Rheinmetall pilot project for curb stone chargers for EVs

Rheinmetall, the City of Cologne and TankE GmbH have embarked on a pilot project to install curb stone charger infrastructure in public streets. The objective of the project is to integrate and pilot test Rheinmetall curb stone chargers in two different parts of the city to validate their acceptance and their urbanistic and design advantages. Integrating the charger electronics into a curb stone turns it into de facto "Charging pole", though without the associated limitations. "We thank the City of Cologne for its planned support in pilot testing our forward-looking curb stone chargers, which help to overcome a major hurdle in the transformation to greater e-mobility, while blending almost invisibly into the urban landscape", declared Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger. Jörn Hansen, head of corporate development at TankE GmbH, called the pilot project "a further step in the development of innovative e-mobility projects in Cologne", citing the installation of the first public charging station in 2010, the charging infrastructure for the first fully electric bus line, advances with 2nd life storage technology and inductive charging for taxis. As Ascan Egerer, alderman for mobility, states, "As a city, we want to actively shape this change and to develop forward-looking concepts for addressing these challenges at an early stage. This letter of intent is proof of our strong interest in a pilot project for innovative charging infrastructure with project partners Rheinmetall and TankE GmbH.". Conversely, the solution developed by Rheinmetall makes intelligent use of existing urban infrastructure while simultaneously assuring an identical level of charging performance, effectively transforming curb stones into charging poles.