ABB acquires manufacturer of EV charging stations
Ulrich Spiesshofer, head of ABB's Discrete Automation and Motion division, said the Epyon acquisition gives ABB access to competitive products, key network management software, and a robust maintenance service business model, which ideally complements our own offering. Founded in 2005, the company is headquartered in Rijswijk, Netherlands, has an R&D center in Eindhoven and sales resources across Europe.
Epyon's DC fast-charging stations have been in commercial use since May 2010, and reduce charging time to 15 minutes compared to 6-8 hours using a standard alternating current (AC) charger outlet. The company's equipment and software also enables the charging station owner to monitor conditions and requirements of the station, linking billing and administrative needs. It provides a range of different charging methods for each of the station connections, enabling it to tailor charging to various start conditions, power requirements and charging times. EV charging station unit sales are expected to multiply rapidly over the next five years, and reach 1.6 million units globally by 2015, according to Pike Research. Details
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.