Earlier today, Enel X Way announced the closing of its EV charging business in the US and Canada, effective October 11, 2024. According to the announcement, all residential JuiceBox chargers will lose their smart capabilities and revert to being “dumb” home chargers. All commercial Enel X Way chargers will “lose all functionality in the absence of software continuity”.
ChargeLab, a leading provider of back-end management software for commercial charging networks, is announcing today an offer to take over compatible commercial chargers in the United States and Canada. Commercial site hosts impacted by the discontinuation of Enel X Way software should contact ChargeLab today to discuss migration options before Enel X Way servers are permanently disabled.
Background on Enel X Way and JuiceBox
The original JuiceBox charger was launched in 2013. It was designed and manufactured by eMotorWerks, a startup based in San Carlos, California. In 2017, eMotorWerks was acquired by Enel S.p.A., an Italian multinational utility company. JuiceBox became an Enel product under the subsidiary EnerNOC, later rebranded as Enel X and Enel X Way.
The eMotorWerks acquisition was part of Enel’s effort to expand into North America through EV charging, energy storage, and other distributed energy solutions. The parent company justifies today’s decision to shut down North American operations as refocusing EV charging efforts “in countries where it has an electricity retail business,” namely Europe.
ChargeLab and Enel X Way
ChargeLab is a hardware-agnostic software platform for managing electric vehicle chargers. Its mission is to solve smart EV charging at scale. ChargeLab’s customers include fleets, building owners, convenience stores, and utilities.
While ChargeLab does not build EV chargers that compete with Enel X Way's chargers, its OCPP back office works with over 100 EV charger models built by dozens of manufacturers, including ABB, Eaton, EVBox, Lite-On, Wallbox, Zerova, and others.
Recently, ChargeLab started integration testing with Enel X Way chargers based on early warnings that Enel X Way may shut down its North American software offering. ChargeLab was working with the Enel X Way’s North American team up until today’s shutdown announcement.
“We are deeply committed to building smart, interoperable solutions for managing EV chargers in North America,” said Shaun Stewart, ChargeLab’s President. “We understand the frustration that commercial site hosts face receiving only 10 days' notice before their back-end software services are discontinued. Our team is prioritizing Enel X Way customers who wish to migrate to ChargeLab. I encourage these site hosts to contact our team today.”
ChargeLab’s test lab, where OCPP integration testing takes place
While network migration can be complex, and certain functionality may be limited by firmware, migrating to ChargeLab offers site hosts the chance to continue offering charging services after Enel X Way turns off its servers.
Next steps
Multi-family, workplace, fleet, and other commercial charger site hosts using Enel X Way are encouraged to contact ChargeLab immediately to discuss network migration.
After technical evaluation, ChargeLab found that migrating residential JuiceBox chargers is not worthwhile, given the complexities of the migration process. We recommend that utilities and DERMS aggregators immediately remove JuiceBox chargers from their approved equipment list for TOU, demand response, and other residential data reporting programs.
Despite Enel X Way’s decision to exit the US and Canada, EV adoption continues to be a strong trend across North America. Innovative solution providers like ChargeLab aim to make EV charging more reliable, scalable, and easier for EV drivers.
Contacts
press@chargelab.co
1 (800) 636-0986 ext. 210
