One of the big questions facing potential buyers of electric vehicles is the process of charging and the time and cost involved in home charging.
Audi Centre Centurion, part of the Autohaus Group, has devised a solution and a world-first home-based solar charging solution for Audi e-Tron customers.
World-first, home-based solar charging solution for Audi e-Tron customers
The new solution uses smart-charging solar technologies from Germany’s SMA Solar Technology with local installation support from their South African partners, ANH Technologies.
“Our new solar charging solution for e-Tron customers represents the culmination of many months of planning and preparation to make sure that it is perfectly compatible with our Audi e-Tron range and with the various use cases and operating demands of our e-Tron customers,” says Peter Preusse, Audi Centre Centurion’s Managing Director.
Following a comprehensive energy audit by ANH Technologies, findings were used to design a solar charging system for Audi Centre Centurion with a 50-kW peak load, an intelligent energy management system capping peak load usage. The centre limits the power drawn from the municipal grid, and the e-Tron charging station can charge two vehicles simultaneously with solar power alone.
“That means that customers could easily charge their e-Tron on solar power alone by supplementing their at-home charging with charging at our dealership when required,” says Preusse.
The home-based charging solution includes an SMA Sunny Tripower Smart Energy hybrid inverter, a 3-phase 22 kW EV charger, a 10-kWh residential battery for energy storage and an SMA Home Manager that allows for power management and monitoring through the SMA App. Installation is taken care of by ANH Technologies.
Audi Centre Centurion EV charging station
“The home-charging system has been designed to offer the most efficient and fuss-free charging environment. We have also designed it to be completely future-proof, which means that you can easily upgrade the system to add more electric vehicles or even your entire home to the solar charging solution,” says Andreas Wagner, CEO of ANH Technologies.
The system links to a phone-based app that offers real-time charging reports and different charging modes.
These modes allow e-Tron owners to select solar-optimised charging, forecast-based charging (based on the driver’s schedule and time of day) and fast charging, which allows for additional power supplementation through the standard electric grid.
