ABB E-mobility unveiled the C50 Compact Charger, its fast charger uniquely built to lead the shift toward urban and destination charging. To broaden EV adoption, charging has to go beyond slow home charging and fast highway charging – electrifying retail, public parking spaces and urban environments plays a crucial role to drive broader adoption.
The C50 represents ABB E-mobility’s strategy to make fast-charging an integral element of EV drivers’ daily routines, with or without home charging, while enabling businesses to monetize their real estate assets.
Public destination charging is critical to unlocking broader EV adoption. Most daily driving happens within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of people’s homes, making home charging the most convenient solution. However, 60% of urban households lack access to this option. Expanding easy-to-use public charging is crucial for advancing the e-mobility transition. Retail centers and shopping malls, where people typically spend 30 to 90 minutes, are ideal locations for EV charging. A charging infrastructure designed for these dwell times, with a charging capacity of 50 kW, for example, which can conveniently charge a car in around 60 to 90 minutes, is key to solving the challenge.
Businesses seeking to electrify their destinations have faced considerable challenges. Slow AC chargers, designed for overnight use, don’t match the power needs of daytime visitors, while ultra-fast DC chargers are too costly, technically too complex and often underutilized, making ROI unattractive. As a result, for many, providing EV charging has been viewed as an extra cost, and much less as a new opportunity to drive customer engagement while creating profit pools. This has created a critical gap between slow home charging and fast charging, highlighting the urgent need for a solution that realizes the potential of public EV destination charging by bringing the right level of fast-charging to a wide range of public places.
With the C50, ABB E-mobility introduces a charging solution built specifically for retail and urban destinations. Every design decision is targeted to optimize what EV charging should achieve for businesses and their visitors: overcoming barriers like misaligned power levels, operational inefficiencies and complexities, and generally poor user experiences. ABB E-mobility makes this possible by applying its product platform approach to the C50, lever-aging innovative technologies and components, built for the A400 All-in-One charger earlier this year. This way, it is possible to deliver a system, and an experience optimized for the destination use-case, while maintaining the scale, reliability and performance of more established fast-charging power levels.
“The EV revolution has to go beyond drivers with access to home charging — it has to be for everyone,” said Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “With the C50, we are delivering a solution that makes charging seamless and reduces technical barriers while making it profitable for destinations. And with that we are making fast charging accessible for everyone. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle. Integrating public EV charging into daily routines like shopping further increases the attractiveness of destinations, creating a compelling reason to invest in electrification.”
The C50 sets new form-standards for destination charging, bringing large bulky chargers from the back of parking lots to the forefront of building entrances. It matches premium design with the right level of functionality, seamlessly matching the need of public spaces. With its ultra-slim 23.5 centimeters (9.3 inches) depth, the C50 is the slimmest charger in its category. Delivering 50 kW of optimized power with dual connectors, it supports typical visitor dwell times of 60-90 minutes while doubling plug availability during peak hours to maximize throughput and efficiency for destination businesses.
The C50 transforms EV charging into a seamless, premium experience designed to reflect the high standards of modern destinations and their shoppers. Its standout 21.5-inch touchscreen and modernized interface deliver a user experience that feels like an extension of their smartphone experience, leaving behind the clunky, outdated industrial user interfaces. But the C50 goes beyond usability; it’s a visible brand asset. From configurable cabinet design and UI experience branding to integration with loyalty apps, the C50 blends effortlessly into the identity of a destination and its digital touchpoints, enabling new forms of customer interactions.
The C50 is more than just a charger. It is a fully managed offering that takes the operational complexity and financial risk out of the equation for destination businesses looking to electrify their car parks. Unlike traditional deployment models requiring complex interactions of multiple parties, ABB E-mobility can handle everything from setup to servicing, allowing destinations to focus on their core business. With 24/7 digital asset management, scalable service packages and revenue-share models, the C50 lowers barriers to entry, quickly turning charging into an additional profitable business.
