EnBW invests in VERBUND subsidiary SMATRICS

EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG is taking on 25.1 percent of the shares in the VERBUND subsidiary SMARTRICS through its own subsidiary EnBW mobility+ AG & Co.KG. The software solutions and services of SMATRICS enable business customers and partner companies to use or offer comprehensive e-mobility solutions. All parties agreed that the details of the transaction would be confidential. Completion is still subject to the approval of the relevant anti-trust authorities. SMATRICS and EnBW founded the joint subsidiary SMATRICS EnBW in 2020. With already around 250 DC rapid-charging points, the joint venture operates the largest rapid-charging network in Austria – and is advancing the expansion of electromobility.

“When the largest Austrian provider of green electricity and the operator of the largest public rapid-charging network in German collaborate even more closely, that represents a zero-emission turbo boost for the mobility of the future,” says a delighted VERBUND CEO Michael Strugl. VERBUND AG is Austria’s leading energy company and one of Europe’s largest generators of electricity from hydropower. The company generates around 97 percent of its electricity from renewables, primarily hydropower. Strugl: “Decisive for the successful introduction of e-mobility are the framework conditions and the infrastructure, as well as the provision of electricity generated from fully renewable energy.”

The participation of EnBW in SMATRICS lays the foundations for an even closer collaboration between the two companies. As Timo Sillober, Chief Sales & Operations Officer at EnBW puts it: “After our successful joint venture for the charging infrastructure expansion in Austria, this investment is exactly the right step. It enables us to interact even better for far-reaching product cooperation. Our companies’ competences complement each other ideally, especially in the area of fleet and business customers. This is how we are able to further advance the success of electromobility.”

This year, EnBW and SMATRICS have already developed a public utilities offer and launched a complete charging solution for fleet operators. SMATRICS Managing Director Hauke Hinrichs also sees the entry of EnBW as a strategic partner as a means to strengthen the content that SMATRICS focuses on as an IT and tech company in the field of e-mobility: “EnBW concentrates on end customers and we work in the background to provide the technological solutions required.” In the future, Hinrichs would like to increasingly position SMATRICS as a technological e-mobility partner for energy suppliers, public utilities or companies in the energy industry.