Romano Ingold has been leading the Mobility Department at St. Gallen Municipal Utilities (SGSW) since 2014 and, as a co-founder of Ost-mobil, is a pioneering figure in Swiss electromobility. He discusses why SGSW maintains a long-term partnership with simplee and how Easee's products help advance electromobility in the region.
Romano, we've known each other for a while - how would you describe the partnership between SGSW and simplee to outsiders?
I would call it very close, and you could even say that we have grown together to a certain extent. I've personally known simplee since 2019. The two founders, Michi and Deborah, have inspired me from the start with their passion for electromobility. In the almost five years we have been working together, electromobility in Switzerland, but also in our region, has developed rapidly, and simplee has been a constant companion. The simplee team and our partnership have grown significantly in the meantime. We can count on highly motivated and competent employees in all areas - from partner care to support - making simplee a very reliable partner for us.
How did the collaboration between SGSW and simplee come about?
Primarily, in the rapidly growing field of electromobility, we were looking for a reliable charging solution that could be scaled up quickly and, in particular, meet our high safety requirements. With Easee and Alpitronic, simplee has two absolute market leaders with outstanding products in its portfolio, which is, of course, very important to us. The fact that simplee's services go far beyond mere product distribution makes the collaboration even more valuable.
You mentioned Easee's products: You have been using them since their market launch in 2019 in Switzerland. Which aspects of the Easee charging solution have convinced you the most?
Personally, I was first excited about the small size and Scandinavian design. It was hard for me to believe that Easee managed to pack so much innovation into such a small format. With the three-level charging and load management up to the HAK level, we suddenly had entirely new possibilities in planning charging infrastructures. And with the automatic phase balancing, we can also prevent unbalanced loads in our network.
For use by our customers and the work of our installers, there were many other points that convinced me. For example, high availability and fast problem-solving were two important aspects for us.
Why are these two points particularly important to you?
As a non-independent public law institution, we must carefully plan our personnel resources, as we cannot create new positions at short notice in case of increased demand. However, in electromobility, we are experiencing a rapidly growing demand that exceeds our staff increase. This means we need to use available resources as efficiently as possible. The Easee charging solution helps in two ways: it is extremely time-saving to install and very reliable. Both conserve our resources - in installation and in support efforts. When expanding existing installations, the backplate system saves additional valuable time. Our employees can thus focus more on consulting, project management, and coordinating installation work.
Thak you for the insights, Romano! We look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration!
