Andersen EV Chargers - Ceased Trading

fafy

I discovered earlier this evening, that Andersen EV charging ceased trading yesterday, there is a notice on their website:

https://andersen-ev.com/

They make the quite pricey but excellent A2 discreet tethered charger, i have it about 15months, trouble free. Any minor app use issues i did have, were solved quickly, by an excellent support team.

It remains to be seen if it will be taken over as a going concern, but looking unlikely according to this:

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/auto-supply-chain-crisis-sparks-end-for-british-ev-charging-group-12718618

but in the meantime, as i had it on a 4am timed charge, i wanted to check if it was still working, as i could not initially disable the timed charging, so i did a hard reset of the unit, and its still working fine. Some Konnext + app functions are not currently working, but most are, and there is an option (albeit a nuclear option), of turning it into a dumb charger, (totally disconnecting from wifi)by using the setup button on the external unit itself, and using your in car timed charging.

I’ve sent an email off to the installer, as it came with a 3 year warranty included, to see what they say, and where i stand for support etc.

This is my one:

Some Andersen A2 resetting instructions here, for anyone else affected:

https://support.andersen-ev.com/products/troubleshooting/reset-your-unit/

KCross

Some Konnext + app functions are not currently working, but most are, and there is an option (albeit a nuclear option), of turning it into a dumb charger

I presume, unless someone takes it over as is, that the app will die completely at some point when they take their cloud systems offline.

It remains to be seen if it will be taken over as a going concern

Clearly its a good quality charge point. At the right price someone should take it over rather than let it be sold off into pieces. It would be a perfect fit for an OEM to buy at a knock down price. 🤞

cromelex

They say their charger is OCPP compliant. In a worst case scenario, if their cloud services get shutdown, you can buy a raspberryPi and run HomeAssistant with the OCPP integration. This would allow you to keep using most the smart functionality locally, ie scheduling, and potentially event eco charging etc.

https://home-assistant-ocpp.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Might be a bit of work bit it means you would not end up with a dumb charger. It works, I've tried it with my Wallbox (which is also OCPP)

https://twitter.com/andersen_ev/status/1552585469430566912?s=20&t=XZzKerV_sKiUJ4kPDRal2A

slave1

There was a time when Andersen were sooooo bloody expensive but others are catching up, the new Zappi is mad expensive from just the inclusion of a cheap wifi module from last iteration, £999 now

fafy

Rang installer today, EV Ireland, they just heard about this yesterday, said they got my email and would be in touch, they said for now, take off any Anderden app Konect timer schedules, leave it in the “on” mode, and just use my incar timer on my i3, so no worries there.

Not too keen on adding extra bits of equipment, the costing charts are still working on the app, a very expensive September !!

TOLLOT

Disappointed to hear this , as I’ve one of these as well They had great customer support .

Summer2020

I'm not surprised they went bust. There's obviously a very limited pool of people willing to pay the frankly ridiculous price they were charging.

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119741282#Comment_119741282

This. I wanted one, but the price is just crazy. Main selling point for me was the hidden tether and decorative front. I chose a hypervolt 2.0 for waaaay less money.

KCross

Lifted from another forum... this is an interesting read on where Andersen came from and seemingly why it went bust and how the founders are starting again.

https://simpson-partners.com/news/simpson-partners-andersen-ev/

Manion

Thanks for the article. I've one of these installed less than a year ago. I had noticed the app getting slow.

unkel

Never nice to see a company go down, but if they sell something like this as a super premium product at the very top of the price scale, they got what they deserved:

The panel gaps are worse than those on an early Tesla Model 3 made during production hell in a tent in a hot place in the USA

Manion

And yet they couldn't make a go of it.

fafy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119746409#Comment_119746409

You have been misinformed, there are no gaps in the front section, its a solid sheet of metal, not plastic, and those are not gaps, just part of the design.

unkel

Not those, the ones on the top. Particularly top right. Poorly made.

Manion

They did have some quality control issues on earlier models and even in my own the lid gap on either side isn't perfectly symmetrical. That's an aesthetic thing, full contact is made in the underside so it's not an ingress point. That said the entire idea is the aesthetic over the practical so it's a fair criticism.

I will say, people are starting to pay 70% to 80% of what I paid for an Andersen early this year for a zappi or similar. Still not sure how I feel about the purchase, it's going to be increasingly a rare thing to see, especially in Ireland, so it's a feature, but the lack of smart features is a real let down. Ive seen no one get it working with home assist.

unkel

Whereas Zappi works very well with Home Assistant. And I'm a complete n00b in that area, only just installed it, but managed to get the Myenergi stuff working in 15 minutes with a bit of googling. Of course this is one of the big benefits of picking popular mainstream hardware. A lot of people have done the hard work before you, so you don't have to.

