Electric mobility on the Advance

Electric mobility in Europe is picking up speed. Ever since the recommendation from the EU Commission for the charging plug developed by Mennekes as a common standard for the whole of Europe, the creation of a comprehensive charging infrastructure has been picking up speed as it provides investment security for manufacturers and operators of charging stations. Not only in Germany, but also in other European countries too, the significance of electric mobility is increasing as an alternative to petrol or diesel vehicles. Norway in particular is making great advances here.
Oslo as capital of electric mobility

Norway has the highest number of electric car sales per capita. Consequently, Oslo is called the “capital of electric mobility”. The Norwegian government has set the goal of having electric vehicles achieve a share of 10 percent of the complete automobile market by 2020. This goal seems to be completely realistic: the share of electrically driven cars sold already reached 3.4 per cent in June of this year. Intensive work is currently being carried out in Norway to set up a corresponding charging infrastructure, so that charging points can be found for the vehicles everywhere in the country. Municipalities are especially playing an important role in this context in Norway. For example, a major new project has been launched in the capital Oslo. Four hundred charging stations with a total of 800 charging points are to be set up there.
Comprehensive concept with an all-in-one solution

The operators do not want individual charging points, but instead networked system facilities, tailored to their individual needs. In addition, they want a comprehensive all-in-one solution as far as possible and with a partner who can not only supply the hardware, but also the associated software and backend as well as other services, for example setting up and servicing facilities. In this context, innovative and above all reliable charging stations, tried-and-tested in actual practice for safe operation and maximum operation readiness, are in demand.

In a strict selection procedure for the charging stations to be installed, the city of Oslo opted for the comprehensive concept of a consortium whose partners Sonnico / Salto only use the Mennekes system solutions. Based on a catalogue of criteria, the services of the various international bidders were compared in advance. The Mennekes charging stations achieved a fantastic result in the technical evaluation. As the sole product to do so, it convinced the testers with 10 out of 10 in all criteria. The charging infrastructure solutions are composed of completely networked and centrally controllable system facilities with hundreds of charging points. They are tailored and configured to customers’ individual needs and also have an interface to special backend software, which can be changed for each operator.

First charging stations already in November
The first Mennekes charging stations will be set up in Oslo starting from November. The charging systems each provide two charging points with 3.7 kW of charging power. An LED information panel at each charging point informs the user about the current charging status. To ensure that only authorised persons can use the charging stations, they have an RFID authorisation system. The user has to register once with the operator of the charging stations and then receives an RFID card, with which he or she can log on simply and conveniently at each charging station.

The Norwegian employees responsible for installation, operation startup and maintenance are being trained at Mennekes in Kirchhundem. They are being trained on the technology of the complex systems. System setup and functions of the charging infrastructure, operation startup of the hardware and software as well as individual system configuration to error diagnosis are essential components of the course lasting several days. The topics of maintenance, fault clearance and repair complete the service course.

Oslo as reference project for Scandinavia
For Mennekes this is the entry into the Scandinavian market for charging infrastructure. Mennekes considers the project in Oslo as a reference project and hopes to obtain additional significant projects, not just in Scandinavia.

“This order is a great success for the entire team and confirms to us that we are on the right path with our solutions for charging infrastructure,” explains Mennekes Managing Director Volker Lazzaro. “As a medium-sized, family-run company, we think and invest in the long term and see great opportunities in electric mobility. The project in Oslo is an impressive example of this,” says Lazzaro.

Mennekes provides the currently most comprehensive system program of charging stations for private and public areas with different equipment features in the form of home charging stations and charging columns for car parks as well as wall-mounted charging stations for underground parking garages and multi-storey car parks.
In this context, the Kirchhundem-based company treats electric mobility comprehensively and can supply all areas from complete charging systems to charging cables all the way to components for electric vehicles.