Heidelberg Amperfied: Now Also for Fleets and Businesses

The actual announcement was brief and to the point: Heidelberg Amperfied is expanding its fleet offerings to include comprehensive software and services. The offering now includes a cloud-based backend and a leasing model for charging infrastructures.

According to Heidelberg-CEO Davide Ghione, this development also marks an important step towards more extensive projects in the field of charging infrastructure. Previously, Amperfied had already expanded its range, which was originally aimed at private customers, to include products such as the Wallbox connect.business for business customers and the AC charging station connect.public for public areas. According to its own statements, Amperfied charging technology is currently in third place in Germany, depending on the count, and has a production capacity of around 1,000 units per day!

Electronics and control technology as a bridge to the printing press

Outsiders often wonder where the similarities between printing machines and charging technology might lie: it is in the electronics and control technology, as we should later see in detail. And so we are right in the middle of Ghione's introduction, which predicts great growth in the EV market and the charging infrastructure market despite all adversities – a stark contrast to printing technology, which still makes up the bulk of Heidelberg's revenue.

The main driver of electrification and charging technology is also seen by Heidelberg in the fleet and business sectors. That’s why in 2023 they introduced their second smart Amperfied wallbox, which is also significantly more competent at around 1,000 euros compared to the original model, which now costs around 450 euros. Additionally, there is a large AV station with two connectors, now expanded with a backend and an installation service.From 2025, Heidelberg also plans to introduce financing products and may even act as an operator of the charging solutions. Another product is also planned.

For now, they are sticking to AC charging up to 22 kW, which is also, for many companies, a significantly more cost-effective way to build charging infrastructure. But large printing machines work with direct current, so they must have experience with that? Ghione responds with a meaningful smile – well, they are thinking about it – and it can be inferred that DC from Heidelberg Amperfied is more likely to range from 50 to a maximum of 150 kW rather than 350 kW to megawatt charging.

80 percent of charges occur at home or at the workplace

The plans for the fleet market are then presented by Florian Franken, Head of Product Management and Business Development, and Josip Jovic, Product Manager at Amperfied GmbH. Franken fundamentally assumes that the proportion of electric cars will continue to rise and that company fleets will be the drivers of this development – partly because the pressure to reduce CO2 is greatest in this area. Interestingly, Franken saw a sustainable increase in BEV registrations in the commercial sector in 2023 despite the expiration of subsidies in August. Internal combustion engines remained stable. Furthermore, 80% of all charges still take place in the home area or at the workplace, with a large part of this also involving the charging of company cars, immediately bringing up the topic of billing. Additionally, he believes that 20% of charging occurs in public areas or through fast-charging on long-distance routes.

While Heidelberg Amperfied is already well-equipped on the hardware side with the Energy Control Wallbox with load management for multiple users and the Connect.business Wallbox with MID electricity meter for recording and billing in home and company charging, they are also targeting the public space and large company parking lots with the new barrier-free 22 kW connect.public and the legally compliant smartEVO duo wallbox with two 22 kW connectors. And they are especially enhancing their software and services. With their own backend for smart management, including contract management, tariffing, and billing. The software also allows for the 'publicizing' of charging points through roaming and ad-hoc charging, as Josip Jovic explains.

Service is becoming more important - ideally all-inclusive

And since, in his experience, many customers are reluctant to deal with charging technology, Heidelberg is also enhancing their service: with a pre-check (including pre-installation), commissioning, and a maintenance package for worry-free charging. This can also be had as a rental model because, according to Jovic, this helps to cushion the high initial investments and allows for the annual necessary service to be included in a flat rate.

The questions potential customers have are always similar, so it was clear that an own backend was needed, which Jovic then demonstrates live. Indeed, it is quite versatile. The most important points are, of course, charging point and RFID card management, billing, and contract management including tariffing, reimbursement of electricity costs for company car drivers, the ability to make charging points publicly accessible through roaming and ad-hoc charging, or the CSV bulk import of RFID cards. And Jovic navigates through the program, adding additional individualized RFID tags as an example, managing them via vehicle registration number, name, or employee number, assigning them to different cost centers, and showing how it works with business customers or guests since the system also supports multi-tenancy. And yes, updates can be done automatically over the air. And if third-party providers are already installed? According to Jovic, they can be integrated!

Franken then explains services and the rental model again: Heidelberg works with installation partners for wall mounting and civil engineering work as well as service partners for maintenance, device testing, and repairs. He then makes a sample calculation for 20 Connect-Public charging points, for which the purchase would cost around 105,000 euros plus 645 euros in monthly costs. However, you can also rent the whole setup for 3,000 euros, with an additional 151 euros per month per charging point, totaling 3,020 euros monthly. Over 48 months, this amounts to 288,960 euros, compared to 135,960 euros for the purchase, but it's not 'all in'. The whole thing becomes even cheaper over a lifespan of eight to ten years, which Franken assumes. And when asked who buys or rents and when and why, he promptly answers: Whenever there are subsidies, the tendency is immediately towards purchasing – provided people within the company thoroughly understand the topic. Renting can mitigate this point,because the monthly amount includes hardware, software, and services, which can be booked between 30 and 60 months – and this includes professional maintenance and support.