Commercial EV Charging Points the Way to Green Driving

- Solid State Group estimates that it can accelerate customers’ time to market, by as much as 70%. Late last year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his green plan to ban new cars and vans, powered wholly by petrol and diesel, in the UK from 2030. That November announcement has highlighted a range of possibilities and challenges for designers, manufacturers and distributors of electric vehicle charging solutions such as Solid State Group, to ensure the Prime Minister’s vision is a success. The disappearance of petrol and diesel cars means that adequate charging infrastructure will become ever more important, and commercial and industrial chargepoint designers and manufacturers will be looking to accelerate their time to market. Scott Brenton, IoT Director at Solid State comments: “Accelerating the time to market will be one of the key challenges facing customers and suppliers alike. We envisage a potential lack of expertise in integrating smart control, connectivity and charging management, resulting in delays in developing solutions which are critical to ensuring the government plans become a reality. A key consideration for customers is also whether it’s better to use inhouse resources rather than an outsourced solution, and the advantages of building key components vs buying the technology solution. Ultimately, it will be about speed of delivery.” If a client is designing EV infrastructure, Solid State estimates that it can accelerate their time to market by as much as 70%, cutting project development time by employing its ‘System on a Module’ approach rather than the customer designing its own discrete solutions from scratch. The adoption of pre-certified modular and boxed products for processing and connectivity guarantees a true “off-the-shelf” solution and results in much faster project delivery. “As well as the importance of speed of delivery, customers should consider whether to build or buy. The lowest risk approach is to outsource expert engineering and knowledge to create the optimal design approach,” says Scott Brenton. “Our hardware and software solution avoids development pitfalls and takes full advantage of our experience of external design partners in industry regulation and system security.” Solid State helps speed up time to market by accessing experts who work with customers, supplementing their knowledge. IoT experts advise on the best fit for the requirements, ensuring that products are OLEV-ready and conform to the relevant standards and regulations such as the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) used across EV charging and central management systems from a range of vendors. The Solid State Group is in a strong position to support the EV commercial charging points industry and is set to play a major part in the green future of driving. This announcement also comes hot on the heels of the group’s most recent acquisition of Willow Technologies Ltd (WT) and its US based subsidiary American Electronic Components Inc. (AEC). As manufacturers and value-added distributors of electro-mechanical products, both companies will bolster the group’s value-added services division, further enhancing its business offering within the EV and EV charging space. Willow and AEC provide the group with a wide range of switching and sensing solutions designed specifically for the demanding technical applications encountered within EVs and their charging technologies. -Ends- Notes to Editors: About Solid State Group Solid State plc (SOLI) is a value-added electronics group supplying commercial, industrial and military markets with durable components, assemblies and manufactured units for use in specialist and harsh environments. The Group's mantra is - 'Trusted technology for demanding applications'. To see an introductory video on the Group - https://bit.ly/3kzddx7 Operating through two main divisions: Manufacturing (Steatite & Active Silicon) and Value-Added Supplies (Solid State Supplies, Pacer, Willow Technologies & AEC); the Group specialises in complex engineering challenges often requiring design-in support and component sourcing for computing, power, communications, electronic, electro-mechanical and opto-electronic products. Headquartered in Redditch, Solid State employs over 260 staff across the UK with branch offices in the USA, serving specialist markets in oil & gas production, transportation, medical, construction, security, military and field maintenance. Solid State was established in 1971 and admitted to AIM in June 1996. The Group has grown organically and by acquisition - having made 12 acquisitions since 2002. Durakool® and Hermaseal® are registered brands of AEC. www.solidstateplc.com