EV Charger ODM — Frequently Asked Questions
Direct answers to the questions charging brand owners and integrators ask us most — platforms, protocols, certification, high-ambient operation and local assembly. For anything not covered here, contact us.
What is the difference between OEM and ODM for an EV charger?
With OEM, you supply the design and we manufacture it. With ODM, we develop the product for you on our existing charging platforms — industrial design, electronics, firmware, certification support and production from one partner, sold under your brand. Most European partners choose ODM because the platform already exists and is proven in volume commercial operation.
How fast can we launch an EV charger under our own brand?
Typically 3–4 months from requirements to production-ready. Chargers are built on control platforms already proven in large-scale commercial operation, so the schedule covers branding, enclosure adaptation and compliance verification rather than ground-up development.
Does eectec support OCPP?
Yes. OCPP 1.6 runs in large-scale commercial operation today, and OCPP 2.0.1 support is in final development, with first delivery scheduled for December 2026. Our chargers integrate with third-party CSMS platforms over standard OCPP.
Does eectec support ISO 15118?
An ISO 15118-2 communication stack is in development on co-validated PLC hardware, targeting our next-generation European-standard charger platform planned for 2027. Ask us about the current status for your project timeline.
What certifications do eectec products carry?
Our products carry CE certification and are designed to EN/IEC 61851, with EMC, LVD and RED documentation available for review during supplier evaluation. We also support partner certification projects for target markets as part of ODM delivery.
Can eectec chargers operate in high-temperature markets such as the Middle East?
Yes. Operation at 50–55 °C ambient is supported via thermal derating. Detailed derating curves and thermal design data are shared during technical evaluation, so you can validate performance for GCC and other high-ambient deployments before committing.
Can we buy charging controller boards instead of complete chargers?
Yes — AC and DC charging controllers are our core business. Our 7 kW AC operator board alone shipped 600,000 units in 2025, and our dual-connector DC controller shipped 20,000+ units the same year. Boards are supplied as board-level platforms with documentation and integration support.
Can we assemble chargers in Europe instead of importing complete units?
Yes. We deliver as SKD kits or board-level platforms for your own line, and our Local Assembly Partnership offers three cooperation levels — from kit supply toward deeper localization — so you can assemble locally while keeping a proven platform.
Which markets does eectec serve?
Primarily European charging brand owners — including a listed European electrical group that has qualified eectec as its ODM supplier — plus other IEC-based markets such as the GCC. A UL-market AC mainboard is also in the portfolio.
Still have questions?
Tell us about your project and we will answer with specifics — platform recommendation, timeline and evidence. Write to simon@eectec.com or use the contact form.
What is the difference between a charge point controller and a charge point management system (CPMS)?
They sit at different layers and solve different problems. The charge point controller is the board inside the charger. It runs locally and in real time: it handles the IEC 61851 control-pilot handshake, decides how much current the cable may carry right now, meters the energy, monitors residual current and temperature, and drives the relay and connector lock. It keeps working when the network is down. A CPMS is backend software. It decides who is allowed to charge, at which tariff, who gets the invoice, and how a fleet of chargers is monitored and updated. The two talk to each other over OCPP. A brand owner building a charger needs a controller; a brand owner operating a network needs a CPMS; most businesses building a charging product end up needing both, from different suppliers. eectec supplies the controller layer — AC and DC charging controller boards and complete chargers built on them — and integrates with third-party CPMS platforms over standard OCPP.
Is eectec's OCPP 2.0.1 implementation certified by the Open Charge Alliance?
No. eectec does not hold an Open Charge Alliance OCPP 2.0.1 certificate today, and we state that plainly because getting it wrong costs a supplier evaluation. What is true: OCPP 1.6 and 1.6J run in large-scale commercial operation on our platforms today; OCPP 2.0.1 support is in final development, with CE certification and first delivery of the FJ3 platform scheduled for December 2026; and the optional AC PLC communication module upgrades the FY1 platform to OCPP 2.0.1 and ISO 15118 plug & charge. If your tender requires a current OCA certificate at the time of award, ask us for the status on your specific timeline before you specify us.
What does §14a EnWG mean for a wallbox sold in Germany, and how does eectec support it?
Since 1 January 2024, §14a of the German Energy Industry Act (EnWG) covers controllable consumption devices, including private charging points with a rated power of 4.2 kW or more, connected to the low-voltage grid. The grid operator must be able to dim the device's power draw when the local grid is at risk, and in exchange the customer gets reduced grid fees. Compliance is a property of the finished product and the installation, not of the controller board on its own — it is established by the brand owner placing the product on the market, together with the control path the grid operator accepts, which in practice is a potential-free control contact, an EEBus interface or a backend-mediated path. In an ODM project we design the required control interface into the product and support the brand owner's compliance and certification work. Tell us which control path your target grid operators accept and we will scope it against your platform.
Does an eectec AC wallbox need a separate external RCD?
Not for DC fault current. The E6 wallbox carries on-board Type A plus 6 mA DC residual-current detection (RDC-DD), so a separate external Type B RCD is not required — which removes a costly component from the installer's bill of materials. The board also performs relay welded-contact detection. Upstream AC protection still follows local installation rules and the electrician's judgement; the on-board RDC-DD replaces the DC-fault-sensitive device, not the entire protection concept.
