the amount of power. So, if you buy 30 kilowatts or 60 kilowatts or 120 kilowatts, you get what you bought.
Charged: And whoever’s installing the chargers can easily choose the input voltage that they need.
Nick Stone: Yes. It’s not something you have to do with firmware or anything like that, it’s actually a mechanical way that we do that. Inside of the charger there’s this big open space for ease of installation, and in this area are what we call configurable busbars. This is something that is smaller than the palm of your hand. It’s a very easy process. All three of these are available in every charger that we sell, so when the electrician or the installer sees what input voltage they have available, they simply pick the appropriate voltage. It’s printed right on the front of the busbar.
Charged: Considering that this can save money and time, and increase reliability, do you foresee that your competitors are going to start doing this too?
Nick Stone: I think they’ll certainly take notice. When we were at ACT doing our initial market launch of the product, there were a number of competitors that came by to learn about what we’re doing. The way we’ve done it though, I think we have enough protection there for our IP for them not to do it the same way, and it will then take another couple years for them to do it a little bit differently.
Charged: So you’ve got a first-mover advantage that’s going to last you for a couple years, hopefully.
Nick Stone: We believe so, yes. There’s one additional featurethat I haven’t mentioned yet. Our standard rectifier today uses AC input voltages, but it is capable of taking a DC input voltage as well, so we can now take inputs from a battery source or a hydrogen fuel cell input. So, we’re looking at these other applications—if you’re in the portable power space serving applications such as events or movie studios, those are some of the additional applications that we are working with partners to expand the application set, because we can do DC input.
Tesla just got knocked out of the top spot, at least in Europe.
In a major shift for the EV industry, Chinese automaker BYD (Build Your Dreams) officially outsold Tesla in Europe last month. According to new data, BYD registered 7,231 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) across Europe in April 2025, just ahead of Tesla’s 7,165 units. This marks the first time BYD has taken the lead in the European market.
That might not sound like a big gap, but it’s a big deal.
Why it matters
BYD’s rise has been fast and aggressive. Just a couple years ago, the brand was mostly known in China and had only a small footprint in Europe. But now, they’re expanding quickly—with models like the low-cost Seagull hatchback (starting at just €22,990) gaining attention across the continent. They’re also planning new production facilities in Hungary and Turkey, helping them dodge possible EU tariffs on Chinese EVs.
Meanwhile, Tesla is feeling the pressure.
Tesla’s tough month
Tesla’s April sales in Europe dropped 49% compared to the same time last year. A few things are likely behind this: – The Model Y is due for a redesign, and production has paused – Some buyers are holding out for cheaper trims – Public opinion has been shifting, especially around Elon Musk’s political commentary
In short, it’s a combination of aging models, uncertainty, and strong competition.
The bigger picture
Globally, BYD has already overtaken Tesla in quarterly BEV sales. In Q1 2025, BYD held 15.4% of the global market, while Tesla dropped to 12.6%. That’s a massive swing in just a few years.
And it shows how fast this industry moves.
EV brands that were once seen as underdogs are now serious contenders. Especially those that offer value, variety, and are willing to play by local market rules—like opening regional plants and pricing cars competitively.
Whether this is a short-term dip or the start of a new era, one thing is clear: BYD isn’t just catching up. It’s already here.
Elon Musk made headlines yesterday during a live virtual interview at the 2025 Qatar Economic Forum, hosted by Bloomberg. Speaking on everything from Tesla’s direction to artificial intelligence, Musk’s comments offer insight into what’s next for the electric vehicle giant, and what it all means for EV owners, enthusiasts, and investors.
Here are five of the biggest takeaways from his appearance:
1. He’s Not Leaving Tesla Anytime Soon
Musk confirmed he plans to remain CEO of Tesla for at least the next five years. He emphasized that his continued leadership is critical to maintaining Tesla’s mission and long-term goals, particularly in the face of competitive and market pressures.
“It’s not about money. It’s about control and ensuring we stay on track,” Musk said.
This is a reassuring signal for Tesla owners and investors concerned about recent uncertainty around his compensation package and ongoing boardroom discussions.
2. Tesla’s Sales Slipped, but Musk Isn’t Panicking
Addressing the company’s recent 13% drop in Q1 sales, Musk pointed to multiple factors: an aging product lineup, growing competition, and public backlash tied to his political views.
He acknowledged that Tesla’s performance in Europe remains a challenge, but demand in other regions is holding strong. “It’s a tough quarter, but not the end of the story,” he added.
3. He’s Backing Away from Political Donations
In a noticeable shift, Musk stated that he’s stepping back from political spending. After contributing over $250 million to support conservative candidates during the 2024 election cycle, Musk said he doesn’t plan to continue that level of involvement.
