What is it?
It's an AC wall box, which you can install at home or at your business to charge electric vehicles via a Type 2 charging cable. It can be mounted on the wall, or on a standalone pole.
You can choose between 7.4kW, 11kW and 22kW power levels, but you'll need more advanced three-phase electrics at your home or workplace in order to have the 11 or 22kW models.
You can also choose to have your MaxiCharger with its own cable attached or without, using your own car cable to charge instead. There are three colour choices for the box itself: black, silver or white.
Autel has various EV chargers in its range, including DC chargers that run up as fast as 480kW, but this new AC MaxiCharger is intended to make charging at home easier and more enjoyable.
Not only does the new AC MaxiCharger look nicer than the average wall box, plus gets that level of personalisation, it has also been designed to be very easy to install for contractors and extremely easy to use for the end-user via a mobile phone app.
Autel is also keen to point out that the AC MaxiCharger has built-in surge protection, so doesn't require the engineer fitting it to dig a ground spike, which takes time and money to do.
Who is it made by?
Even if you don’t know the name Autel, the chances are your car has at some point benefited from Autel’s technology. Autel specialises in the kind of automotive tech that keeps cars on the road, enabling engineers and mechanics to diagnose problems with a vehicle and get it fixed in the most efficient way.
Autel’s products are sold in over 70 countries, including Great Britain, China, America and Australia. Its diagnostic tools are class-leading and found in more than 500,000 independent vehicle repair shops across the globe. Put simply, when there’s something wrong with your car, Autel has the tool that can identify the problem and get it back on the road ASAP.
But it’s much more than that. Over 60 per cent of Autel’s employees work in the research and development (R&D) arm of the company, working on everything from battery and charging technology for electric cars to autonomous driving solutions. Autel has R&D centres in Silicon Valley, Munich and Shenzen.
Since it was founded in 2004 Autel has received 1040 domestic and foreign patents and has won almost 100 awards and honours, including the VISION Best New Product in the United States award and no less than 13 Red Dot Awards, known as Oscars in the world of product design.
What does it do?
Well, it charges up your electric car, obviously. But it's cleverer than that.
Autel has designed the AX MaxiCharger to be extremely easy to fit for the contractor on the job at your house or workplace. In fact, it says the wall box can be fitted in just eight minutes, and there's a much lower risk of drilling through internal components than other wall boxes too.
Once it's in place, the entire setup process is carried out by the engineer using an app. They'll get it connected up to your WiFi and make sure the connection is all OK.
You'll need it connected to the internet because you'll then download an app to control everything the MaxiCharger does. The unit itself has no buttons, just an LCD screen and lights to indicate what's going on.
Via Autel's app, you'll be able to see a huge range of info and control loads of different aspects of the MaxiCharger, including things like pre-heating your car and setting your car to charge at specific times if you're on an economy 7 type electricity contract.
Being connected to the internet also means that the MaxiCharger can constantly update its software without you needing to do anything. This software is important because it charges your car battery intelligently in order to maintain the battery's life.
In fact, the app can give you a report on the health of your car's battery, it can tell you if the battery is overheating and you can choose to charge in a battery health mode to increase your battery's longevity if it needs it.
Of course, the unit itself is rated to IP65 water, oil and dust proofing, and will operate consistently at temperatures of between -40 and +55 degrees celsius.
As mentioned, either via a cable on the unit itself or via your own car's cable, the unit will charge your car at 7.4, 11 or 22kW, depending on what your home or workplace can handle and the model you go for.
Charging at 7.4kW gets you about 40km of range for an hour of charging, while 11kW gets you 60km and 22kw 120km of range.
How much is it?
The Autel AC MaxiCharger starts at £399 for the 7.4kW unit. The 11kW and 22kW units cost more. You'll then add on extra for fitting and any extra online services you wish to benefit from.
However, if you use the code LAUNCH10 on the Sevadis website you'll get a 10% discount on a new MaxiCharger if you order before February 2022.
For a full list of prices and more info on the MaxiCharger, contact Sevadis on 0330 058 7144 or [email protected].
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Keyword: Autel AC MaxiCharger: sponsored