Will JuiceBox EV chargers be stranded assets as owner shirks support?

• Enel X abruptly left the U.S. market with no initial plan for JuiceBox support, functionality
• JuiceBox line is amongst probably the most prevalent U.S. home smart EV chargers
• Prompted a letter to the FTC, alarm about connected devices counting on company servers

For those who’ve come to depend on smart EV charging as a part of your each day routine, and you may have one of the popular smart chargers within the U.S., you may soon need to provide you with an old-tech backup plan. 

Earlier this month, the EV charger provider Enel X sent out a message to U.S. users of its smart chargers—including the JuiceBox line—essentially stating that in nine days it was pulling the plug on its charger business within the U.S. 

That potentially meant the end of ongoing support of its smart chargers, which require Enel’s servers to operate. So its “smart” chargers, which consumers had paid a premium for, might essentially develop into “dumb” chargers, reverting to base settings. That may retain their functionality as chargers, but render them unusable for all of the smart-and-connected reasons buyers selected them. They’d now not have the ability to initiate charging via a smartphone, even at home, or monitor a charging session on the app, as those things rely on the corporate’s servers. 

The move sent shockwaves across the EV sector, and it begged some vital questions that haven’t yet been addressed beyond the small print users likely ignored within the app agreement. How long are firms that make smart, connected devices chargeable for supporting them? What happens when something as substantial and essential for each day transportation, like an EV charger—one which’s been top-rated by experts for years, and widely supported by automakers and charging programs—is suddenly “bricked” on account of lack of support of the brand behind it?

“Bricked” products and a scarcity of consumer protection

Before the JuiceBox fiasco, the difficulty had already began constructing steam with a focused effort in Washington, D.C. Last month a set of consumer groups representing right-to-repair, economic justice, and environmental interests took on this concept of devices which can be depending on the manufacturer’s own software and servers with a letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The examples then were mostly the products of a series of failed startups, including a connected bassinet, a sous vide cooker, a juicer, and a sensible plug, Amazon’s Halo wearables and Google’s Dropcam cameras were mentioned as products that were “bricked” by an unusually short support window.

But now, with Enel’s swift move to depart the market, there’s already one other especially glaring example—one that will have been installed with a four-figure electrician’s bill and maybe with public incentives. 

Likewise, JuiceBox smart chargers, which retail for $600 to $1,600, aren’t the present product of a small startup but an enormous multinational company. The announcements come from Enel X Way USA LLC, a unit of the Italy-based energy giant Enel, which was the 59th largest company on the planet, in keeping with the Fortune Global 500. 

A notice from Liquid Asset Partners—where Enel sends users of the JuiceBox, as of Thursday—specifies that there are about 120,000 residential customers (mostly JuiceBox chargers), 25,000 business customers, and 17,000 additional JuiceBox chargers, all of which need a brand new software-as-a-service agreement, which is listed as an “opportunity.” 

On Thursday Consumer Reports and U.S. PIRG, which were two of the authors behind the sooner FTC letter, plus 60 owners of JuiceBox chargers pushed the matter, formally asking the FTC “to research the behavior of Enel X.”

Enel app error message – Oct. 11, 2024

After FTC letter, support for “an prolonged period”

Then later Thursday, Enel gave owners some assurance that chargers won’t be immediately bricked (note that as of Friday, GCR saw the contrary, above). But their future stays uncertain. 

“Enel X Way USA continues to interact with a third-party firm to administer the closure of the business on October 11, 2024,” stated Enel X Way in an email update that went out to registered users (this correspondent included) on Oct. 10. “After further technical evaluation, the firm has entered into an agreement with the present provider to proceed to operate the EV charging software within the US and Canada for an prolonged period.”

The corporate once more left no clear idea of what that support window is, nevertheless it appears that owners will retain their connected-charger functionality for some variety of weeks beyond Oct. 11. 

Green Automotive Reports has reached out to Enel for clarification on how long full functionality is predicted to last, once apparent server issues on the time of writing are worked out. In its Thursday evening alert to owners, Enel said that it will proceed “to operate the EV charging software within the US and Canada for an prolonged period,” nevertheless it called the move an “interim solution.”

