The idea of Charge Amps came to life in 2012 when founder Fredrik Jonsson realized that the, to him, inevitable future rise of electric cars would need better chargers, and more good looking ones. Back then you’d have settle with clunky and obtuse models that simply wouldn’t do for the progressive and smart cars that were popping up on streets and highways all over the world.
Since then, the company has picked up pace in ludicrous mode. The most recent development came in April this year, when Charge Amps raised $15 million in investment from sustainability venture capitalists Swedbank Robur, ahead of a planned IPO in 2022.
— Firstly, I’d feel confident to argue that our products are the best looking on the market in terms of design. You’d never hang ugly art or decorate your home with unattractive furniture, and for the same reason we’ve put hours upon hours into ensuring that our products are beautiful and sleek enough to not disrupt the architecture of any building that they are installed on, explains CEO Anders Bergtoft.
The design has been carried out by Joachim Nordwall, the former Design Director of Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg. Nordwall was responsible for designing the Jesko, Regera & Agera models. Other than the specific scaled-down design, the chargers pack some unique specifications to stay user friendly and cost-efficient as well.
— Our charging stations are equipped with dynamic phase and load balancing, as well as smart charging so that available electrical capacity is not overloaded, and charging can be timed to take place when the energy price is at its lowest. The latter is controlled through the Charge Amps Cloud Platform and app, or by a user’s energy company, via a unique ‘Partner API’, Bergtoft explains.
We know that Tesla cars need updates from time to time. Do you need to update the Charge Amps products as well?
— Yes, this is primarily to make sure the customer always has the newest features in the charging station and also to ensure that the hardware doesn’t go obsolete when carmakers like Tesla make updates on their end. All software updates of our Cloud-connected charging stations are done remotely, so it doesn’t create a hassle for our customers, instead, it ensures that our products are improving over time, instead of having to be replaced.
”You’d never hang ugly art or decorate your home with unattractive furniture, our products are beautiful and sleek enough to not disrupt the architecture of any building that they are installed on”
Charge Amps offers two models today, the single-charge Halo and the dual-port Aura version for the customer with more than one electric car. Both models are compatible with all electric vehicles in Europe, Asia and America, so you don’t need to switch out the charger if you were to change car brand. Bergtoft adds that you need to hire a certified electrician to set up the chargers, most importantly to save money.
— Any installation of EV charging stations should be professionally done by a certified electrician. In Sweden, this is also a requirement to make you eligible for the ‘Grön Teknik’ grant, and similar government subsidies across Europe are also dependent on ensuring a professional instalment of EV charging solutions, Bergtoft concludes.