“I think I’ve done enough,” he said.
Some industry watchers believe this could help soften public sentiment toward Tesla and improve buyer perception, especially among more moderate or apolitical consumers.
4. He’s Suing OpenAI
Musk confirmed that he is moving forward with legal action against OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015. He criticized the organization for shifting from its original nonprofit, open-source vision toward what he called a “closed, profit-driven” model.
“It’s like donating to protect the rainforest, and then the group becomes a lumber company,” Musk said.
This lawsuit has broader implications for the future of AI ethics, open-source tech, and corporate responsibility.
5. He’s Calling for Smarter AI Regulation
While Musk is a vocal supporter of innovation in artificial intelligence, he cautioned against both overregulation and blind optimism. He urged governments to adopt policies that support innovation while protecting the public from potential risks.
With Tesla continuing to push toward autonomous driving and AI-integrated features, this stance will be closely watched by regulators and the EV industry alike.
Final Thoughts
Musk’s appearance at the Qatar Economic Forum gave us a clearer picture of where he stands on key issues that affect not just Tesla, but the entire EV and tech landscape. Whether you’re a Tesla owner, investor, or just following the future of clean transportation and AI, these are developments worth keeping an eye on.
Canada-based SWTCH offers charging solutions, including Charging as a Service, for multifamily, workplace and retail applications.
Load management is a critical component of any EV infrastructure deployment, but multi-unit applications require different algorithms from those used in commercial fleet settings, which tend to have more predictable vehicle usage patterns.
SWTCH’s load management system can be applied at four levels: to an individual circuit; to a group of chargers; to a panel with a mixed load; or to an entire building. When the highest level is applied, up to ten times the number of EV chargers can be deployed compared to charging with no load management.
Cars and their drivers come in all shapes and sizes, colors and creeds, and when it comes to keeping them charged, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Different EV infrastructure applications require different combinations of hardware, software and services, and as the charging market develops, different companies are emerging to serve different market segments.
Here at Charged, we’ve covered quite a few companies that target the commercial fleet market, which is rapidly electrifying, driven by the massive savings on fuel and maintenance costs and the need to compete on a price-per-mile basis. The multi-unit residential market, however, is a comparatively new frontier, and adoption is driven by a different set of considerations. For property owners, the benefits of providing EV charging for their tenants may not yet be clear, especially as retrofitting existing buildings can be complex and costly.
This is one of the markets that Canada-based SWTCH is focused on. We find that some of the characteristics of any kind of EV charging project also apply to MUD (Multi-Unit Dwelling) installations: software is what makes the whole ecosystem work; load management is critical for getting the most out of the available power; and vertical integration helps to ensure reliability.
SWTCH offers Charging as a Service tailored to the needs of multi-unit property owners. The company’s suite of software products includes a cloud-based OS, load management, real-time monitoring, API-based connectivity with parking management and other software, and OpenADR-compatible integration with V2G applications.
Sofia Berrada, SWTCH’s Head of Strategy, spoke with Charged, and explained some of the unique challenges of the multi-tenant charging market.
Charged: You’re targeting multifamily, workplace and retail applications rather than commercial fleets. Was that a conscious decision as a company?
Sofia Berrada: Yeah, it was. At SWTCH, we think if you want to deliver good-quality service, you have to be focused. As a software company, we want to make sure that we continue to build our software products to deliver the best service to the specific use cases we serve.
We originally started with a heavy focus on multifamily. Our founder, Carter Li, was trying to solve this problem for himself and built this company around that. But over time we’ve evolved to be more what we call multi-tenant parking-focused—trying to solve for areas where parking is used by different types of folks, whether it’s the public or a mix of guests, tenants, residents, etc.
As a software company, we want to make sure that we build our software products to deliver the best service to the specific use cases we serve.
Charged: Across those three applications, how do deployments differ in terms of the hardware, software and services that you offer?
Sofia Berrada: I think the biggest differences are related to power rating and the number of chargers. The multifamily deployment is probably going to be an average of six to ten chargers, they’re almost exclusively Level 2s, and they’re trying to deploy the maximum number of chargers for the residents, but not take up too much parking space. On the workplace side, you typically will see more Level 2s because they may have a fleet of vehicles that they want to charge. And when I say fleet, it could be just employee vehicles, not necessarily trucks or heavy-duty vehicles. Sometimes they may want DC fast charging, but it’s rare, and if they do, it’s usually one or two units. We see that with utilities that want to add chargers for their own employees, but also want to open it for third-party users. And then the last sector, the public and retail, is where we see most of the DCFC demands because people have less dwell time and they want to charge faster.
Charged: Other than the numbers and types of chargers, not much difference? Same software package, similar load management requirements?
