Over the last six years, we’ve helped to create more than 500,000 EV charging stations for the UK and Europe.
As a market leading manufacturer of industrial printed graphics, overlays, labels and membrane keypads for the EV charging industry, we’re supplying five of the largest manufacturers of EV charging points.
The scale of the EV revolution
The rate at which the EV market is growing is phenomenal and we’re working hard to help the industry keep up with soaring demand.
During the first six months of 2022, battery electric vehicle sales had risen 56% compared to the previous year. As a result, electric cars and hybrids accounted for one in five vehicle sales, with 14.4% of all new cars being fully electric.
While this is remarkable growth, the future of EV looks ever more promising because, in ten years’ time, all new light-duty vehicles sold in the UK should be fully electric.
To support that, we need a network of charging points to make EV charging even more straightforward and prolific than petrol pumps are today. We need EV chargers at homes, workplaces, service stations and at destinations, so everyone can easily obtain the energy they need.
This is where we’re helping.
Since we produced our first printed parts for EV chargers six years ago, we’ve rapidly scaled up production to match the rapid growth of the industry.
All of the 500,000 chargers we’ve helped to create have been installed in the UK and EU for use in domestic and commercial spaces and we’re making many more components every day.
Supplying with scale, quality and durability
Printing displays, labels and interfaces for a charging station isn’t as straightforward as it sounds – these devices need to last years of heavy use, being used every day or several times per day and being displayed outdoors in all weather conditions.
It’s no good having printed parts that bleach in the sun, peel off, distort or degrade over time; they need to be rugged, bold, clear and eye-catching, lasting throughout the lifespan of the charger itself.
We’ve put a lot of work into the products we supply, using outdoor grade materials such as polyester that withstands UV light and temperature fluctuations and we have a range of printing processes for any design – sometimes combining printing types for the desired appearance or function.
While 500,000 units is a major achievement that’s taken us six years of growth to achieve, the rate of growth in the industry means it won’t be long before we’ve doubled this figure. In fact, we expect to reach the one million mark within the next couple of years, with us due to deliver another 195,000 parts to just one customer alone in the next quarter.
We can do this thanks to our fully automated print line including our Sakurai printer which is capable of printing 500 sheets of material per hour as well as our large-scale, full-colour digital printer and screen printing stations for small-run and one-off products. We also use laser cutting, routing and Zund cutting machines to create products in any shape on a huge range of materials to suit any design, and with incredible tolerances for precision finishes.
When you plug in an electric or hybrid vehicle, take a moment to admire the EV chargers – whether it’s the printing on the exterior of the device, information labels or the actual interface panel itself, there’s a lot of care and attention to detail that goes into it.
Plus, chances are that printing was done by Bex.
