Fortum Charge & Drive and Plugsurfing join forces to empower electric vehicle drivers to charge wherever they go, even internationally
FORTUM CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE 6 March 2018
Fortum Charge & Drive and Plugsurfing have joined forces to provide services for electric vehicle drivers. In striving for the perfect, scalable customer experience, Fortum has acquired full ownership of Plugsurfing GmbH. Parties have agreed not to disclose the contract value.
Plugsurfing has established itself as Europe’s leading, independent charging service for electric vehicles. Its intelligent application with charging and payment services bring value to charging point owners and electric vehicle owners alike by helping both groups to connect. Plugsurfing’s state-of-the-art, cloud-based EV charging solutions are also trusted by major car manufacturers and leasing companies.
A Berlin-based startup, Plugsurfing has been one of the few to successfully take on the challenge of Europe’s fragmented charging networks. Already today the company connects its userbase of 50,000 electric vehicle drivers to over 200 charging networks, allowing them to charge at more than 65,000 chargers across 24 European countries. For the charging point network itself, Plugsurfing is a vital service which attracts more EV drivers, increases uptake and lowers customer acquisition and billing costs.
"Our purpose is to make it easy to use electric vehicles and charging points so that we can all move towards a cleaner world. Fortum Charge & Drive, together with PlugSurfing, is able to better serve the drivers of electric vehicles, car manufacturers and several other key businesses. As one of the first steps, the Nordic charging network of Charge & Drive will be available on the PlugSurfing application for access and payment. Our aim is to improve EV drivers’ accessibility to charging networks when travelling between countries," says Rami Syväri, Vice President of Fortum Charge & Drive.
Fortum Charge & Drive is a leading charging network in Norway, the country with the most electric vehicles per capita and focuses to develop the charging network in the Nordic home markets where it already serves 75,000 registered customers with 1,700 chargers. Internationally, Charge & Drive provides a comprehensive cloud solution that enables charge point operators to remotely manage charging stations. To date, the cloud-based solution is used by numerous charging networks in 17 countries.
While focusing on developing services for emobility, Fortum Charge & Drive has also made a decision to discontinue the earlier communicated plan to join as an investor into the pan European project for high power charging.
Fortum Corporation
Group Communications
Further information:
Fortum Charge & Drive: Rami Syväri, Vice President, Mobile +358 40 7095566, email rami.syvari@fortum.com
PlugSurfing: Adam Woolway, Co-Founder, Mobile +49 172 8106005, email adam.woolway@plugsurfing.com
Plugsurfing
Plugsurfing has been a focused Emobility Service Provider since 2012 giving users access to charging across multiple networks throughout Europe. Plugsurfing today connects to 50,000 electric vehicle drivers and 200 charging networks, providing access to charging in over 24 countries in Europe. The company is based in Berlin and employs 15 professionals in service development and sales.
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. In 2017, our sales were EUR 4.5 billion. Fortum's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. www.fortum.com
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