The VW brand importer Amag wants customers not to have to fear a lack of electricity when switching to battery cars. What solutions Amag has ready.
Amag wants to use solar energy to produce its own electricity for electric cars.
For Helmut Ruhl, CEO of the Amag Group, the electric car wave is not yet fully rolling. “There is not enough electricity, and at the same time too few charging stations,” says the head of one of Switzerland’s largest car importers. But the southern German does not like to lament. “We’re moving forward” is Ruhl’s motto.
But how does the group want to keep up with the VW Group and its consistent focus on electric cars? The consequence of the VW specification is that Amag is also concentrating on electric cars. “From 2024, Amag will only sell electric cars,” confirms Ruhl.
To this end, Amag has founded a new business area called Energy & Mobility, which will include the two business areas Clyde as an ecosystem for battery electric cars and Volton for charging infrastructure solutions from September 2022.
Under Clyde, Amag wants to expand the charging infrastructure and its own electricity production with photovoltaics (PV). “We produce the electricity for our customers ourselves,” says Ruhl. Within the Amag infrastructure alone, around 20,000 square meters of new PV areas are to be put into operation in 2022. By 2025 it should be around 75,000 square meters, which will then be used to generate electricity for around 40,000 electric cars.
“We’re moving forward,” says Amag CEO Helmut Ruhl.
New charging stations in public
Amag wants to expand the charging infrastructure at its own locations to 2,000 charging stations. 400 of them should be open to the public. In addition, fast charging stations with a total of 48 charging points are to be built at 12 locations. In addition, the Amag car parks are to become “loading houses”, as Ruhl promises. Significantly more charging points are to be installed in it than before. These should supply electricity for the customers in a monthly subscription.
Amag has provided over 100 million Swiss francs for the project. This is also intended to finance the new Allride business area, which is intended to offer tailor-made mobility, especially in urban areas and larger developments. You don’t need your own electric vehicle, Allride provides the various driving options such as e-cars, e-scooters or e-bikes via an app.
To round out Amag’s commitment to renewable energies, the group has acquired stakes in the companies Climeworks (CO2-Aerial trigger) and Synhelion (E-Fuels) acquired. Meanwhile, the Amag boss Ruhl criticized the EU program Fit for 55, which includes a ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2035, because of its lack of openness to technology. “We rely on entrepreneurship and innovation and not on bans to reduce individual mobility CO2-neutral to allow, »says Ruhl.