“While JuiceBox products will proceed to operate with software connectivity after October 11, 2024, customer support is not going to be available during this interim period,” the corporate added as a part of that Thursday statement, laying out that a third-party firm will manage claims and communication after Oct. 11.

eMotorwerks JuiceBox Pro 40 networked home EVSE electric-car charging station

Not a no-name EV charger; among the many best-rated and most typical

The unique JuiceBox EV chargers were among the many front-runners of EV smart-charging, and earlier on it was the technique to get a level of connectedness, data access, and usefulness that rivaled Tesla’s well-regarded wallboxes. Due to its touted interoperability and—previously—its originally well-updated smartphone app, the JuiceBox has been utilized by various time-of-use charging programs, and by businesses trying to track and log their energy use.

Enel bought the unique creator of JuiceBox chargers, California’s eMotorWerks, in 2017. The chargers got a brand new, more fashionable physical look in 2020, however the interface and capabilities essentially carried over. Since then, functionality has waned as the corporate has switched to several different app versions and systems, leaving owners with a slower-reacting and fewer capable app than what they previously had. 

However the timing for Enel X’s exit also looks suspect. The NHTSA revealed, in paperwork filed only a day after the corporate’s original announcement it was leaving the U.S. market, that it was investigating JuiceBox residential chargers over reports of “electrical arcing and thermal events,” citing six confirmed incidents including two fires.  

It could get complicated on so many levels. As EV charging expert and GCR contributor Tom Moloughney, in his most up-to-date State of Charge podcast (below), points out, Enel X could have more business Level 2 chargers out in use within the North American market than anyone except ChargePoint.

As Chargelab CEO Michael Bakumin points out within the podcast, which it is advisable to watch when you own one in every of these units, most residential and business chargers from Enel X have a proprietary basis and aren’t truly using the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP). That is the “open source” language for chargers, which might otherwise allow a charger to be easily reconfigured for brand new networks and interfaces. While Chargelab has been in a position to migrate the business chargers, if Enel pulls all support it isn’t even practical to get them back online in every case. For example, it will take 15-Half-hour per charger to make the changes—meaning an apartment constructing with 20 L2 Chargers would face a whole day of expert labor rates. 

It’s also too complicated of a procedure to do with residential chargers, so the most effective hope stays a continued software agreement—and given the shortage of a timeframe with Friday’s announcement, we’re not there yet. 

Tesla Universal Wall Connector

A lot of questions on EVs’ dependence on networks, cloud

The underside line here is that the business is changing. Nearly all major automakers are actually offering their very own smart-charging and home-energy hardware, or a preferred smart-charging brand compatible with their brand app. 

A smart charger could also be unnecessary with many EVs you’ll be able to simply set charging times and power levels via the EV itself—and that will ultimately be higher than depending on network servers or data from the cloud.

It also may beg the query whether Enel owes the U.S. government (or states) money for cutting its support window so short, as a lot of these chargers were bought partly with public subsidies, or were a part of public projects.

The September FTC letter summed that “normally, consumers find yourself with a hunk of e-waste that might still function with the correct software, and a way of disappointment.” 

Those parties asked for a guaranteed minimum support time for connected products, a guarantee that the product will still work if the web connection or updates stop, methods of reuse if support ends, tools that help interoperability, and an effort to construct more longevity into products.

Electrify America Electric Vehicle Home Charger

In fact, this doesn’t start to deal with issues with cybersecurity, or whether or not a failure to support smart chargers will make them more vulnerable to hackers. 

Meanwhile, searching for to deal with a wide selection of such concerns with security, accessibility, and functionality over the long run, a gaggle of householders called Juice Rescue seeks to get the corporate to release its source code for the chargers

And within the meantime, this stands as a disheartening blow to smart charging and all of the benefits it will probably bring. Because the Department of Energy has identified, it’s tech that smoothes out demand on the grid, makes driving an EV even greener and, often, makes life with EVs easier.

To sum, programming your EV charging habits to your utility’s peak and off-peak rates is great, but reconsider how cloud-connected your charging must be—even when it’s time-of-use charging. And maybe most significantly, search for smart charging hardware that’s OCPP-compliant, which assures that it could still be fully usable in the long run if the corporate fails or the support window ends.