After the market authority in Sweden issued a sales ban on certain Easee charging stations, the Federal Inspectorate for Heavy Current Installations (ESTI) also reviewed the documentation of the affected products—with a positive verdict. The two CEOs of simplee AG, the Swiss general importer of Easee products, comment on the turbulent last year.

28.03.2024

Just over a year ago, the sales ban on Easee charging stations was announced in Sweden.

What was that moment like for you?

 It was a very surreal situation since this decision came out of nowhere for us. The first few days were marked by working together with Easee to figure out: What exactly happened, and what are the right next steps now?

How did you proceed?

 We immediately informed the Swiss market supervisory authority ESTI and consulted a Swiss expert from Electrosuisse. He was able to show us how the regulatory framework for electrical product regulations is structured and what the components of product documentation are. Parallelly, we initiated all processes with Easee to revise the product documentation accordingly.

 CEO of simplee AG We had very long working days for months. But honestly, this incident incredibly united our team and cemented the relationship with Easee. We acted as a team, dealt with numerous experts who are absolute leaders in their field, and we learned extremely a lot. Looking back, we are even grateful for this experience.

Have you ever doubted Easee?

 We have never doubted the safety of Easee products. By now, more than 40,000 Easee charging stations have been installed in Switzerland, and worldwide there are more than 725,000. To date, there have been over 175 million charging sessions, and thanks to over 40 sensors in the devices, we can evaluate all safety-relevant data. These paint an outstanding picture, and TÜV SÜD has also confirmed the safety. Looking back, one must say that Easee, from our perspective, made wrong decisions and placed people in positions who did not have the necessary experience and expertise to bear the responsibility for correct documentation. However, much more important is how to deal with errors when they come to light. Easee has restructured the entire organization, revised the processes, and significantly deepened the documentation. No charging product on the market has ever been scrutinized for safety as much as Easee! The result is that all experts and testing institutes not only rate the product as safe but even consider the product to be particularly innovative in terms of safety.

What were the market and the simplee team's reactions to the sales ban?

 It was a very special experience. Being confronted with fake news every day, without really being able to do anything about it, strains the nervous system. Most of these false reports were not intentionally wrong but written by laypeople who do not understand the RED and LVD directives and the associated processes. These first articles with false statements were then blindly copied and spread. Moreover, the Swedish market supervisory authority Elsäkerhetsverket made mistakes in the wording of their press releases, which they immediately corrected after our intervention. The fact that even the authority did not communicate correctly was a big concern for us. Here, we frankly often felt helpless, as such unintentional communication errors can have severe consequences.

 The overwhelming support from our partners touched us even more. None of our key partners turned away from us in the past year, and our team stuck together from the very first second. We are incredibly grateful to our team for this. We were always convinced that we would overcome this crisis together and acted accordingly. Despite this difficult year, we continued to hire staff – 23 great new people have joined our team – and we were also able to continue to grow financially in 2023.

The Swiss market supervisory authority ESTI accepted the documentation for the
Easee charging stations last week. What's next?

 That was definitely the nicest letter we have ever received. ESTI confirmed that the documentation, also in terms of safety, is complete. We are incredibly excited about this year and are highly motivated—so much so that it crackles! We can hardly wait to dedicate ourselves to our passion with full energy and to build new great partnerships with our team. Now it's really getting started!