Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is further expanding its offering in the growing electromobility market and, to this end, has acquired the charging station technology of the energy company EnBW from Karlsruhe. A corresponding purchase agreement was signed by both companies. Heidelberg is thus now offering a product suitable for public and semi-public applications in addition to solutions already successfully established in the home sector.
The new offering is aimed primarily at municipal utilities, local authorities, companies and for customer parking lots, primarily in Germany and Europe. With the rapid ramp-up of e-cars, the network of nationwide charging points in Germany and the EU will also be significantly expanded by 2030. Sales of the charging station from Heidelberg are scheduled to start in mid-2022. In the future, the new products will also be used in operator models, for example in fleet management.
“We are gradually expanding our portfolio in the booming market for electromobility,” said Rainer Hundsdörfer, chief executive officer of Heidelberg. “By offering intelligent charging stations, we are tapping into a new market segment for our future field. This will enable us to further increase sales and profitability in this area.”
Heidelberg — Intelligent charging solutionÂ
The offered charging station is the first barrier-free charging station for public areas. It offers a 2×22 kW type 2 connection (IEC 62196) and is TAB compliant. Upon customer request, the charging station branding can be customized. For the end user, a 10-inch plain text display provides convenient and simple menu navigation for the charging process. In addition, the charging station can be networked and is equipped with billing options that comply with calibration regulations.
To this end, the system can be connected to all standard backend solutions on the market via OCPP 1.6 JSON/SOAP, including SAP. Only recently, Heidelberg announced a strategic collaboration with SAP to ensure easy operation, monitoring, and billing via cloud software. This is an important step towards being able to automatically handle the management of charging stations and business processes relating to billing, invoicing, and payment.
Today, Heidelberg serves the home market with the Heidelberg wallbox home eco and Heidelberg wallbox energy control models with various cable lengths and customization options for the German and European markets. In addition, Heidelberg wallbox energy control and Heidelberg combox offer a solution with integrated load management that can be used to charge up to 16 vehicles simultaneously in a network. In addition, international expansion continues to gain momentum.
Following market entries in Austria and Switzerland, Heidelberg will in future also be offering its charging solutions in France, Poland, and Hungary. In line with the dynamic development of demand, the fourth wallbox production line was commissioned earlier than planned at the Wiesloch-Walldorf site. As a result, sales of wallboxes tripled in the first half of financial year 2021-22 and the contribution to earnings increased significantly despite expenses for product innovation and capacity expansion.