Sofia Berrada: Yeah, that’s absolutely correct. I’d say load management is critical for all three, and that’s a core component of what we do at SWTCH because for the most part, except with new developments, they’re operating within existing infrastructure, so everybody wants to minimize installation costs, and the best way to do that is through load management.
And on the software side, a lot of customers want that multi-layer access that we provide. They may have tenants or employees that they want to provide with free or lower-rate charging, and then they will have potential guests or the public. That multi-tiered rate structure is something that our software is pretty sophisticated in.
Typically, we support our customers starting with the original design of the project, and then once the chargers have been installed and commissioned, we go through an onboarding process where we discuss the customer’s different use cases and how they want to structure their pricing. They can set up a lower rate for residents, they can set up different rates during the day and the evening, or they may have a time-of-use rate.
Charged: I hear a lot about the charging stack. Some companies provide just one layer of the stack, some provide the whole thing—Charging as a Service—and some let customers mix and match. Where do you fit in on that?
Sofia Berrada: That’s a great question, and I find it fascinating how complicated those different levels are, especially for customers. The bulk of our customers own their chargers because they see it as an amenity, and we have a set of partners that come in for the installation. In this case, customers cover upfront investment, and have full control over their costs and charger pricing. They get the full revenue from the charger and we support them through operations and maintenance.
We also offer Charging as a Service for customers that need it, especially to remove that upfront CapEx that may not work for some budgets. For example, that’s what we’re doing with one customer in partnership with Blue Whale—it’s fully bundled into one monthly fee for the customer. They still get to set their rates and recoup the revenue, but we own the chargers and work with them on a set fee. It’s also a model that works well when there are a lot of incentives, and we’re able to bake those in up front and allow them to unlock a much lower cost.
The bulk of our customers own their chargers, and we support them through operations and maintenance. We also offer Charging as a Service for customers that need it, especially to remove that upfront CapEx that may not work for some budgets.
Charged: You work with some other charging providers, including curbside charging specialist itselectric. We just did a feature article on them. They’re using your software on a white-label basis to run their charging network.
Sofia Berrada: Yes. We have a very strong partnership with itselectric. They chose us because our software supports OCPP, but also because of the support service and the different layers of access and pricing components that we can do on the SWTCH dashboard.
Charged: I think curbside charging is a big deal, because it solves the dilemma of how drivers who don’t have any parking spaces can charge their EVs. And one of the good ideas I think itselectric has is that their chargers don’t have built-in cables—the drivers bring their own.
Sofia Berrada: We are really fans of what they do with the cable-free solution. I think that’s the greatest value proposition for itselectric, and we’ve seen a lot of municipalities and others that are interested in that solution. We have some early-stage discussions with some hardware partners that can offer that, but I wouldn’t say that’s something we actively offer.
I think it definitely makes sense for curbside, but for the private side it’s probably less relevant. For our customers, as long as the cable is protected, it’s still a simpler experience to pull the cable and plug it into their car. If there is no vandalism risk, no issues with snow or freezing, in a private setting, we’ll definitely try to have that cable attached to the charger.
Charged: We’ve covered a lot of companies that provide Charging as a Service to commercial fleets, and they see load management as a critical piece of the system. Tell us more about load management for the markets that you’re addressing.
Sofia Berrada: I do think that load management is really key in that piece. The biggest difference for me is the ability to schedule and control the fleet. In the case of a commercial fleet, you know your fleet, you can set a schedule for when they’re going to charge and do that optimization between the vehicle and the charger. In the markets that we focus on, you have EV drivers that have their own schedules and they come to the chargers whenever they need a charge. However, you still want to optimize that because you want to have charging happen at times when the power is cheaper, at times when there isn’t a full peak demand on the building. So, the optimization and the algorithm that sits behind those different applications are fundamentally different.
At SWTCH, because of our history of being focused on the multifamily side, we have built a lot of software and IP around the ability to do optimization at different levels within the building. We can do it at a group of chargers level, we can do it within a panel between different chargers and other loads connected to a panel, and we can also do it at the whole building level.
In the case of a commercial fleet, you know your fleet, you can set a schedule for when they’re going to charge. In the markets that we focus on, EV drivers have their own schedules, so the algorithms that sit behind those different applications are fundamentally different.
Charged: Tell us more about load management as it relates to the question of the available power supply. Customers may think they’re not going to have enough power, but maybe they do, if you can show them how to optimize it.
Sofia Berrada: Absolutely. What we say to customers is that, with our highest level of load management, we’re typically able to deploy ten times the number of EV chargers that you would have deployed if there was no load management.