Hope you get your Andersen working with HA too!

marc1

Any ideas where to get started with HA and Andersen? There is no interface on the actual unit (only a single button) and I don’t see a way to connect to it via the network…

marc1

I’ll expand on that. I’m confident I can get a raspberry pi setup, home assistant running and the ocpp plug-in working. But I somehow need to tell the Andersen A2 to connect to the local ocpp server. I don’t see a way to do that as there is no interface at all on the device and I wasn’t able to connect in a browser ok the local network to the device via any of the usual ports…

If someone can guide me into the right direction I’d be happy to put together a guide with screenshots.

marc1

Update on this, I messaged the previous owners on LinkedIn. They were very responsive (took less than an hour to reply on a Sunday!) and professional. Sadly it looks like the OCPP features were never implemented. Ideally the previous owners would buy the company back and keep developing and maintaining the current hardware and firmware, but their new company seems successful, so I’m not sure what would be in it for them… Here David’s response:

”Hi Marc

Thanks for the mail. Its really annoying for customers that Andersen have gone into administration.

The Simpson & Partners firmware is completely different to the Andersen firmware but here are my thoughts on how the community can be supported

With reference to your question about OCCP. Unfortunately, I don’t think the current owners ever merged the OCCP feature into the firmware.

The Andersen systems used a Particle io Argon module for the IOT functions.

This interfaced with an Atmel processor running a modified version of Open EVSE

Here are my suggestions for community support in the future

1. If a buyer is not found, then maybe it would be possible to open source the firmware which runs on the particle module. You would simply setup your free account with Particle. Particle uses Arduino code so its pretty simple to mod the firmware.

2. Rebuild a simple firmware which connects to the EVSE processor using the RAPI protocol. I think their maybe some RAPI to OCCP clients already available on the web

3. Additionally, if a buyer is not found, then maybe the PCB schematic could be released . You could then easily map all the status lights and hall sensor etc.

Best Wishes

David“

Manion

There is a project here: https://github.com/IanDBird/konnect but unfortunately it is based on hitting the backend APIs to control the unit. Also, I'm not sure how the author figured out what where there right commands to send.

Tbh I think it's pretty disgraceful that they never implemented the OCPP support as it was a selling point on their website. Discussion here: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/konnect-andersen-ev-integration/443134/4

marc1

Intersting development today.

This was a follow-up message from the S&P owners to me today:

"Just as a update to you and the community. I have been in contact with the Administrator for Andersen. S&P have offered to support the Andersen cloud and mobile app for 2 years. I am thinking the cost for a Andersen customer would be around £1 a month. I await their response"

A follow-up messge also stated that they would fix all the things that were broken over the last two years including scheduling sync.

I have no idea how likely that is to happen, but I wouldbe very willing to paythe £12 per year!

data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7

Manion

Good read by them.

https://simpson-partners.com/news/smart-ev-charger/

Manion

Good news, it's official they have been bought by a rival charging company. Looks like our service will continue.

JohnC.

Yes

https://andersen-ev.com/acquisition/

I'm not familiar with Evios, but it's apparently the company of Chargemaster's old boss. Which isn't giving everyone confidence.

fafy

Thanks for all the updates, great to see service continuation, is looking good.

xboxdad

Even more good news from January:

https://westmidconnected.co.uk/evios-confirms-investment-plan-for-prestige-home-charger-firm-andersen-ev/?doing_wp_cron=1675076890.8765239715576171875000

TOLLOT

Does anyone know anyone / company who might repair older Andersen units ?

would like to avoid sending it back to the UK

irs an older A1 model . It’s something wrong with the contacts , I think that make a clack sound when it starts / stops, now they clack continuously.

ivd had it uninstalled for now

Thanks

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120345656#Comment_120345656

Unless you know someone, the cost of repair will be prohibitive. You'd nearly be better off buying a new one. Someone might buy the faulty one from you for parts.

slave1

You have consumer rights here, merchantable quality and all that, I wouldn't consider it an economic write off

...Ghost...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120350215#Comment_120350215

It might be worth an email, but as the company went under and was taken over by another party AND we have had Brexit, the best case scenario is a complete and utter pain in the hole. In all likelihood, Anderson will not entertain this one.

slave1

Well if purchased through an installer the installer is responsible, if through Anderson a polite email, although ownership may have changed if the company never ceased trading then the consumer rights are maintained.

Bottom line is I would not consider it a write off just yet