Fortum and NKM agree on developing EV charging network in Hungary

FORTUM CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 22 January 2018
 

Fortum Charge & Drive and Hungarian NKM National Utilities have agreed on a strategic partnership in developing an extensive electric car charging service network in Hungary. National Utilities plans to install a national EV charging network in Hungary in the near future and Fortum Charge & Drive will provide the cloud based SaaS solution (Software as a service) to administer and operate the charging network.  

National Utilities is motivated to be a forerunner in e-mobility in Hungary and will install 100 new chargers in the coming months. Fortum Charge & Drive will support National Utilities with the provision of the cloud solution and the transfer of expertize from their operations in the Nordic markets.

National Utilities is currently identifying the right locations for charging stations and seeking to co-operate with suitable hosts, such as Fuel Stations, Municipalities, Hotels, Parking Houses and Retail outlets. National Utilities plans to promote the uptake of Electric Vehicles in order to reduce CO2 emissions and improve the air quality throughout Hungary.

“Hungary is an important country for enabling E-mobility in Central Europe, due to the fact that it shares a border with 7 countries. There will be a lot more long distance travel between countries with the arrival of many new longer range Electric Vehicles in 2018, as promised by the majority of car manufacturers. With this in mind it is important that an extensive network of charging stations is deployed in Hungary and operated by a professional operator. NKM have expressed their motivation to be a forerunner in e-mobility in Hungary and we are looking forward to supporting their growth and sharing the lessons learnt from the Nordic markets,” Michael Warner, International Sales Manager of Fortum Charge & Drive says.

“National Utilities intends to become a front-runner of E-mobility in Hungary. By the end of the year we would like to install a significant number of e-chargers across the country. Beside the public chargers we would like to play a decisive role in the market of business and home charging. In cooperation with local governments of municipalities, a network – covering the entire country – can be established soon”, Zoltán Alkér, deputy CEO of NKM National Utilities Ltd says.

There are currently around 1,000 electric cars in Hungary. Electric cars with green registration numbers have been allowed to park for free throughout the Budapest area since the beginning of 2016. The Hungarian government plans to accelerate the expansion of the charging spots throughout the country since currently charging stations are concentrated in the area of Budapest and along the motorway between Budapest and Vienna.
 

Fortum Corporation
Group Communications


Further information:
Michael Warner, International Sales Manager, Fortum Charge & Drive, tel. +358 50 462 3371, www.chargedrive.com

Szabolcs Balogh, Electromobility manager, Mobile: +36 20 500 3670  www.nemzetikozmuvek.hu

Fortum Charge & Drive
Fortum Charge & Drive is a pioneer in electric vehicle charging and has a network of 1480 smart chargers in Europe out of which 500 are DC quick chargers. Charge & Drive aims to respond to an increasing global demand in e-mobility, by providing turnkey solution for B2B and B2G, creating public charging network as well as providing world-class cloud solutions for an interactive end-user interface and a comprehensive back-end system that supports charge point operators in the remote management of charging stations.

NKM National Utilities
NKM National Utilities Ltd (“National Utilities”, “Nemzeti Közművek” or the “Company”) was established as the national utility service provider to operate a centralized national system of public utilities and to keep utility fees at a reasonable level for Hungarian consumers.

Nemzeti Közművek is also the common brand for all its companies. Its main task is to operate a centralized national system of public utilities and to establish and secure a sustainable operation of the public utilities such as natural gas and electricity. The Company’s further aims are increasing security in domestic supply and to provide a more simple, faster and accessible customer service.

Nemzeti Közművek provides unified management for such national utility system. Licensed activities, such as energy trading or distribution system operation are performed by its subsidiaries where control is carried out by the Company. Nemzeti Közművek, and its companies have about 3000 employees, while controlling a 45 TWh energy portfolio, and securing the supply of about 4.2 million customers.

Fortum
Fortum is a leading clean-energy company that provides its customers with electricity, heating and cooling as well as smart solutions to improve resource efficiency. We want to engage our customers and society to join the change for a cleaner world. We employ some 9,000 professionals in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Russia, Poland and India, and 62% of our electricity generation is CO2 free. In 2016, our sales were EUR 3.6 billion. Fortum's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.fortum.com

Tags: