SMATRICS

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Smatrics GmbH & Co KG

logo
legal form Limited Liability Company & Compagnie Kommanditgesellschaft
founding 5th September 2013
Seat Vienna , Austria
management Michael-Viktor Fischer (CEO)
Hauke ​​Hinrichs (COO)
Markus Medek (CFO)
Branch Electromobility
Infrastructure
Automotive Industry
Website https://smatrics.com

SMATRICS is an Austrian joint venture between OMV , Siemens Austria and Verbund AG with the core business of electromobility. It is an operator of charging stations for electric vehicles and sells wall charging stations (also known as wallboxes ) as well as complete solutions for companies in the field of fleet management for electric vehicles. While wall boxes enable companies and private customers to charge their electric vehicles at their own location, the publicly accessible charging stations allow charging on the go, which is intended to compensate for the comparatively small operating range of electric vehicles. SMATRICS was the first and is still the only provider to provide fast charging stations throughout Austria.

history

The joint venture was founded in September 2013 and initially only comprised Siemens Austria and Verbund AG. In April 2017, OMV published its letter of intent to invest 40% in SMATRICS. In December of the same year, the purchase of the shares was finally fixed and carried out. In terms of shares, 40% is currently held by OMV, 40% by Verbund AG and 20% by Siemens Austria.

Charging stations

A charging station in the form of a simple wallbox in Gerlos, Tyrol
A quick charging station from SMATRICS with charging plugs
The high-performance charging location at the Favoriten distribution network
A charging station with charging sockets
A container with the buffer battery at the charging point in Vienna

The charging stations are mostly located in or in the immediate vicinity of a point of interest such as parking garages, motorway service stations, hotels, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, thermal baths, beacons and the like. The company's aim is to provide a charging station every 60 km along motorways and in urban areas. According to the company, the electricity comes entirely from hydropower. Only 136 of these stations (approx. 55%) are open continuously.

Overall, SMATRICS operates charging stations at 249 locations, with the charging network of the company's own charging stations extending to Austria (239 locations) and Germany (10 locations). In Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, for example, there are partner stations at hotels or petrol stations where you can also charge. Of the company's own charging stations, 97 (approx. 39%) are marked as “high-speed charging stations” and allow the vehicle to be charged with up to 50 kW. When it comes to the maximum charging power, it is not only the charging station that counts, but also the plug used. While type 2 combo can be charged with up to 50 kW with CHAdeMO and CCS , a maximum of 43 kW is available with type 2 charging plugs.

A total of 681 individual charging points are available at the 249 locations. Of the individual charging points, 364 (approx. 53%) are designed with a charging plug and 317 with a charging socket, whereby the charging plugs are used more frequently for higher charging capacities. The charging points are broken down into 109 with CHAdeMO, 119 with CCS type 2 combo and 453 with type 2. Broken down according to charging power, 50 kW is available at 215 charging points, 43 kW at 89 points, 22 kW at 303 points, 20 kW at 6 points, 11 kW at 67 points and 2.4 kW at one point (as of March 9th 2020).

High-performance charging stations

The company has currently set up charging stations at four locations, which it classifies as "high-performance charging stations". Four charging stations are available at these “ultra-fast charging locations”, from which a charging power of up to 350 kW per charging point can be obtained. However, the full charging power of 350 kW can only be delivered to two of four charging stations at the same time. If all four charging points are in operation at the same time, the maximum charging power is reduced to 150 kW per charging point. According to COO Hauke ​​Hinrichs, a total of 600 kW of charging power can be made available per charging location, which is contrary to the advertising promise of 350 kW at two charging points. All of these "High-Power-Charger" (HPC) are charged with a CCS Type 2 Combo or CHAdeMO connector. The charging stations were built as part of the European ultra-E funding project, which aims to set up a charging network with charging stations with increased performance.

The construction of the first high-performance charging station began in May 2018. An area close to the Favoriten distribution circle in Vienna along the A23 was selected as the location . The charging location, which opened in mid-2018, is operated in cooperation with Wien Energie GmbH .
The second location was built near the motorway junction of the A2 and A9 at the A2 exit Graz-Flughafen / Feldkirchen . The location was opened in July 2019.
The third location is on the A1 near Salzburg and was opened in September 2019.
The fourth and, for the time being, last of the ultra-fast charging locations was built in November 2019 near the A12 and A13 motorway junction . At this “High Power Charging Park”, as well as at the location in Salzburg, the use of buffer batteries was mentioned in the media for the first time. The task of the battery, which has a connected load of 500 kW and a capacity of 500 kWh, is to dampen the load peaks on the grid and thus save costs. The battery is part of the SYNERG-E project and is operated by Verbund AG. Backup batteries are in use at three of the four locations.

Payment options

The following payment options are currently available at all SMATRICS charging stations:

  • RFID cards (e.g. SMATRICS card, card from a BEÖ member)
  • Credit cards
  • Pay via app or web browser (requires an account)

While charging was initially only possible with a SMATRICS card with an RFID chip, since 2017 it has also been possible to pay by credit card directly at the charging station.
Since May 2019 it has been possible to authenticate yourself at all charging stations of the companies that belong to the Federal Association for Electromobility (BEÖ) as well as at SMATRICS charging stations with a cross-operator card for charging. For the authentication and subsequent charging process, it is irrelevant whether the card was issued by one of the eleven energy suppliers belonging to the BEÖ or by SMATRICS.

