08 Dec Report on Volt-e portable vehicle chargers in Dinheiro Vivo newspapper
Volt-e portable vehicle chargers
Volt-e chargers portable vehicles supplies all kinds of chargers for electric mobility, including a portable charger, “unique in the national market.”
Volt-e, a Braga-based company specializing in charging electric vehicles, is determined to revolutionize this market, with solutions tailored to the needs of each user, depending on the power and model of the vehicle, whether for domestic, company or public network charging. And it even has a portable charger, an “exclusive product of the company, unique in the national market”, which, says Júnior Braga, mentor and CEO of the company, “is an economic and fast-charging solution” for all electric vehicles. It is available in three models, 30, 45, and 60kW, and with adjustable power from 3.7 kW.
It was in 2016 that Júnior Braga started thinking about this project. Son of a textile industrialist, it was when replacing the company’s fleet with electric vehicles that he realized there was a “gap” in the market. An investment that the family made, thinking about the environmental impact, but also in the cost reduction of the textile company itself. “Not only the price of energy is much cheaper than fossil fuels, but the maintenance of electric vehicles costs much less, not to mention that the durability of an electric motor is much higher than a combustion engine,” he says, arguing that the savings can be around 75%. Not including, of course, the cost of the vehicle purchase. But even that, he stresses, has been going down as more and more electric brands and models appear on the market.
When, in 2016, he opted for an electric fleet in the factory, he came across a “lack of equipment to solve the fast-charging needs of companies”. In the two following years, he worked on the solutions and, in 2018, Volt-e was born, which last year had a turnover of about 200 thousand euros but hopes to exceed 1.5 million by 2021. Foreign markets, such as Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Kuwait, and Dubai, represent about half of the sales of the company, which intends to strengthen its international presence with the entry in Latin America and Africa. It recently made its first sales to Kenya.
With 12 assorted products already launched on the market, including a home charger for installation in private spaces such as condominiums, with integration to the Mobi-e network and charge balancing, Volt-e promises new launches soon, such as a new 200 kW DC charger for fast-charging on public roads.