EV charging company moves US headquarters to Irvine

Noodoe EV, a Taiwanese maker of electric vehicle charging systems, has moved its U.S. headquarters to Irvine from Walnut.

Company CEO Jennifer Chang said the move to a bigger facility was fueled by a growing demand for the company’s products in North America.

Last year, Noodoe installed nearly 1,000 EV charging stations at U.S. casinos, hotels, parking lots and shopping malls. The company entered the U.S. market three years ago but has been servicing Europe and Asia for about eight years.

The company wrapped up the year by installing 10 charging stations at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

Why Irvine?

Chang said Noodoe chose Irvine based on its “incredible talent base in all things tech.”

“Like Noodoe, Irvine is growing fast,” Chang said in a statement. “Like the city, we’re high tech, meticulously planned and diverse. We couldn’t think of a better place to expand our EV technology in North America.”

The facility, at 9351 Irvine Blvd., consists of a 5,000-square-foot office and adjoining warehouse where the company’s EV charging kiosks are stored. The new headquarters also has a kiosk demonstration area.

The charging units are made in Taiwan.

Smart features

“Most people think that charging stations are all the same, like toasters,” company spokesman Steve Fisher said. “But these are smart chargers.”

With Noodoe, users don’t need to open an account to charge their vehicles. They can use their credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay to activate a charging station.

The stations utilize a cloud-based platform that provides owners with a wealth of information, Fisher said, including how long users are charging their cars, how much power is being used by each kiosk, when customers are using them the most and how much profit they are making from each unit.

Chang said Noodoe’s technology transforms parking lots into hands-off revenue generators.

“Developers need to see Noodoe EV not only as a provider of EV charging technology, but a profit maker for all their properties, big and small,” she said.

Most kiosk owners charge 15% over the 24-hour average of local power company rates. Some owners bump rates up on busy weekends to encourage off-time use.

EV sales impacted by COVID-19

Figures from Statistica reveal that global plug-in electric light vehicle sales topped out at more than 2.2 million in 2019, up from 2 million the previous year and well above the 550,000 that were sold in 2015.

That’s a big increase, but many Americans have yet to make the leap from gas-powered or hybrid cars to electric vehicles. Last year EV sales accounted for just 0.5% of all new vehicles sold in the U.S, according to Statistica.

New research from Wood Mackenzie predicts global EV sales will plunge 43% this year, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research firm expects global EV sales of 1.3 million units in 2020, nosediving from a record 2.2 million units sold last year.

A 2019 Global EV Outlook from the International Energy Agency shows that China remains the world’s largest electric car market, followed by Europe and the United States.

Source: Orange County Register