We have four levels of load management. The simplest one happens at the circuit level—let’s say it’s 40 amps, you have two chargers, they share that.
The second level is a group of chargers, and that involves our software. We have a set power rating for that group of chargers, and whenever someone comes to charge, they receive a certain level depending on the status of the rest of the chargers. If they’re the only one charging, they’re going to get the full power. If there are three other people, they may get only 80%.
The third level is when we do load management at a panel with a mixed load. That panel may have EV chargers and also other loads—lighting, HVAC, etc. Let’s say that panel is set at 50 kilowatts. If the rest of the load is already using 20 kilowatts, we know we’re left with 30 that we’re going to be able to split among the different chargers, and we can throttle that up and down.
And then the last level, which unlocks the highest number of EV chargers, is where we do it at the building level, connecting to several layers of panels. We may have an overall output for the building that we need to remain under, and therefore we’re going to be doing an optimization both in aggregate but also within each panel. That’s where the optimization becomes complicated, because every charger is limited by its own circuit, by the panel, and by the building, so you want to make sure that as you give them the authorization to go to a certain level, you are remaining within each of the parameters that you set up at the beginning.
With our highest level of load management, we’re typically able to deploy ten times the number of EV chargers that you would have deployed if there was no load management.
Charged: Do you make any of your own hardware?
Sofia Berrada: We’re fully hardware-agnostic. We’re OCPP 2.0.1-certified and therefore we work with any hardware that’s also OCPP-compatible. We have a testing facility in our lab, and we have a lot of different hardware partners that we bring in to test for how well they work with our software. Then, based on the customer needs, we’ll provide different solutions and put forward different hardware.
Compatibility testing is a really important piece of what we do. As much as we think of ourselves as a software company, we don’t think one can be successful in the EV industry without really understanding the hardware. The two need to work seamlessly together in order for the customer to have a good experience.
We have tested over 30 different brands of hardware, and under each brand there’s multiple different types of chargers. We stay closely in touch with different OEMs, and whenever there’s a new model released, we can bring it in and test the connectivity with our software. We will ensure that things like load management work well—our ability to send a signal to throttle down the chargers. We’ll ensure that there is a lot of ability to remotely diagnose, to reboot the charger if needed, because that can solve 70% of the issues that we may get. And we test it for some basic functionalities to make sure it’s a robust piece of hardware and give it our stamp of approval. Because ultimately, we’re responsible for the reliability of our network and the uptime.
In our headquarters in Toronto, we have a quite advanced setup for us to do the testing. We have a full board with different chargers and they’re all functional.
We don’t think one can be successful in the EV industry without really understanding the hardware. Hardware and software need to work seamlessly together for the customer to have a good experience.
Charged: Is V2X technology something you’re using in any commercial projects now, or is it still a pilot-stage technology?
Sofia Berrada: I would say at this stage it’s still at the pilot level. We recently had an outage in Toronto and we were able to power the building using vehicle batteries, which was pretty cool to do a vehicle-to-building use case. We have also done a pilot on vehicle-to-grid, which is the more complicated of the two.
I strongly believe that vehicle-to-building is going to happen sooner, especially in instances such as multifamily or workplace where you have longer dwell time. We can ask customers, “When do you need to have a full charge?” The vehicle-to-grid side is going to be more complicated because you’re pushing that electricity into an entire ecosystem that’s managed by the utility, and there’s a lot of coordination that needs to happen. The most complicated part is not the technology, but the stakeholders and the data flows that need to happen to ensure that the system can absorb that electricity.
Charged: Another question that I ask everybody is about charger reliability. Why is it so hard to keep those darn public chargers up and running?
Sofia Berrada: We believe that the majority of the problems can be caught at the beginning, when you put the charger in the ground. That’s one piece.
The second piece is the proactive management of the network. Typically, for the majority of issues, we’ll know when there’s an issue before our customers do, and we’ll try to resolve that before an EV driver comes in, because our software gets that info. I think with those two layers, you are able to catch the majority of the issues. Now, obviously you’re never immune to accidents, to vandalism, things like that, but I don’t think that’s the majority of what is driving the industry down.
We recently published something around what we call the 97.8% no-exception uptime. Our uptime doesn’t exclude anything. If there’s an accident, if there’s a power outage, that is not excluded, your charger is truly available 97.8% of the time, and that’s the average for our network over the past year. We’re really proud of that. It’s a lot of hard work from our ops team to maintain that, to ensure the quality check at the beginning, to ensure the customer support.
Charged: Can you still provide such an uptime guarantee when there are other companies involved in a particular deployment?
Sofia Berrada: The short answer is yes, definitely. And I think every company should. That’s why understanding the hardware and the electrical installation is so critical. You can’t just be a pure software company that’s disconnected from what happens in the ground.
