E.ON opens e-mobility test and innovation centre in Germany
E.ON’s new test centre, branded unique in Europe, is designed for testing of charging solutions for vehicles up to truck fleets with up to 3MW of power.
The centre, located at a new site in E.ON’s home city of Essen, covers an area of around 10,000m2 with more than 25 stations and digital test environments for testing vehicles, charging stations, wallboxes and accessories.
It also includes five special climate chambers that can simulate temperature conditions from freezing cold to extreme heat, enabling the charging behaviour of electric vehicles to be tested at temperatures from -40 to 50oC, so that such tests do not need to be undertaken in real environments.
In addition to this research and development, the test centre is available for training customers and partners in installation and maintenance.
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“Energy transition, clean transport, climate protection – all this will only succeed if electromobility gains even more momentum,” said E.ON Board member Patrick Lammers at the opening.
“With our new test and innovation centre, we are creating the necessary capacity to meet the growing demand for charging infrastructure. As a result, we are ideally positioned for the dynamic market development of electric mobility.”
A special focus of the test lab is the electrification of heavy duty vehicles – an area where a lot of technological innovation is anticipated in the years ahead.
E.ON reports together with vehicle manufacturers to be testing and developing charging technologies designed to meet the special requirements of electric trucks and buses.
As such, the test lab is the only facility in Europe where fast charging in heavy-duty vehicles can be tested with up to 3MW of power.
The test centre forms part of E.ON’s Europe-wide growth strategy with its electromobility business, which includes the plan to build at least 1,000 new ultra-fast charging stations per year in its European markets.
Of these around 140 new charging locations with more than 1,200 charging points will be built in Germany for the federally subsidised ‘Deutschlandnetz’ network.
In addition, E.ON is building charging infrastructures for private and business customers across Europe.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”