Early this year, Phoenix Contact founded the E-Mobility GmbH company to develop and focus the group’s activities in the area of electric mobility. The company premises are located at the Schieder-Schwalenberg business park, which is only five kilometers from Phoenix Contact’s headquarters in Blomberg, Germany. 1,800 m² of floor space will be provided over the next few years to accommodate an envisioned 50 employees.
“E-Mobility GmbH is sending a clear message to the market,” says Helmut Friedrich, Executive Vice President of E-Mobility GmbH. “The new company bundles all our e-mobility activities related to charging connectors and charging infrastructures.”
Priorities for the e-mobility segment include establishing new sales channels, fostering new technologies, and also meeting specific requirements from automotive manufacturers in terms of research and quality management. Phoenix Contact has been developing an extensive range of electronic components for charging stations and the charging infrastructure over the past few years.
These components and systems are already being used in the charging stations of many renowned manufacturers. In addition to the component family, the product spectrum now also includes fully assembled wall box charging stations.
Phoenix Contact is presently the only provider to offer both the common alternating current (AC) charging connector as well as the new combined DC connector for much faster direct current (DC) charging. The latter technology can recharge an electric car in approximately 0.5 hours. This represents a major step ahead and a breakthrough in making electric vehicle technology viable for daily use.
The so-called rapid charging connector, which is also specified in the type 2 standard, was developed by Phoenix Contact in close cooperation with the leading automobile manufacturers VW, Audi, Porsche, BMW, and Daimler. To allow for universal use, the connector is compatible with the existing AC connector.
This means that it also supports time-intensive charging, e.g., over night. The German automotive industry and development partner Phoenix Contact were awarded the Bavarian State Prize for Electric Mobility for the type 2 rapid charging connector. Large-scale deployment is about to commence: From mid-2013, Volkswagen’s e-UP will ship with a rapid charging connector as standard. Further models are in preparation.