Crisis-stricken Easee believes the charging boxes they have made are safe and that the Swedish sales ban is therefore wrongly based. This is revealed in a recent letter the company has sent to Förvaltningsrätten in Karlstad. Easee refers here to new tests carried out by German Tüv Süd. But the Swedish Elsäkerhetsverket rejects Easee’s attempts to limit the damage – the documentation should have been in place a long time ago, according to the agency. Easee never gave a so-called conformity assessment before the charging boxes came on the market, which is required by law. The Norwegian Electricity Authority therefore believes that Easee has sold the charging boxes Easee Home and Easee Charge illegally for several years. This is according to a letter from the Swedish agency to Förvaltningsrätten. The fact that Easee tries to prove that the charging boxes are safe afterwards is therefore irrelevant. The company should have done this before the charging boxes were released on the Swedish market, according to the Swedish Safety Agency. news has been in contact with Easee about this case, but communications manager Marthe Kindervaag says they have no comment and that they do not want to prosecute the trial in the media. Wants trial in January It has been a dark year for Easee. From being a company worth billions of kroner and several hundred employees to a company which, after mass redundancies, is worth a fraction. Förvaltningsrätten is in many ways Easee’s last hope. Because it is in that courtroom that the sales ban will finally be decided. In the letter to which news has gained access, Easee requests that one or two days be set aside for the trial on 11-12. January or 25–26 January next year. The Swedish Safety Agency agrees to this. The parties are therefore only waiting for confirmation from Förvaltningsrätten. This is Easee In 2018, Jonas Helmikstøl, Kjetil Næsje and Steffen Mølgaard established the electric car charger company Easee. All had backgrounds from competitor Zaptec. The head office is in Stavanger. The company develops “smart” electric car chargers, and has experienced tremendous growth. In just a few years, the company has grown from three to around 500 employees. Easee has sold 700,000 chargers in Norway and Europe. The charging company’s turnover was close to two billion kroner last year. Operating profit before depreciation was between NOK 250 and 300 million, according to DN. Scrutinized the Easee boxes for a year There are steep fronts, if we start from the exchange of letters with the Förvaltningsrätten. Teknisk Ukeblad has also mentioned the letters. The Swedish Safety Agency points out that they investigated the Easee boxes for a year before reaching the conclusion in March. During this period, they asked Easee to provide documentation that the company has carried out a conformity assessment before the product was released on the market – but the Swedish Safety Agency never received this. – We received a lot of documentation from Easee, but we could not see that Easee has carried out a proper compliance assessment based on the documentation we received, says lawyer Adam Hedbom in the Swedish Electrical Authority to news. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news Easee points out that the company had technical documentation when the product was launched, but admits that this was not complete. However, the company does not believe that this is against the law, according to their letter. Easee refers to a recent judgment in which the Swedish Housing Authority wanted to recall already installed roof ladders due to incorrect technical documentation. However, the manufacturer of the roof ladders won in court and was not able to recall the roof ladders. The court held that it was sufficient for the company to carry out new tests. Requests not to repair Easee goes ahead with a plea to the Förvältningsretten: If the court finds that there are safety gaps in the charging boxes, then the company asks to be spared the need to fix the 100,000 charging boxes that have already been installed in Sweden. The reason is that something like that will be very expensive and thus a disproportionate reaction. Easee itself writes in its annual report that it will cost around NOK one billion to improve all 600,000 installed charging boxes globally. However, it has not been decided how extensive these repairs will be. There is now an ongoing dialogue between Easee and the Swedish Safety Agency about this. – The tests that Easee is now doing can influence the types of measures they have to take on already installed equipment, says Adam Hedbom of the Swedish Electrical Safety Authority to news. He emphasizes that the sales ban itself cannot be changed due to new tests. For the time being, the company does not have to fix the 230,000 charging boxes installed in Norway, but this may still be relevant. It is the Directorate for Community Security and Preparedness (DSB) that decides this, and they have said that they are waiting for the decision of the Administrative Court in Karlstad to be made available. “Irreparable” damages Easee further writes to Förvaltningsrätten that the sales ban is an overly strict reaction in relation to the danger posed by the “defect” with the products – and points out that it has not been documented that the products pose any danger. They also write that the company has already suffered major financial losses: “If the decision stands, the irreparable damage Easee suffers from will be even greater,” write the lawyers from the firm Mannheimer Swartling.
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The Swedish Safety Agency believes that Easee sold chargers illegally for several years – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
