Enphase Energy ships first IQ EV Charger 2 units in US
Global energy technology company Enphase Energy has shipped its first IQ EV Charger 2 units to US customers.
The California-headquartered company, which supplies microinverter-based solar and battery systems too, said its IQ Charger 2 is now also available in Canada, following its debut earlier this year across Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
The charger can deliver up to between 19.2kW and 22.1kW, depending on specifications, and is suitable for home or small business use.
According to CEO of Enphase’s US partner installer, Earth Electrical, Sheryl Lane: “What really stands out to customers with Enphase Energy systems is how it uses even small amounts of surplus solar to deliver a true renewable charge, turning more clean energy into meaningful EV miles”.
The so-called ‘solar-aware’ system can adjust charging in 1-amp increments to use all available solar generation or off-grid power, if coupled with Enphase’s domestic solar system and battery energy storage.
For businesses, the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) enables remote management and smart charging control for commercial deployments, while Modbus, an industry-standard communication protocol, provides local integration with site-level energy management systems.
The chargers are also compatible with AC bidirectional charging, meaning customers will be able to participate in vehicle-to-home (V2H) or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) as and when it becomes available. Increasing numbers of domestic EV chargers now feature the hardware and software needed for this, as the technology is expected to reach the mass market soon.
This reflects a trend that sees several big names in renewable technologies, like inverters and battery energy storage, such as Sungrow and RedEarth, increasingly offering EV charging as part of a suite of home energy technologies.
More broadly, it is currently difficult for EV charging-only companies to turn a profit, whether through domestic charging sales or public infrastructure. This is in part due to the relatively low EV uptake rates globally, which of course excludes China, and is a trend that has seen the most successful EV infrastructure firms offer a range of products.
In recent global EV charging deployment figures, a drop in EV sales saw a knock-on effect on chargers installed during October.
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