R-EVC & ASN Plus - Electromobility - the trend of today. The portable wallbox and its great charging solution.

21 minutes

In today’s interview, we’re joined by Tomas Richter, founder of R-EVC – a company developing portable wallboxes for electric vehicles. The conversation dives into both technical and strategic topics – from the product’s architecture to the reasons why R-EVC chose not to build its own development team and instead partnered with ASN Plus.

In this conversation, we’ll dive into:

  • Why R-EVC decided to go for a complete redesign from scratch

  • The development of a next-gen charger: modular connectors, three-phase certified metering, LTE connectivity

  • The business logic behind external collaboration: what it would mean to build an in-house team, and why working with an established partner involved in multiple projects is a smarter move

  • Development as a service: how hardware, firmware, mobile app development, and even business logic consulting can work seamlessly under one roof

What you’ll take away from the interview:

  • Why building from the ground up can be more efficient than reengineering an outdated platform

  • How to approach product development when internal capacity is limited, and you need to cover HW/FW/app development

  • How to outsource a development team without losing control over your product

  • How technical decisions – such as integrating metering, connectivity, or safety features – can shape the final product and its position on the market

R-EVC & ASN Plus - Electromobility - the trend of today.
The portable wallbox and its great charging solution.
(Interview transcript)

Tomas Richter: Our product is a portable wall box. It's not necessary to install a classic wall box on the wall. You can just simply take the charger with you, connect it simply to the socket, charge at home in your garage or in your cottage, for example, or wherever you are. We just decided to move forward with this kind of charger and develop a better solution with LTE connectivity, with MID certified measurement, and with a new app. The main advantage for ASN is the clarity from your side. So we know very well what was the price for this kind of device and so on. So it was the problem with previous developers.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Hello, my name is Frantisek Vrbovsky, and I would like to welcome you here at ASN Plus in our new interview. We are a development company. We develop hardware, firmware, and applications for our customers. We are able to develop an entire ecosystem, or we can help your development team with just individual tasks such as remote firmware update, etc.
Electromobility is today's trend and is on the rise. In Europe, same as in the Czech Republic, there are a lot of people considering buying an electric vehicle, or they've already bought one. Despite the fact there is quite a small network of the charging stations, our customer and our today's guest, Tomas Richter, has decided to approach his challenge in a quite smart way.
He has developed a portable wall box, which you can carry in your vehicle, and with this, you can charge your vehicle anywhere you want. So I'm delighted to welcome here Tomas Richter, CEO and the owner of the R-EVC company, for this interview. Hello?

Tomas Richter: Hello.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: First, I have one question, or the first question in general. Could you present us your product a little closer?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, for sure. So, our product is a portable wall box, which has a huge advantage for final customers. It's not necessary to install the classic wall box on the wall in your garage or in different places. So you can just simply take the charger with you in your car. And thanks to all the safety features of our portable wall box, actually, you can just connect it simply to the socket and use it whenever, wherever you want.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's quite interesting. It gives the owner of the electric vehicle a lot of opportunities where you can charge the vehicle.

Tomas Richter: Yeah. Thanks to our Pro version, you can just simply switch the plugs on the end of the charger, actually. So you can charge from a CEE five-pin socket or from a classic 230-volt socket. So yeah, you can charge at home, in your garage, or in your cottage, for example, or wherever you are.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's a great thing. So situations such as this where, for example, there's no station to charge, like a petrol station, just the electric station—you can charge the vehicle, for example, at your home or anywhere else when you are carrying it, correct?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, because the manufacturers of the cars do not give you the charger when you buy the new car. So in this case, you have two chances how to solve the situation. You can buy the classic wall box. That means that you have to call some electrician and, you know, he has to install it. And it costs a lot of money. Or you can just simply buy the portable version, which you simply connect to the socket. And yeah, in our country, actually, it's quite common to have this socket in your garage. So you just use the same installation, and thanks to RCD Type B and all safety features, you can just simply start charging as fast as with a classic wall box.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's interesting and it sounds like it's a really good solution for situations where you do not have your own wall box. Actually, I'm quite surprised that you received the electric vehicle without the cord, like without this kind of...

Tomas Richter: Yeah, because the manufacturers are trying to save some money, you know. Because they know very well that nobody is using this kind of charger, because they gave you just a single-phase 10A charger. So it means that from, I don't know, from zero to 80%, you're charging your car like maybe 25 hours or something like this.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's quite long.

