Amber’s Charge HQ Deal: Peace At Last For Stressed EV Owners

Amber has acquired Charge HQ, in a move that could reduce the stress levels of customers trying to charge their EVs under the energy retailer’s volatile wholesale market billing system.

Charge HQ is the developer of a cloud-based smart EV charging app that Amber claims will give their customers more control.

“Charge HQ’s technology is a fantastic addition to Amber’s offering, giving EV owners the ability to charge their vehicles in a way that maximises renewable energy use while also cutting costs,” said Amber co-CEO Chris Thompson in a statement.

The Wholesale Market Rollercoaster

Amber grants customers access to real-time wholesale electricity prices so they can cash in on low prices, as signified by the company’s 50-metre-high inflatable tube person, which soars up over the company’s hometown of Melbourne when cheap renewables flood the grid.

The flipside of this system is that customers get stung when wholesale prices spike, although the company does have some protections in place when this happens.

SolarQuotes Head of Marketing Jono Wedge — an Amber customer and EV owner — hopes the development will reduce the stress of living at the mercy of wholesale prices.

“The potential for Amber to automate EV charging for maximum savings is very welcome, as having to manually check pricing and turn my charger on/off is laborious,” he said.

“Especially in the winter months, when prices can be volatile, being able to plug in my car knowing it’s ‘set and forget’ would be a load off my mind.”

Jono will be making sure the home EV charger he installs is Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) compliant — most OCPP chargers are compatible with Charge HQ’s platform.

The Power To Choose When You Charge

Charge HQ’s cloud-based system is capable of integrating solar inverters, wall chargers, and EVs to charge at home while using existing hardware, regardless of the brand.

The technology gives people the ability to selectively charge when prices are cheap, as well as other considerations such as only charging on renewable energy.

“Joining Amber means we can bring smarter, more advanced energy solutions to even more Australians,” said Charge HQ co-founder Jay Banner. “We believe that Amber will be a great home for Charge HQ due to the strong alignment in company mission and focus on building great products for customers.”

Charge HQ last year faced an uncertain future as the company grappled with a number of challenges, including Amber developing its own in-house EV charging technology platform Amber for EVs, which launched late last year.

A spokesperson for Amber told SolarQuotes: “Currently compatible with Tesla Model Y and Model 3, and post-2021 Model S and X Teslas, the Amber for EV in-house tech provides customers with the ability to charge from excess solar without additional charging equipment and to automate charging around the cheapest times in the grid.”

The spokesperson added: “Amber for EVs isn’t going anywhere with the acquisition of Charge HQ. Instead, bringing Charge HQ into the Amber family allows us to immediately provide optimised EV charging to a wider range of Amber customers, given that Charge HQ is currently compatible with most OCPP chargers. Charge HQ is also still available to non-Amber customers who want to optimise their EV charging.”

The Amber for EVs platform graduated to beta testing in September last year, but the company has not clarified how the acquisition of Charge HQ relates to their in-house project.

Amber, founded in 2017, faced their own challenges last year, with customers who owned Tesla Powerwalls suffering widespread technical issues when using Amber’s SmartShift app.

Amber claimed the acquisition of Charge HQ additionally supports the smart energy retailer’s continued work in the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) space.

The company has previously said its smart EV charging is the first step in its Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)-backed program to develop a V2G solution for compatible EVs.

If you want to learn more about charging your own EV (or the EV you’re thinking about getting), take a look at our comprehensive EV charging 101 guide.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/ambers-charge-hq-deal-peace-at-last-for-stressed-ev-owners/