A lot of our projects involve third-party installers that are not directly engaged by SWTCH, but rather by our customers. And we have a full process that we work through with them. We work with them before they install the charger to spec everything. We have a sales engineering team that’s pretty advanced and can provide any red flags on electrical drawings, plans for where to put the chargers and what type of hardware they offer. And then, before we activate the charger on our network, we get on the phone and go through a checklist with them to ensure that everything has been done to a certain level of quality.
Charged: At the moment, you work only in Canada and the US. Given the changing political situation, do people in the EV industry need to do things differently? Are there some things we can do to protect ourselves?
Sofia Berrada: I think we can try to find the right path to be sustainable with less incentives and support from the public sector. Similar to other clean technologies such as solar and wind that benefited from that as they scaled, we are now seeing a lot of utilization for EV chargers. Our utilization over the past year grew by over 50%.
We are seeing enough demand for these chargers that we are reaching the point where they can sustain themselves, and we’re working with customers to continue to lower installation and maintenance costs, and at the same time, finding other ways to engage customers so that these projects can sustain themselves.
Charged: So, would you say the industry has reached a point where we are not dependent on government support anymore?
Sofia Berrada: I think it’s getting there. I think we need to get there faster. I think it’s very location-dependent, and so you’re always going to have some locations that will need some government support, whether it’s disadvantaged communities or rural areas. But I think in dense urban areas, we’re already there in a lot of cases, and if not, we’re getting very close to it.
The “Ford Power Promise” focuses on drivers who can most easily charge at home—still the low-hanging fruit for EV sales. It’s working.
Selling electric vehicles was always going to be a challenge, especially for established U.S. brands like Ford and Chevrolet. They require a lot of explanation by salespeople unfamiliar with EVs; not every shopper lives where charging will be easy and convenient; and misperceptions and myths abound.
Last summer, Ford research found intenders’ perceptions of EV driving were more demanding than those of EV owners—and both were more demanding than the actual realities of EV use.
To address these challenges, last year Ford launched its “Ford Power Promise,” a marketing and support package to ease EV-curious shoppers (“intenders”) over the hump to buying and driving an electric vehicle.
The Power Promise program was first announced in September 2024, and Ford attributed its best-ever quarterly EV sales in Q4-2024 to awareness of the plan. Ford has extended the plan several times, most recently through June 30, 2025. In early April 2025, it launched the plan in Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well.
The Ford Power Promise in the U.S. has four main features:
Ford will provide buyers with a free Charge Station Pro home charging station along with free standard installation
Ford’s BlueOval Charge network of charging networks simplifies EV journeys by routing drivers among charging stations from multiple networks, including Tesla Superchargers
Ford warrants its EV batteries for 8 years or 100,000 miles
Ford says it offers 24/7 access to EV advisors to answer owners’ questions as they arise
“Home is where the charge is”
Because car shoppers don’t have a gas pump in their garage, the idea of recharging an EV at home isn’t always intuitive. Yet roughly 80% of EV miles come from charging at home or work—not from public charging stations, whether 240-volt AC Level 2 cables or DC fast-charging for road trips.
For Ford, new-car buyers who can charge at home are the low-hanging fruit among EV shoppers. With sales-weighted new-vehicle transaction prices hovering around $47,000, only a minority of households now has enough income to afford a new car in the first place.
Of households that can afford a new vehicle, Escalent’s 2021 ‘EV Forward’ study found fully four out of five have dedicated off-street parking. That parking is likely no more than 100 feet from some form of electrical supply, usually much closer. That makes installation of a Level 2 home charging station possible, although the details of each installation will vary considerably.
Ford won’t cover every circumstance; a “standard” installation might include adding a breaker into the home panel for a dedicated 240-volt circuit. It won’t cover running a higher-amperage power line from the curb to the house, for instance. But tens of millions of homes should be able to take advantage of that standard installation, whatever it may entail.
Focus on overnight recharge
In a December media presentation on the Ford Power Promise, Martin Delonis, the company’s senior manager of strategy for EVs, said half of all new-car shoppers are well-suited to home EV charging. “Home is where the charge is,” he said, citing it as a mantra to help hesitant shoppers understand that more often than not, they won’t have to hunt for public charging stations.
Delonis said the company’s dealers, in particular their salespeople, are encouraged to stress the pluses of overnight recharging. Those include reduced off-peak or dedicated EV-charging rates; less load on the household (and parenthetically the electric grid) during sleep hours; and the advantage of having “a full tank” every morning.
The charge rates for the Ford electric vehicles covered by the program are a maximum of 11.3 kW for the Mach-E crossover utility and e-Transit delivery van, and 19.2 kW for the F-150 Lightning full-size pickup truck.
