Electric vehicle battery charger maker EVmode says it’s expanding its production and is looking forward to residential installations in addition to commercial sites.
The Irvine-based startup is part of a wave of firms making charging facilities for electric vehicles, at a time when the sites are playing a greater role in the industry’s marketing efforts.
“We only do commercial at the moment,” Founder and CEO Min Yoo told the Business Journal on June 24. The company currently sells and installs at commercial properties, parking garages, auto dealers, apartment buildings, offices and other business locations.
He added: “We are launching our residentials or single-home use chargers end of this year. Our commercial chargers are for office buildings, universities, residential multi-family homes.”
Irvine has become a hub for EV development and activity. That includes charger installer Qmerit, battery developer Enevate and producers Karma Automotive and Rivian Automotive LLC (Nasdaq: RIVN), the latter of which is one of Orange County’s most valuable public companies with a valuation currently near $15 billion.
Fundraising
EVmode has ways to go to reach the valuation of some of the area’s larger EV firms; it says it is in the middle of a Series A fundraising round to fuel its expansion. The company has the financial backing of Solyco Capital of Rochester, Michigan.
The company developed the technology it uses as well as providing the software and the maintenance plan.
Its Level 2 charger was launched a couple of months ago, says Yoo.
“We have just about 100 chargers that have been installed,” he adds.
The suggested price is $3,250, “half the price of our biggest competitor.”
“The price for single-family residential charger is not yet set, but we expect to be very market competitive,” according to Yoo.
Chargers are manufactured in Irvine, where the company has about 30 employees.
EVmode also has offices in South Korea.
He says the company’s units can charge “every single type of electric vehicle,” including Tesla.
Yoo says an order for about 15,000 units is coming in from a “large automotive company.”
Tripling Capacity
“We anticipate to triple our capacity in the next year and a half,” according to the EVmode CEO.
Yoo says the company is not overly concerned about the recent spate of thefts of Tesla charger cables for their copper resale value.
“Those cables are much thicker than the Level 2 chargers that we make,” he says, presumably making the Tesla cables more valuable. “We’re not as concerned.”
He sees strong demand and interest for EVs; electric vehicles made up about 20% of all auto sales in California last year, according to industry data. Tesla’s Model 3 vehicles were the best-selling cars in OC last year.