Electric Vehicle awareness and uptake is on the rise globally, including in New Zealand. Architects, engineers, government and building owners are showing positive leadership in the sustainability movement all across NZ by incorporating infrastructure to support electric vehicles in new and existing buildings.

How to know which kind of electric vehicle charger to choose?

This depends on the electric vehicle and the time period in which the client wishes the vehicle to be charged. The power of the source (7.4,11,22, 43Kw) determines the charging speed (12hours down to 30min). The electric vehicle also has a few different charging connectors, type 1 or type 2 being the most common.

Schneider Electric supplies both fast chargers and standard chargers. The standard chargers are ideally suited to residential, commercial and public infrastructure applications. Schneider Electric has three versions of the standard chargers: EVLink Wallbox, Smart Wallbox and EVLink Parking.

EVLink Wallbox

EVlink Wallbox is rated for outdoor and indoor environments, and is designed for use in homes and private and semi-public locations including apartments, corporate car parks, and hotels. A simple Start/Stop button connection controls charging once plugged in, power ranges from 3.7KW to 22.1KW and the unit can have a tethered cable or just a T2 socket.

EVLink Smart Wallbox

EVLink Smart Wallbox incorporates all the features of the Wallbox with the additional feature of a built-in web server, which enables communication via Ethernet, WIFI and GPRS using the OCPP1.5 protocol. The smart wallbox also allows RFID tags to be used for authentication and has two power ranges 7.4Kw single phase and 22.1Kw three phase.

EVLink Parking

EVLink Parking is designed for higher use areas by multiple users — larger apartments, workplaces, public venue carparks and on streets. The EVlink Parking has a built in web server which enables communication and supports the use of RFID tags for authentication. This unit can have 1 or 2 sockets and power ranges from 7.4Kw to 22.1Kw.

All EV charger options are available with chosen cable or without any cable, and with wall mounted or floor standing options, and are rated to IP54 ingress and IK10 impact.