GreenFlux co-founders Hans de Boer and Jurjen de Jong believed that electric vehicles would be the transportation of the future. Both Hans and Jurjen worked at Better Place, a startup aiming to change the world by installing massive battery switch stations for electric vehicles.
They learned a lot about what works for EVs and especially what does not work; realizing that all car manufacturers should be on board and a connected charging infrastructure was necessary to accommodate all vehicles. The idea of GreenFlux was born – to set up an open network of connected charging stations operating in an ecosystem within the boundaries of the electricity grid.
In 2011, GreenFlux was established in the Netherlands, one of the first countries stimulating electric vehicles and a leader in charging infrastructure. The start was difficult; there were only refurbished combustion cars around in the Netherlands. Luckily, during that time, there was significant government support for pioneering companies to develop the electric vehicle business. Among others the Formula E-Team was set up, headed by Prins Maurits van Oranje.
Jurjen and Hans first experimented with connected charge stations at their own homes. They did numerous test drives with interested parties in their first electric car. The first B2B customer was Antea Group and Renault was also an early partner. To make electric driving easier and reliable, GreenFlux was the first to roll out a nationwide network of semi-fast chargers at prime locations along highways in cooperation with ANWB, Van der Valk and La Place in the Netherlands. The first semi fast charging location was built at La Place in Laren.
Figure 1. First charging point of GreenFlux.
ICT Group became the first technology partner of GreenFlux, helping to build the first version of the smart charging platform. ICT Group was also one of the first electric fleet customers of the Charge Point Operator business of GreenFlux.
The first smart charging project was established with Enexis, with 16 chargers in their parking garage. The number of chargers later grew to charging one hundred cars with the same connection capacity. GreenFlux became the first company with a cloud-based smart charging solution. During this period, there was a fast growth in smart charging projects. Along with Enexis and ElaadNL, the technology for smart charging was further developed and incorporated in the Open Charge Point protocols (OCPP 1.6 and 2.0).
GreenFlux soon noticed not all hardware from existing charging stations were ready for smart charging, and therefore developed the GreenFlux Smart Charging Controller. This compact-designed controller fits in all existing charging stations and transforms them into connected devices, therefore, fully grasping the opportunities for smart EV charging infrastructures.
Figure 2. The GreenFlux Smart Charging Controller.
Wanting to expand the EV growth globally, GreenFlux played a vital role in the development of open standards, such as OCPP, OCPI and OSCP, promoting interoperability and achieving supplier independence. These open protocols are used as a basis for the GreenFlux EV charging platform. The protocols also grew to be industry standards used on a global scale for roaming. Today, they are being widely used by Charge Point Operators and e-Mobility Service Providers. Further improvements of these open protocols continue to be made as GreenFlux actively cooperates with other companies on creating these improvements.
In 2015, GreenFlux developed its platform into a white-label cloud-based software to help customers manage their EV charging networks. Eneco became one of its first clients. 2015 was also the year that GreenFlux entered its first financing round, securing funding from ICT Group NV and BOM Brabant Ventures.
Since then, GreenFlux started to gain an international client base, catering to TotalEnergies’ and Western Power Distribution’s (WPD) needs with its state-of-the-art solutions. Together with WPD, GreenFlux joined the Electric Nation Project, the largest smart charging trial in the world. The project’s aim was to build an understanding of the potential impact that the increasing number of electric vehicles will have on electricity grids and networks. The backbone of the project was GreenFlux’ smart charging technology, monitoring the overall demand of chargers and reducing this total demand by instructing individual chargers to reduce the power available.
Figure 3. Electric Nation Model.
In 2018, GreenFlux entered its second financing round, securing funding from existing shareholders BOM Brabant Ventures and ICT Group NV and new shareholders Eneco Group and SET Ventures.
The charge point network operator and service provider business initially served as the living lab for development of the GreenFlux EV charging platform. After growing its charging network to more than 3,000 charging points, the CPO and EMSP activities were divested to Joulz Charging Solutions in 2020, GreenFlux pivoted to focus fully on its SaaS offering. Read more about that here.
In 2021, GreenFlux was acquired by DKV Mobility, entering into an accelerated scale-up phase to further roll out its platform across selected key, global markets. GreenFlux took up a leading role in fulfilling the DKV Mobility Group’s purpose to drive the transition towards an efficient and sustainable future for mobility.
GreenFlux: Today
Today, GreenFlux offers a smart e-mobility platform tailored to ambitious charge point operators and mobility service providers seeking to build and scale their e-mobility business. Enabling the smartest intelligent e-mobility services available in the industry, GreenFlux provides key operational capabilities that help customers extend their network reach, offer outstanding experiences to drivers, and minimize operational costs.
GreenFlux solutions provide a comprehensive set of capabilities including driver and station management, smart charging, access and billing, roaming, and payments, and are delivered via web applications, mobile apps, APIs, and managed services.
GreenFlux’s platform is used by leading charge point operators and service providers and companies of the utility, oil and gas, and automotive industries such as Eneco, TotalEnergies, EDP, Volvo Cars, Origin Energy and EQUANS. Through mid-2022, GreenFlux has powered over 2,7 billion electric kilometres through its platform built up a roaming network of 310.000+ charging points accessible to millions drivers throughout Europe.
