Berlin | Munich | Paris | Tokyo — ubitri­city Gesell­schaft für verteilte Ener­gie­sys­teme mbH recei­ves €20 million in a new finan­cing round that will enable the company to acce­le­rate growth and further deve­lop its mobile meter­ing tech­no­logy. The invest­ment was made by exis­ting share­hol­ders EDF and Next47 (Siemens’ venture capi­tal subsi­diary) and by Honda Motor Company as a new partner.

ubitri­city has deve­lo­ped a unique smart char­ging and billing solu­tion for smart AC char­ging of elec­tric vehic­les in public and private spaces. With mobile meter­ing tech­no­logy, muni­ci­pa­li­ties, property owners, fleet and fuel card opera­tors, and end users can bene­fit from signi­fi­cantly lower char­ging infra­struc­ture costs as well as free choice of energy provi­der and kilo­watt-hour accu­rate billing.

The new funding is inten­ded to acce­le­rate the expan­sion of char­ging infra­struc­ture, parti­cu­larly lantern char­ging points and char­ging points in real estate deve­lo­p­ments in the UK, Germany, France and the US. In paral­lel, the tech­no­logy will be further deve­lo­ped for the mass market expec­ted from 2020 and the condi­ti­ons for services across the entire spec­trum of V1G and V2G will be created.

“With Honda Motors, we have another strong part­ner on board who shares our vision of a smart elec­tric vehicle that brings the neces­sary tech­no­logy for char­ging and char­ging clean elec­tri­city and for smart char­ging services,” says Dr. Frank Pawlit­schek, CEO and Co-Foun­der of ubitri­city.

The company has made signi­fi­cant progress in deve­lo­ping its mobile meter­ing tech­no­logy, market presence and market access, e.g. in London. In addi­tion, ubitri­city is driving forward the instal­la­tion of char­ging stati­ons in cities as part of the German “Imme­diate Clean Air Program”, with more than 3,000 char­ging points to be instal­led in Berlin, Hamburg and Dort­mund. Success in the highly compe­ti­tive NYCx Climate Action Chall­enge, which is expec­ted to lead to a pilot project in New York, has further confirmed the global inte­rest in the company’s products and tech­no­lo­gies. “We are now putting char­ging points right at people’s door­s­teps — where milli­ons of Euro­peans park their vehic­les today, and at a time when more and more elec­tric vehic­les are being sold,” says Knut Hecht­fi­scher, co-foun­der of ubitricity.

The new capi­tal and the share increase by EDF and Siemens again empha­size the importance of ubitri­city as a key pillar in the elec­tro­mo­bi­lity stra­te­gies of both companies.

Last Octo­ber, the EDF Group unvei­led its elec­tric mobi­lity plan to become the leading energy company in its four largest Euro­pean markets: France, the UK, Italy and Belgium.

In addi­tion, Citelum (100% subsi­diary of the EDF Group) and ubitri­city are working toge­ther to inte­grate ubitricity’s inno­va­tive solu­tion into Citelum’s “Smart City” product line.

About ubitri­city — Gesell­schaft für verteilte Ener­gie­sys­teme mbH
Afforda­ble smart char­ging infra­struc­ture for elec­tric cars where­ver they are parked for longer peri­ods of time was the goal of Knut Hecht­fi­scher and Dr. Frank Pawlit­schek when they foun­ded ubitri­city in 2008. Today, the company is one of the leading provi­ders of intel­li­gent solu­ti­ons for char­ging and billing elec­tric cars. ubitri­city combi­nes tech­ni­cal know-how, such as the deve­lo­p­ment of the mobile elec­tri­city meter, with the possi­bi­li­ties of digi­ta­liza­tion. The result is tech­ni­cally simpli­fied and thus less expen­sive char­ging points that enable the nati­on­wide expan­sion of the char­ging infra­struc­ture. This approach solves the chall­enge of vehicle-speci­fic billing. In the future, the mobile elec­tri­city meter will also enable the grid inte­gra­tion of e‑vehicles as addressa­ble mobile storage devices. Elec­tric cars become mana­geable as part of a distri­bu­ted and mobile storage network and can thus make a signi­fi­cant contri­bu­tion to the energy tran­si­tion. www.ubitricity.com