For apartment-dwelling buyers of Ford EVs who can’t take advantage of the free home charger and installation, a cash rebate is offered instead—initially $2,000, now $1,000. Delonis noted that all the other elements of the plan (BlueCharge Network, 24/7 help line, battery warranty, etc.) still apply to those buyers. Still, the free charging station is clearly the biggest lure for the program.
It’s worth noting Ford is not the only maker offering a free charging station and standard installation. For its 2024 and (U.S.-built) 2025 Ioniq 5 hatchback utilities and both model years of Ioniq 6 sedans, Hyundai will provide buyers with a free ChargePoint Home Flex Level 2 charging station and hardwired installation—though not any other installation costs, taxes, or fees.
Buyers who can’t install a charging station at home can opt for a $400 public-charging credit good for two years at ChargePoint network stations. The offer is similar to one it ran at the end of 2023 for three different models.
Strong sales showing
After canceling a planned battery-electric 3-row SUV in August 2024, Ford’s lineup of EVs is now well-established in the market. That’s another way of saying it hasn’t launched any new vehicles for a while. But its EV sales have grown steadily, and the company says the Power Promise is a major driver for those increases. It explicitly attributed its highest-ever EV sales in Q4 last year to growing awareness of the program, launched just weeks earlier.
Ford sold 30,176 EVs that quarter, out of a total of 97,865 sold throughout 2024. The first quarter of 2025 saw sales of 22,550 EVs; Ford noted 11,607 Mach-Es were sold “despite limited inventory.” But, it said, “2025 model year Mustang Mach-E SUVs are now in transit and will make their way to dealer lots in April.”
The Ford Power Promise is offered to all U.S. retail buyers of 2024 and 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E crossover SUVs, F-150 Lightning full-size pickups, and e-Transit delivery vans. It does not apply to purchases of the small number of plug-in hybrids Ford makes. Details differ slightly in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland; there, Ford sells Mach-E and e-Transit models, but also two Europe-only SUVs developed on the Volkswagen MEB platform, the (European) Explorer and the Capri.
This article draws on material from an earlier piece by the same author for the Electric Power Research Institute, or EPRI, an independent, nonprofit research organization for the U.S. electric utility industry.
Chinese battery manufacturer CATL has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with EV manufacturer NIO to jointly build a battery swap network and promote the unification of industry technical standards.
The companies aim to build a battery swap network for passenger cars and promote the popularization and upgrading of battery swap services. CATL will support the development of NIO’s battery swap network, and new models subsequently developed by NIO’s Firefly brand will be introduced into CATL’s chocolate battery swap standards.
Both companies will adopt a “dual-network parallel” model to jointly provide battery swap owners with a more convenient and efficient battery swap experience.
The companies said they will also jointly promote the formulation and promotion of national standards for battery swapping technology, promote cross-brand and cross-model battery compatibility and jointly build a full life cycle closed loop of battery research and development, battery swapping services, battery asset management, cascade utilization and material recycling to help the EV industry reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Energy efficiency is vital for the development of electric vehicles, especially in inverter and motor design. Even marginal efficiency gains, such as precise 0.1% improvements, can significantly enhance vehicle range and overall performance. However, developers face challenges with traditional power analyzers, including inaccuracies due to discrepancies between simulations and actual data, prolonged averaging times that delay motor testing, and inconsistent measurement results from complex, high-frequency waveforms.
Hioki addresses these challenges with its advanced PW8001 Power Analyzer and high-accuracy current sensors designed specifically for the EV industry. Offering exceptional bandwidth and rapid sampling capabilities, PW8001 ensures precise, reproducible high-frequency measurements. Hioki’s innovative phase correction minimizes measurement errors, empowering engineers to pinpoint and reduce energy losses effectively.
Discover how Hioki’s solutions can help you achieve critical efficiency improvements in EV powertrain development by downloading this application note.
Aptera’s solar-powered EV isn’t for every driver—the car guys may scoff at its sci-fi styling, while the more practically minded may find its lack of cargo space to be a deal-killer. However, it’s a historic vehicle, and the EV industry is following the company’s progress closely, because the vehicle is designed to be the most efficient possible with current technology.
In a sense, the creation of Aptera’s so-called solar electric vehicle—which boasts a range of up to 400 miles, plus the ability to travel up to 40 miles per day on free sunlight—is like a moonshot, serving as a catalyst for the development of a range of EV-related technologies. The company notes that its vehicle relies on breakthroughs in solar technology, battery efficiency, aerodynamics, material science and manufacturing. (Aptera also promises to produce “a series of eco-friendly vehicles for consumer and commercial use.”)