Tomas Richter: Yeah, and if you are using our charger or wall box—it doesn't matter—you are charging like six hours from zero to 80%. So yeah, you save a lot of time thanks to it.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's around one fourth or something of the...

Tomas Richter: Yeah, it could be. So this is the reason why the manufacturers just stopped giving the customers the charger because nobody wanted it. You just receive the charger and put it somewhere on the side because it's useless.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's interesting. Okay, so thanks a lot. I have a second question. I know that this portable wall box that we developed for you is a second generation or next generation. Why have you actually decided to go for the next generation of the wall box?

Tomas Richter: Right now we have a lot of experience from the market. And right now we know actually what our customers want from the online version, what they actually expect from us. So we just decided to move forward with this kind of charger and develop a better solution with LTE connectivity, with MID certified measurement, and with a new app.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Could you sum up all the new features that the new charger has or the new portable wall box has?

Tomas Richter: Yeah. From the safety features, it's a better solution of RCD Type B inside. Right now we measure the temperature of all three phases in our adapters or in our plug. There's real-time, let's say, communication between the adapter and the charger. Another function is actually MID certified measurement for fleets, let's say, and a new mobile app. And the whole product is more scalable from us. So you can simply buy the offline version, which is still possible to control from your mobile phone, but just via Bluetooth. Or another one is like Bluetooth plus Wi-Fi, which is internet connection. And the third version is actually with LTE connectivity. So you can be online wherever you are. And yeah, that's probably all. And all of these three versions could be with MID certified measurement. So yeah, I think it's something that isn't on the market right now.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay, so today, if I understand it correctly, there are three versions. The first one is only with Bluetooth communication. The second one with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which can connect to the internet, like for example to the home network or something. And the third one, you can use the LTE as well. What can the user control or what data can the user get through this application and communication?

Tomas Richter: Yeah. Charging history. You can control, in real-time, the charging session. So you can just simply lower the charging current or, in case you implement the charger to some third-party solution like Home Assistant or something like that, you can just simply control the charging process. So you can simply charge just surplus, let's say, from the PV or something like this.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. That's very interesting. I have another question, which is much more regarding the development tasks or the things when you decided to develop the new version of this portable wall box. We were in discussions regarding the topics of the development—what should be the goals and these things. Did these, I would say, goals or maybe processes change throughout the development, or was it clear from the beginning what you wanted to develop, and then we were just developing?

Tomas Richter: It was quite clear. But you know, during the development process, we just had some extra functions.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Could we mention some of these?

Tomas Richter: For example, the MID certified measurement—it wasn't the plan at first from our side.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. And how did you come up with it? During the discussion or maybe you checked some of the competitors' products or something? Or how did you get into this kind of idea?

Tomas Richter: Some ideas are from our competitors from other countries, maybe. But a lot of these ideas are, I think, from our customers.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: So the customers expect some of the functions, so we put them there.

Tomas Richter: Yeah, because they know very well their markets. So they know perfectly what their customers want. So yeah, this is the thing why we will continually develop the product with new functions. For example, for Northern Europe, some kind of spot charging and stuff like that.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. I know that in the new next generation, you are using the experiences that you gained during the first generation. So the concept is much more, I would say, clear. It's much more complex. I know that there was a difference between the firmware, etc., so I know that in the previous version there were more firmwares. Right now there is only just one. Is that correct?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, that's right. And the main issue was for us the mold, which we developed by ourselves. So yeah, we want to take this mold and the same box, and we need more functions actually for our charger. So this is it.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. And how do you deal with the firmware updates? Because I know that with the firmware, which is in some kind of a version, you get the new features or maybe you update it somehow. How is the new portable wall box able to update the firmware?

Tomas Richter: It's actually over the air. And yeah, I simply click in the mobile app on the update to firmware version, and it takes like, I don't know, one minute maybe to update.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's nice. So you don't have to get your portable box, put it into some kind of a service center to update the firmware. You can do it just at your home.