The calculation of the fee due is determined by four factors. In addition to the charging time, the charging power used and the charging tariff, it also depends on who operates the charging station. In general, it can be assumed that longer charging times and higher charging power are more expensive. There are three charging tariffs, each with a different basic charge. The higher the basic fee, the lower the charging fee. If a SMATRICS card is used to charge at a non-company charging station, the same charge-dependent charge applies regardless of the tariff. A special feature of the charging capacity level up to 22 kW is that when charging with vehicles whose power consumption does not exceed 3.7 kW, the same fee is charged as for the cheaper tariff up to 11 kW . The special feature here is that charging network operators normally always charge the maximum possible output of the charging station regardless of the charging power actually used.

Location criticism

In 2015, the management criticized the fact that the City of Vienna does not approve charging stations in public spaces. All SMATRICS charging stations are currently still located in semi-public spaces, such as in supermarket parking lots or in multi-storey car parks.

As part of a tender by Municipal Department 33 (“Vienna lights up”), Wien Energie GmbH was awarded the contract for the construction and operation of charging stations in the Vienna city area in 2018. Particularly noteworthy here is that the charging stations installed by Wien Energie GmbH are predominantly located in public spaces and thus at locations that SMATRICS had not previously approved. The behavior of the City of Vienna should be viewed critically with regard to the numerous locations where the charging stations are set up, as Wien Energie GmbH is a subsidiary of Wiener Stadtwerke . If the decision-making bodies of the City of Vienna had prevented the installation of charging stations by SMATRICS in advance of the charging infrastructure to be set up, in order to later benefit a subsidiary of Wiener Stadtwerke, this would have been a criminal offense of abuse of official authority .

Business cooperation

A charging station for Turmstrom in Brunn am Gebirge

For Turmstrom , a brand of the Doppler Group , the billing processes and technical support are taken over for the charging stations provided at the tower oil filling stations. SMATRICS currently operates twelve charging stations for tower power, divided between Carinthia, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria and Vienna. Vehicles with 50 kW can be charged at ten charging locations. 150 kW are available at the locations in Brunn am Gebirge and Velden. Only CCS Combo Type 2 and CHAdeMO connections are available at all locations for loading the vehicle. Payment is made directly at the charging stations, whereby you can choose from a variety of payment options. Possible payment options are RFID cards (SMATRICS Card, card from a BEÖ member, etc.), credit cards, cash payments, ATM cards, Austrocard or via QR code in the SMATRICS app. It must be viewed critically that not all payment options are available equally at all locations. On the other hand, there is the positive aspect that widespread payment methods such as cash or debit cards are supported, which other providers cannot use for charging at all.

Project partner

Sticker from ultra-E on a high-performance charging station in Vienna

SMATRICS is also participating in various international projects:

  • Central European Green Corridors (CEGC)
    Objective: To set up 115 fast charging stations in Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bavaria.
  • Crossing Borders
    Goal: Establishing fast charging stations and creating intelligent roaming and billing systems
  • EVA + (Electric Vehicles Arteries in Italy and Austria)
    Objective: To promote the expansion of the charging infrastructure in Austria and Italy
  • Green eMotion
    Goal: Development of recommendations and approaches for a Europe-wide charging and network infrastructure
  • LEEFF (Low Emission Electric Freight Fleets)
    Objective: Increasing the efficiency of the operation of a fleet of electric vehicles
  • Synerg-E
    goal: Overcoming the challenges of high-performance charging stations with a network connection of up to 1 MW per charging location
  • ultra-E
    goal: to build a network of charging stations with a charging capacity of up to 350 kW
  • Vehicle with cost-efficient powertrain (VECEPT)
    Goal: Development of infrastructure standards as well as concepts for possible optimization potential

Web links

Commons : SMATRICS  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://smatrics.com/ueber-uns/partner
  2. ↑ SMATRICS - The electromobile future for Austria on ots.at ( APA archive )
  3. ↑ OMV and VERBUND fix cooperation for common future topics in the energy sector on ots.at ( APA archive )
  4. ↑ OMV takes a 40% stake in SMATRICS on youtube.com
  5. ↑ OMV has completed the purchase of 40% of SMATRICS on ots.at ( APA archive )
  6. ↑ https://smatrics.com/ladenetz
  7. ↑ a b c PDF list of the individual charging stations - accessed on March 9, 2020
  8. ↑ a b High Power Charging (HPC) - The charging of the future on youtube.com
  9. ↑ a b "Go West" with SMATRICS - electric and high-speed thanks to the new 350 kW ultra-fast charging stations at ots.at ( APA archive )
  10. ↑ Sima / Fischer / Strebl: SMATRICS and Wien Energie open Austria's first 350kW ultra-fast charging station on ots.at ( APA archive )
  11. ↑ Turbo for electromobility: SMATRICS builds new 350 kW ultra-fast charging stations on ots.at ( APA archive )
  12. ↑ Next stop: Tyrol! SMATRICS continues expansion with 350 kW ultra-fast charging stations on ots.at ( APA archive )
  13. ↑ Electromobility is getting even easier: SMATRICS brings instant charging with credit card to ots.at ( APA archive )
  14. ↑ E-Wirtschaft welcomes cooperation between BEÖ and SMATRICS on ots.at ( APA archive )
  15. ↑ https://smatrics.com/privat/laden/tarife
  16. ↑ https://smatrics.com/roaming-partner
  17. ↑ Industry criticizes: Vienna blocks charging stations for electric cars on finanzen.at
  18. ↑ E-mobility - "Smatrics" expands charging station network in Austria on finanzen.at
  19. ↑ SMATRICS calls for the end of the blockade policy in the City of Vienna ots.at ( APA archive )
  20. ↑ Vassilakou / Sima: 1st stage destination with 230 e-charging points in all districts just in time for the summer on ots.at ( APA archive )
  21. ↑ Turmstrom: E-Schnellader in cooperation with SMATRICS on ots.at ( APA archive )