Now the company has taken a production-intent vehicle on a road trip, to show what the solar EV can do in real-world driving conditions.
Aptera Co-CEO Steve Fambro drove over 300 miles on a single charge through snow-covered mountains, down historic Route 66, across the desert, and back to California. The car demonstrated efficiency of 122 Wh per mile, which Aptera says is twice as efficient as today’s most efficient production EV. The integrated solar panels added 2.4 kWh of energy—equivalent to 20 miles—on a partly cloudy day.
As some of our more skeptical colleagues hastened to point out, this wasn’t a formal range test, but Aptera never said it was. This was apparently more of a shakedown cruise to get some first impressions (and of course, some publicity). The test vehicle is heavier than the production model is expected to be, so the efficiency of the production vehicle may be even better. Aptera intends to conduct final efficiency and range validation “in the coming months,” on a closed course, with performance stats verified by a third party in the usual fashion.
Q&A with EV measurement engineering experts Coty Harrison and Cristian Loris of Yokogawa Test&Measurement.
When tasked with measuring the electrical power of complex systems like EVs, an inexperienced engineer may first reach for general instrumentation like oscilloscopes, data acquisition (DAQ) systems and digital multimeters (DMMs). While these instruments serve useful roles in electrical testing—oscilloscopes analyze time-dependent signals, DAQs handle large-scale data and DMMs focus on fundamental electrical measurements—they are not suited for making traceable and accurate electrical power measurements.
All three general tools suffer the same shortfalls—they are not designed to measure power accurately but instead accurately measure DC or, in some cases, clean AC RMS. Using oscilloscopes, DAQs and DMMs to measure power could compromise product design by creating significant (often invisible) measurement errors.
The right tool to measure power in complex EV systems is a purpose-built power analyzer that captures three core parameters—voltage, current and power—as well as a few very important additional parameters (depending on what system you are testing) that contribute to understanding the efficiency and overall system performance.
To learn more about purpose-built power analyzers, Charged recently chatted with measurement engineering experts Coty Harrison and Cristian Loris of Yokogawa Test&Measurement. Founded in 1911, Yokogawa is a global company that provides a range of products that measure electrical and optical signals and other critical engineering parameters. The company’s systems are used across industries like energy, manufacturing, and increasingly in EVs and renewable energy.
Charged: Can you give us a high-level explanation of why purpose-built power analyzers are critical in EV system development?
Coty Harrison: In EV applications, measurement accuracy must be reliably maintained across a range of frequencies and conditions, so it’s critical that you have a system that captures many different elements and channels.
We designed our newest power analyzers to provide precision with an error margin as low as 0.03%. This means manufacturers can confidently verify efficiency gains in the 1-2% range, which is critical for competitive advancements.
For example, in developing and testing a new EV traction motor design, you need a system that enables engineers to comprehensively measure electrical parameters as well as mechanical parameters like speed and torque.
Accuracy becomes especially important during validation, as manufacturers must ensure their products meet stringent efficiency and performance benchmarks before production or delivery to customers. As EVs gained traction and competition increased in the market, engineers began developing more innovative and complex designs, which meant more complicated measurements. For example, we designed our newest power analyzers to provide precision with an error margin as low as 0.03%. This means manufacturers can confidently verify efficiency gains in the 1-2% range, which is critical for competitive advancements.
New materials like silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) allow higher switching rates, so instruments also evolved to meet increasingly demanding switching requirements. For EV applications, it’s no longer a want but a need for a power analyzer to support sampling rates up to 10 mega samples per second (MSps) per channel. And when you combine that with 18-bit analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, you ensure accurate data even under high-frequency conditions. This allows EV motor and inverter validation with efficiency measurements that differentiate between real gains and measurement inaccuracies—vital for performance tuning in automotive.
Figure 1: Electric Vehicle Powertrain Key Measurement And Efficiency Points
Charged: Can you expand on the example of EV traction motor design? How exactly is a purpose-built power analyzer used to improve the end product?
Cristian Loris: Efficiency directly impacts the range of EVs, which is a key factor for consumers. Small improvements in motor efficiency can significantly extend vehicle range and reduce energy consumption. Accurate measurements will optimize performance under various loads, and precision is especially critical when addressing complex drive cycle scenarios.
It comes down to two key challenges. First is measuring power to a known, traceable and guaranteed power spec, which isn’t possible if you are using instruments focused on DC specs or AC RMS. AC power—especially noisy switched power—requires integration at a high sample rate, consideration of line filters and zero crossings, etc.
The second challenge is that motors are an inductive load, which will always have some power factor that will further degrade measurement accuracy if you use general tools like oscilloscopes, DAQs and DMMs—as much as 30% or more.