Tomas Richter: Yeah, that's right.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's a great thing. Thank you. I would like to focus for a little time on the business perspective of the development, because I know that you are cooperating with ASN Plus. So I would say that ASN Plus is your external development team. How did you get into the decision to put your development to an external company, not to your own developers?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, because I was a little bit afraid that we would not have enough work for all developers. Because then you need like four people, you know, full-time. So it could be quite problematic in the next two years, let's say. So yeah, to save some money, we just tried to find somebody who has experience with all this. Because we know very well what it means to develop something. And the development of the first generation was a little bit problematic for us. So yeah, in this case, I know what I don't want from developers.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. So the first version, were you developing internally, or were you using external developers as well?

Tomas Richter: No, we had external developers.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. But it was quite problematic with them. So this is the reason why we are here right now.

Tomas Richter: Yeah.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. That's good to hear. So, and would you be able to maybe compare the cooperation with ASN Plus with the previous company? You don't have to name it, but maybe highlight some of the issues that you were having.

Tomas Richter: The main advantage from ASN Plus is, you know, the clarity from your side. So we know very well what was the price for this kind of device and so on. That was the problem with previous developers. And yeah, there were a lot of issues with the previous ones.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Yeah. Like the transparency.

Tomas Richter: Yeah, that's right.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: I have another topic to discuss with you. What are your experiences with remote cooperation? Because I know that we cooperate remotely. We have, I would say, weekly meetings about the project, about the progress and these things. I know that you are in quite close cooperation and communication on almost daily basis with our project manager Andre. How do you evaluate this kind of remote cooperation?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, I think that's fine. And thanks to it, all is clear. I mean, when I have some questions, there are always like two developers on another side of the call. So I just ask what I want to know, and they give me the answers. And at the beginning of our cooperation, we had like one call per week. It was always like one hour. So the guys just showed me what's new from the previous week and gave me some new information. So yeah, I think it's perfectly fine.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: So would you change anything about the cooperation in this remote way, or would you say that it's okay like this?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, I think in the 21st century, it's really fine.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: So there are no kind of borders in the development. So development can be done in this remote way without any boundaries?

Tomas Richter: Yeah. I mean, we are like 25 kilometers away from each other, and yeah, I don't need to go there and talk with the developers because it's a waste of our time. So it's simpler for everybody. Just schedule the call for the time which fits all of us and talk online.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay, thank you. Actually, we are quite close to the end of this interview, so I'd like to give you a compliment regarding the cooperation. I would like to say that you are one of our great customers because cooperating with you is a pleasure. You are really deeply in the project, so you know exactly where we are. When we are discussing the topics with you regarding development, you already know how to react. You know the things, you know the stuff. So that's a really great thing. What is very important to say is that we cooperate with you as a team. So we can feel that it's not a vendor relationship, like you are only a vendor of development things and I'm the customer. It's much more a partnership, and it's really well visible regarding the progress of the project. It's going really well and fast forward thanks to this kind of close cooperation. So I would like to thank you for that.

Tomas Richter: Thanks.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay. I have one of the last questions, which is: what are your next development plans? What can the customers look forward to?

Tomas Richter: We would like to offer our customers some device, let's say a smart meter, which will be able to charge surplus, let's say, from PV and some dynamic load balancing of the portable chargers or wall boxes. Because right now we're developing the wall box with your company too, but it's just because the market of the wall box is quite huge. And I think not all customers understand that the portable wall box is as good as the classic one. So we just want to have all in our portfolio to offer everything to our customers.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: That's nice. Are you planning it for the next year or maybe the year after?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, I think in 2025 we'll continue developing the portable charger. But yeah, definitely I hope that by the end of Q2 2025, we'll have some kind of smart meter which will be available for our customers.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay, that sounds very nice. So we are looking forward to the release. I have really the last question: if the customers who see this video would like to buy some kind of portable wall boxes or chargers or any other of your products, how could they do that?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, they just simply find us on our ecovolter.com website, which is especially for European countries.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: So the best way is on the webpage?

Tomas Richter: Yeah, it's ecovolter.com actually, because we have another shop for the Czech market, actually it's called nabijelektromobil.cz. But yeah, for Europe, it's ecovolter.com.

Frantisek Vrbovsky: Okay, thank you. We'll definitely put a link under this video so the customers can take a look at it and click on it. I would like to thank you for this interview. It was quite nice that you came along and we could discuss the topics such as this. That's everything for today. So thank you for watching the video, and don't forget to subscribe to our channel, because there are new videos coming with other interesting people and customers.