It already makes wind turbines and electronic controls for solar farms. Now Ingeteam is entering the EV charging market

A major player in high-speed electric vehicle charging in Europe will begin making EV chargers in Milwaukee by the end of the year.

After a year of preparation, the U.S. division of Spanish engineering and electronics manufacturer Ingeteam is gearing up to begin production of DC fast chargers, those used at public charging stations, at its factory on West Canal Street. The company expects to begin shipping chargers early next year, said Jesus Rodriquez, executive vice president of Ingeteam EV Chargers USA.

Rodriguez, who was recruited by Ingeteam a year and a half ago to lead the company's entry into the U.S. market, said manufacturing in Milwaukee will be just a first step toward the company's goal of becoming a major player in the North American public and at-home charging markets.

Ingeteam has been making EV chargers in Europe for 13 years and is the dominant company in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy.

The Milwaukee factory will assemble DC fast chargers specifically for projects funded by the National Electric Vehicle Initiative and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program.

The programs represent a $10 billion federal push to create a nationwide network of 500,000 convenient, reliable and fast EV chargers by 2030. That network is seen as a critical precursor to widespread adoption of electric cars, trucks and SUVs. Concerns about driving range and the ability to find a charger on longer trips are among the top worries holding back would-be EV buyers, according to a survey of shoppers on Autolist.com.

The federal Bipartisan Infrastucture Law, which included the funding programs, was approved shortly after Rodriguez was hired to develop markets for Ingeteam's chargers in the United States. He said he quickly saw the new law as the best and fastest way to introduce Ingeteam's EV-charging technology to U.S. customers.

Ingeteam already had a union workforce in Milwaukee and building its existing chargers for sale through the federal programs required small modifications of the design and locating domestic suppliers for some components.

"I said, hey, we have the opportunity," Rodriguez said. "We have the factory, we have the people, we have the technology. We have everything in our favor to succeed here. So let's go for it. Let's bring the technology from Europe, where we have the headquarters, let's adapt the product to the U.S. standards to comply with the Federal Highway Administration guidelines and let's produce the charges here. That was last year. We made the decision quite quickly and here we are."

Plant has capacity to make 13,000 chargers a year

He said the company has enough space in its 140,000-square-foot factory to produce up to 13,000 EV chargers a year, and the building can be expanded if demand exceeds that capacity. The factory opened in 2010 when the company began building wind turbines in response to Siemens Gamesa and other global wind-energy partners opening U.S. operations. It later expanded into manufacturing inverters for solar energy and battery storage customers.

Rodriguez expects EV charging production will create about 100 jobs in the factory and at its suppliers in the next four or five years.

The company in the future will also begin importing DC fast chargers for sale to restaurants, hotels, retail chains and others who want to offer public EV charging but cannot participate in the NEVI or CFI programs. Rodriguez said the company also plans to start importing Level 2 chargers for residential and business uses.

Rodriguez said it was no accident that President Joe Biden visited the Milwaukee factory last month as part of a series of appearances marking the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides federal tax credits for electric vehicle and charger purchases, and other initiatives to increase domestic manufacturing.

"It was my target, my personal target," he said, noting that the company already had hosted U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh for a tour of the plant and a discussion about opportunities for expansion, and U.S. Sen Tammy Baldwin in May used the factory as a backdrop to launch her 2024 re-election campaign.

He said he worked closely with local and state leaders, Baldwin and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to convince the Biden administration to book the visit.

"Ingiteam is an amazing engineering company but sometimes, at least in the past, we didn't promote what we are doing, not even on the city or state level," he said. "So it is really good to bring these kinds of leaders to our facility to show the whole community that, hey, we are here and we have amazing technology."