Wallbox is a global company focused on creating intelligent charging systems that combine innovative technology with cutting-edge design. But their business model goes beyond manufacturing chargers. Wallbox wants to make the electric vehicle a key driver of the energy transition.
Wallbox goal, from the beginning, was to create an innovative product. The company aimed to create a simple, agile, and safe charger to facilitate the interaction between the user, the vehicle, the grid, the building, and the charger. In this way, they offer the user the possibility of controlling their consumption, saving money, and helping drivers make the transition to a more sustainable model of life focused on electromobility.
Interview with Moisés Barea, VP of Sales at Wallbox.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Moisés Barea: We help users get more value from their energy and electric vehicles by going beyond vehicle charging and delivering cutting-edge innovation for home, office, and public energy management. We are a truly global company that meets regional product requirements: our products are certified in several markets and by multiple automakers.
Wallbox offers a broad portfolio of energy management and charging solutions for residential, business, and public use. Wallbox products enable users to control their consumption, save money and live more sustainably.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
M.B: As an example of innovative intelligent energy management solutions, the company has developed Sirius, currently running at its Barcelona headquarters, software designed to maximize the use of renewable energy in commercial buildings. This product helps solve one of the biggest challenges of large-scale use of most green energy sources: their weather-dependent availability, which often leads to imbalances between supply and demand, and inefficiencies in consumption. Specifically, Sirius has helped the company reduce its cost of electricity by 20% and has increased the use of power generated by its solar panels by the same proportion over the past five months.
Also, we recently launched Supernova our first public charger. Wallbox is manufacturing it in its new plant recently inaugurated in Barcelona. It is our second plant in the city and in Europe.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
M.B: We’ve been working very hard for years in our product portfolio to meet the needs of consumers. With our range of products, we are helping to make the transition to sustainable and electric mobility more convenient, effective, and safe for all those who want to take the final step towards electromobility. In that sense we offer domestic chargers, chargers for semi-public use (for example for companies) and, recently we have launched Supernova, our first public charger.
The main goal of Wallbox is to create electric vehicle charging devices and solutions, and advanced energy management systems that redefine the relationship of users with the grid and facilitate the transition from fuel to electric vehicles. We create intelligent charging systems that combine innovative technology with outstanding design and make the interaction between the user, the vehicle, the network, the building, and the charger easier.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
M.B: Wallbox has a commercial presence in nearly 100 countries on all five continents. Each country has a different idiosyncrasy and social, economic, political, and industrial situation, but it is a fact that in recent years a turning point has been marked in the automotive and mobility sector in Europe, towards electric, connected, shared, and autonomous vehicles.
2021 closed with sales of 1.2 million 100% electric cars in Western Europe, which translates into 65% more compared to 2020, and outselling diesel models, according to data from AEDIVE (Spanish Electric Vehicle Association). This is the case in Germany, our biggest market, where users have embraced the electrification era. Germany is currently the largest electric car market in Europe, with a 10% market share. France and the United Kingdom perform similarly, with a market share of around 8%. Italy has a 3.4% penetration rate. It cannot be said otherwise; there is an electric car boom in some European countries. In Spain, electric car sales in 2021 grew by 42% compared to the previous year, with up to 83,000 electric cars registered, and marking the milestone of a 2.8% market share according to AEDIVE data. It may not be much, as we rank 16th among EU countries in the integration of electric vehicles, and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are on the right track.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
M.B: In a world that is moving towards caring for the environment and improving the air we breathe, we are positioning ourselves as one of the global companies driving this huge technological and responsible change that responds to a social demand. We believe that the future model is Energy Sharing, which allows us to make more intelligent energy management.
In Wallbox, we offer the possibility of managing the energy in our home or office. Systems like our Sirius enable considerable savings, recycling 20% of the daily energy and reusing 100% of the energy captured. These systems are absolute game-changers in the electric and sustainable mobility markets because they allow people to have secondary energy sources through their electric cars.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
M.B: At Wallbox, we are focused on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles through smarter, simpler charging and energy management solutions. We created a charger unlike anything on the market before: a charger that was user-centric, cutting-edge in design and enabled intelligent charging at home.
We then extended this same innovative approach to serve customers wherever they are: first at work, and in semi-public spaces, and now on public roads. The result is a robust portfolio of hardware and software solutions that spans all charging segments with breakthrough innovations, such as Quasar for bi-directional charging at home and our modular Supernova for efficient charging in public spaces.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2022?
M.B: In 2022, we will open two new manufacturing plants: one in Arlington (Texas) and one in the Zona Franca of Barcelona, which we already opened in April.
The Arlington plant, of around 12,000 square meters and expected to start up in the second half of the year, is expected to have sufficient capacity to fully support Wallbox’s expansion plans in North America over the next decade. This plant will feature production lines for Wallbox’s Pulsar Plus AC chargers, with lines for Quasar, its DC bi-directional charger, and Supernova, its DC fast charger for utility use, expected to enter the production line a little later.
Furthermore, we recently launched our first public charger: Supernova, which lets us complete our portfolio and provide charging solutions in all scenarios (domestic, semi-public and public).
In addition to this, in January 2022, we went to CES Las Vegas, the world’s largest consumer electronics show, to present Quasar 2, a bi-directional charger specifically designed for the North American market that allows users to manage energy better. It acts as a source of electricity during a power outage by taking the electrical energy stored in the battery of an electric vehicle and transferring it to the home. We also presented Copper 2, a charger designed to meet the changing needs of companies and designed for the European market.
With these products we wanted to show consumers that both electric vehicles charging, and energy management are within everyone’s reach.
But, in any case, our objectives at Wallbox are to continue growing in the sustainable mobility sector and to continue promoting the transition to electric vehicles and intelligent energy management.