Circontrol is a company with its own technology where innovation is an ongoing challenge. It was founded in 1997 to provide solutions to the world of mobility and the field of EV charging. Since it was founded, it has devoted a major part of its resources to R&D and manufactured high-quality products, which has enabled it to become a leader in not only standard solutions, but also in the most specific solutions required by the market.
Interview with Joan Sardà, Marketing Manager at Circontrol.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Joan Sardà: Mainly, Circontrol is focused on the development of Mobility, more specifically efficient mobility solutions for car parks, and eMobility, with smart EV charging solutions. In Mobility area, we provide technologies through iPark (with smart guidance, counting system, Find Your Car technology and video-surveillance), LEDPark (through several efficient and smart lighting solutions) and EV Park (for the electric vehicle chargers integration in the car park). In eMobility, Circontrol provides not only different power and current EV chargers from 7 to 350 kW, but also several systems and software solutions for a more efficient and comfortable EV charge.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
J.S: Our latest products in eMobility are focused on DC fast charging, ultrafast charging and HPC, like our new Raption 150 Compact (150 kW power) and the Raption 350 (350 kW power). With the addition of our new Quick multi-charge system, charging hubs are even more efficient and affordable for any charge point operator (CPO). In Mobility area, at the beginning of 2022 we launched our KSensor, a device that allows for a complete ticketless experience in car parks thanks to its license plate recognition feature.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
J.S: Especially in eMobility area we have a wide range of products, designed for different contexts and market segments. From EV home chargers for individual users to specialized public fast chargers, which allow for a more agile and secure charging in streets or car parks. In essence, we divide our chargers between eHome series, eNext series, eVolve Smart series, eVolve Rapid series and Raption series, from less to more power capacity charging. In our Mobility area we divide our products between our iPark, LEDPark and EVPark families, explained before.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
J.S: The market of EV charging has been consistently growing for several years, and it’s experiencing a major growth worldwide in the last 5 years. From 2017 to 2022, the market growth has been experiencing a yearly 70% on average, and a 30% growth is assured almost every year. In China, Europe and the US this growth is even more clear than in the rest of the world. In terms of adoption, the electric vehicle is now entering in the “early adopters” phase, when the acquisition of electric vehicles is expanding rapidly but has not become massive yet. In the following years we foresee a great implementation of the electromobility on the general population, and the EV charging industry is expected to grow in accordance with this implementation.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
J.S: DC fast charging, ultrafast charging and HPC charging are seen as the most important ways to charge electric vehicles because of the low charging times they involve and the fundamental role they have in the public access charging to assist drivers quickly in certain moments. However, home charging means the basis of electromobility to keep the range of the vehicles ready every day, and thus chargers like our eHome or eNext are the most demanded. However, due to the multiple approach of the EV charging that impel drivers to charge whenever they can to count with a comfortable range, opportunity charging through semi-fast chargers in places like workplaces, supermarkets or restaurants is also very valued.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
J.S: Most high power chargers (HPC) or ultra-fast chargers nowadays exceed the power that the majority of electric vehicles are able to absorb. That’s why, apart from this high power charging, a way of distributing the electricity and escalating the energy of the chargers is very important and valued for the charge point operators (CPO). Efficiency is the key step now. In this way, being able to balance the available power of an electric installation between different electric vehicles and scaling the power in the EV chargers is extremely important and innovative for the industry. That’s why we develop our chargers through a scalable modular architecture, to upgrade the power capacity of chargers in little steps adapting to the electric vehicles possibilities. Also, we count on systems like our Dynamic Load Management (DLM), that helps to automatically and dynamically balance the power, and our Quick multi-charge system, which allow for more cost-effective and reliable charging infrastructures.
E.E: What estimations do you have for the rest of 2022?
J.S: As company we are growing at the pace of the industry, and so we expect to keep improving our turnover in 2022. Thanks to our R+D profit reinvestment policy we expect to maintain a sustained growth in the following years, especially in our natural markets but also expanding to new areas.