Oliver Johnson, ABB’s Business Development Manager for EV Charging, explains how new EV owners can get a long life and great performance for home and business charging with the Terra AC Wallbox.
According to the latest data from the SMMT, battery electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids accounted for a total of 13.9% of the market in March 2021 – a significant step up from 7.3% for last March.
How does the Terra AC Wallbox fit into the EV charging landscape?
We developed the Terra AC Wallbox for drivers who have their own private driveway, garage or off-road parking at home or at work, where they park for several hours overnight or throughout the working day.
The unit is designed to draw power via a normal domestic consumer unit, providing 7.4 kW from a single phase supply or 22 kW with three phase. That will provide a full charge in up to 4 to 16 hours, although most drivers will use shorter and more frequent top-ups as the average daily range for a car is only 20 miles.
If they’re looking for faster charge times, drivers can also plug into the UK’s growing network of more powerful chargers available for public use. For example, they might find a 20-25 kW charger at a car dealership, hotel or office, where drivers might stay for up to three hours. The next level of up is 50 kW for high-traffic sites like supermarkets, restaurants and car parks.
And at the top end, we’re seeing more chargers rated at 50, 175 and 350 kW being installed at service stations and short-stay sites so that drivers can get more than 100 miles of range within 15 minutes, as long as their cars can facilitate this.
ABB provides chargers at all power levels and for all types of site, making us a leader in EV charging infrastructure. So far, we have sold more than 400,000 EV chargers in more than 85 countries.
How can I access the £350 government grant for EV chargers at home or the workplace?
The government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) has two grant schemes for people who want to claim back the cost of installing EV chargers at their home or workplace.
It only applies to chargers that have been pre-approved by OZEV and appear on its list. That includes the Terra AC Wallbox. By setting standards for the hardware, the government is ensuring that is will only provide funding for chargers that are designed for the future needs of drivers and to protect consumers by keeping car charging costs down. For example, the approved chargepoints must all integrate smart technology to enable remote access and so that they can react to the cost of electricity on the grid, optimising the experience for both drivers and power grid operators.
Domestic customers in England and their installers can claim back up to £350 for up to two chargers under the Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (EVHS). To qualify for EVHS, the installer needs to register with OZEV.
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is similar and is intended for companies that want to provide charging spaces for their employees. It can be extended to a maximum of 40 sockets, with applicants able to claim up to £350 per socket. To qualify, the installer needs to register with the manufacturer to become an approved installer of its chargers.
You can find our registration form by ‘Googling’ “ABB OZEV register”.
What can drivers expect in terms of performance from the Terra AC wallbox?
As the market matures, the batteries inside EVs are getting bigger to provide longer range. For example, the latest EVs such as the Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-PACE or Tesla have 80 kilowatt-hour (kWh) batteries.
For a 7kW domestic charger, it could take 8-12 hours to fully charge these and during that time, electricity prices could vary significantly. Therefore, we’ve built accurate metering and smart control into the Terra AC wallbox to enable it to react to electricity prices, drawing more power when the cost is low. It can also be configured and controlled via an app. This can be manually set up, or done via a chargepoint operator’s back office.
We’ve also designed the wallbox so that it automatically authenticates drivers for a seamless charging experience.
Get more details about the ABB Terra AC wallbox by clicking here