What is eectec's field failure rate?
880 PPM on a rolling twelve-month basis, across more than 1,000,000 AC and DC control boards delivered to date and more than 20 board designs in production. We quote the rolling figure rather than a best-ever number because it is the one that survives a supplier audit. Specific product families, batch traceability and the failure analysis process are opened up during technical due diligence.
Can one charger platform serve both the European and Chinese markets?
At the DC controller layer, yes. The M4 dual-connector DC controller is dual-standard — it covers both the EN and GB/T charging standards on one board, and it has taken multiple customers through both CE and CCC certification. That matters when a brand owner wants a single hardware platform, one firmware baseline and one spare-parts inventory across both markets. At the AC layer the connector, protection and metering requirements diverge enough that we use the same enclosure with different mainboards — for example the E6 enclosure with FJ1 for CE or with A1 or JA3 for GB/T.
How does eectec reduce on-site service visits on DC chargers?
Three ways, all built into the controller layer rather than bolted on afterwards. The M4 DC controller supports OTA firmware upgrade and remote diagnostics, so most firmware issues never become a truck roll. The TMM accessory logs the full CAN message stream and makes it available for remote pull and analysis from the operations platform, so a field fault can be diagnosed from the log rather than reproduced on site. And the M4's centralized wiring design consolidates multiple harnesses, cutting assembly wiring labour by more than 60% versus the previous generation and removing a common source of wiring errors that surface later as field faults.
What is the difference between a charging stack and several individual DC chargers?
In a stack, the power modules live in one cabinet and are switched to individual dispensers on demand by a relay matrix — in our platform, the charging-stack PDU following the main controller's strategy. Power is allocated dynamically, so a site can deliver high power to one vehicle that needs it instead of stranding capacity in chargers that are idle. Individual chargers each carry their own fixed power modules, which is simpler and cheaper at low connector counts and wasteful at high ones. Our EF11 stack covers 240–480 kW across multiple dispensers; the EF12 megawatt stack covers 900–1,280 kW with two 1,000 A high-power terminals plus four dual-connector air-cooled terminals, with the first 20 systems shipping in 2026.
Can eectec supply charging for sites where the grid connection is the constraint?
Yes — that is what the EF13 storage-charging stack is for. It pairs 480 kW of DC charging with 720 kWh of liquid-cooled LFP storage, so the site can deliver fast-charging power that the grid connection alone would not support. The storage also enables demand management, peak-valley arbitrage and virtual power plant operation, which changes the economics of a site from pure cost to partially revenue-generating. Typical deployments are depots, retail sites and locations where a grid upgrade is slow or prohibitively expensive.
Can eectec support entry into the North American market?
Yes, at the controller layer. The MG1 AC mainboard is built to the North American charging standard — 85–305 VAC input, up to 50 A and 0–11 kW single-phase, plug & charge or RFID card start, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth via the Tuya module and a full protection set including ground-fault, over- and under-voltage, overcurrent, short-circuit, surge, over-temperature and relay welded-contact detection. It has already supported a customer through ETL certification, tested by Intertek as an NRTL to UL standards. Note the distinction: the certificate belongs to that customer's finished product, not to the board in isolation.
Who owns the certification when eectec builds a charger under our brand?
You do. In an ODM project the brand owner places the product on the market and therefore holds the certificate and the associated legal responsibility. Our role is to design to the applicable standards, run the pre-compliance work, prepare the technical file and support the test campaign — which is why we describe our track record as 'has supported customers through CE, CCC and ETL certification' rather than claiming the certificates ourselves. That distinction matters in a supplier audit, and a supplier who blurs it is telling you something about how they will handle the rest of the file.
If we launch on OCPP 1.6 now, what does it take to move to OCPP 2.0.1 later?
On the FY1 dual-outlet AC platform it is a module change, not a redesign: the optional AC PLC communication module upgrades the platform to OCPP 2.0.1 and ISO 15118 plug & charge. That is the practical reason to care about which mainboard a charger is built on at the start of a project — the protocol roadmap is a property of the platform. The EY1 universal AC platform, with first engineering samples in August 2026, is designed for both OCPP 1.6 and 2.0.1 from the outset, and the FJ3 platform has native OCPP 2.0.1 with CE certification and first delivery scheduled for December 2026.
Can we assemble chargers in Europe from kits instead of importing finished units?
Yes. Semi-knocked-down assembly is a standard ODM delivery mode: we ship the controller boards, subassemblies and enclosure parts, and final assembly and test happen at your site or your contract manufacturer's. Brand owners choose it for tariff treatment, for 'assembled in Europe' positioning in public tenders, and for shorter replenishment cycles on finished goods. The controller platform and firmware stay identical either way, so the compliance file does not fork.
What does eectec actually design in-house, and what comes from outside?
The control layer is ours: board design, firmware, and the protection, metering and communication architecture across more than 20 board designs in production. Complete systems are built on those boards with enclosure and industrial design adapted to the brand. Power modules for DC charging come from established module suppliers and our controllers are compatible with mainstream modules and operations platforms — we do not claim to build the power electronics we buy. Ask us to walk the bill of materials during technical evaluation; a supplier who cannot tell you where the line sits has not thought about it.