Unlike general-purpose equipment, power analyzers will have dedicated algorithms optimized for traction motor applications, including power calculation over varying load conditions. For EV power measurements, signal conditioning is crucial to reduce noise and maintain signal integrity, especially in high-power systems. Also, purpose-built analyzers are designed to log data consistently over extended periods and offer traceable data records for certification purposes, which is important for EV powertrain testing that often involves long-duration measurements.
Harmonics and distortions in current and voltage waveforms lead to energy loss and may impact the performance of the EV motor. Power analyzers that can accurately measure harmonic content help engineers mitigate these losses.
Coty Harrison: To elaborate on this example, a few key parameters need to be measured in traction motor development. The first is powertrain efficiency, and those measurements require accurate voltage and current readings from the power supplied to the traction motor, both from the battery and the inverter. The challenge here lies in measuring high-frequency switching waveforms accurately, as traction motors typically operate in dynamic conditions.
Then there is the power factor, which impacts the energy transfer from the battery to the motor. Ensuring a higher power factor (as close as possible to the ideal unitary value) improves energy efficiency and reduces losses and is therefore crucial to measure and control.
Also, harmonics and distortions in current and voltage waveforms lead to energy loss and may impact the performance of the EV motor. Power analyzers that can accurately measure harmonic content help engineers mitigate these losses.
Finally, torque and speed measurements are essential to assess motor output accurately.
Combining the accurate measurement of these parameters will provide engineers with a complete picture of a motor’s efficiency.
Charged: You mentioned the validation stage of the development process. Is that when power analyzers are mainly used?
Cristian Loris: Yes, power analyzers are primarily used during the validation stage of EV systems to benchmark efficiency and ensure products meet performance expectations before moving into mass production.
Before finalizing designs and shipping parts to customers, manufacturers will use power analyzers to benchmark the parts with extremely high accuracy. This is when they create a spec sheet for a part. Ballpark values are insufficient for this step. They need to have exact power measurements.
Coty Harrison: The validation phase includes the component level (i.e. chip makers), the initial system integration level (i.e. Tier 1 suppliers), and the production level (i.e. vehicle OEMs)—to make sure the full production process is working correctly.
Generally, component manufacturers can use devices with lower accuracy (around 1%) while designing parts. And then before finalizing designs and shipping parts to customers, they will use power analyzers to benchmark the parts with extremely high accuracy. This is when they create a spec sheet for a part. Ballpark values are insufficient for this step. They need to have exact power measurements.
Charged: What Yokogawa products do EV engineers typically use for power analyzing?
Coty Harrison: Our Yokogawa WT series power analyzers are designed for this purpose. Unlike general measurement tools, our power analyzers provide both isolated voltage inputs and accurate current measurement capabilities, which are essential for accurately capturing cycle-by-cycle power metrics. Tools that lack AC signal testing will struggle with measurements in the dynamic conditions seen in EVs or other systems with shifting power factors.
Cristian Loris: As the automotive industry has embraced electrification, we’ve added features like support for multi-motor systems and faster sampling rates to handle higher switching frequencies.
Our WT5000 supports up to seven elements that provide accurate current and voltage measurements. Current sensing is performed using a shunt resistor with temperature and frequency compensation. For the evaluation of motor speed, torque and mechanical power, up to eight input channels (via two modules) are available, enabling the evaluation of four motor systems simultaneously.
Power analyzers provide both isolated voltage inputs and accurate current measurement capabilities, which are essential for accurately capturing cycle-by-cycle power metrics. Tools that lack AC signal testing will struggle with measurements in the dynamic conditions seen in EVs or other systems with shifting power factors.
Charged: Where are power analyzers used outside the EV Industry?
Cristian Loris: While automotive applications are driving a lot of innovation in the space, our power analyzers are also widely used in industrial motor development, which consumes roughly 60% of global electricity. So, enhancing efficiency in these systems has a massive impact on reducing energy usage and costs.
Charged: Can you tell us more about your roles at Yokogawa and how you help EV systems engineers?
Coty Harrison: I’ve been with Yokogawa for eight years. I started as an application engineer, which is where most of our technical staff begin. Given the complexity of our test equipment, it’s important to gain hands-on experience. From there, I transitioned into technical sales and eventually became the North American Sales Manager for our test and measurement team.
Cristian Loris: I also started with the application engineering team about two and a half years ago. There, I helped integrate our products into customers’ testing setups, allowing me to see firsthand the industry’s challenges. Since then, I have transitioned into the role of Product Manager for our decarbonization and electrification product portfolio, including our power analyzers for the EV market.
We work closely with EV systems engineers when they need help figuring out what testing products will work best for their specific applications, and then we help them customize and implement them into their processes.
