On December 14, 2023, InCharge Energy launched the Dual ICE-80A Level 2 charger. The product provided simultaneous 19.2 kW charging on both cables—described as unique in the U.S. market at the time. Most Level 2 chargers either split power between two vehicles or provided full power to one vehicle at a time.
The charger came with ISO 15118 hardware readiness, enabling future support for plug-and-charge functionality and advanced vehicle-to-charger communication. BABA-compliant units (Buy America, Build America) were available for customers requiring U.S.-manufactured equipment to qualify for federal funding programs.
Technical features included intelligent grid and site demand response with vehicle readiness consideration, a rugged steel enclosure rated for outdoor use, waterproof construction, and durability for high-current charging sessions. The smart energy management system supported both backend and onsite controller configurations with offline scheduling capability.
Integration with InControl CMS enabled power curtailment based on electricity costs, electrical service capacity constraints, and fleet operational requirements. The charger was offered with InCharge's Charging as a Service (CaaS) model, providing predictable monthly payments and uptime guarantees without direct hardware ownership.
The product positioned Level 2 charging as a complement to InCharge's DC fast charging portfolio (the ICE-180, ICE-22, ICE-44, ICE-66, and others). Level 2 systems served different use cases: longer dwell times, lower electrical infrastructure requirements, and lower per-port costs for fleets that didn't need rapid charging.
Building What the Market Doesn't Ask For
This launch reveals a product line strategy that addressed customer needs customers hadn't explicitly articulated.
By late 2023, InCharge was known for DC fast charging—high-power systems for commercial fleets and heavy-duty trucks. The company's reputation came from deploying fast charging at scale.
But fleet deployments revealed a gap: not every vehicle needed fast charging, and not every site had electrical service to support multiple high-power chargers. Some grants did not allocate enough funds to cover the higher capital expense of DC chargers. Light-duty fleet vehicles with overnight dwell times such as delivery vans, service vehicles, and commuter fleet cars all could charge adequately at Level 2 speeds. Installing DC fast chargers for these use cases meant paying for power capacity that wouldn't be utilized.
The hardware product decision addressed portfolio completeness rather than responding to explicit customer RFPs. Customers weren't specifically requesting Level 2 chargers from InCharge as they had other vendor options. But mixed-fleet deployments required multiple vendor relationships if InCharge only offered DC fast charging. The Level 2 product enabled single-vendor solutions for depots with both heavy-duty trucks requiring fast charging and light-duty vehicles that could use slower charging.
The simultaneous 19.2 kW delivery on both cables was the technical differentiator. Most Level 2 chargers in 2023 delivered 7.2 kW or 9.6 kW per vehicle, or power-shared between two vehicles (delivering full power to one vehicle at the expense of the other). The ICE-80A's architecture supported full power delivery to both vehicles simultaneously without sharing or compromises.
This mattered for utilization: fleet operators could fully charge two vehicles overnight at each dual charger location rather than accepting slower charging speeds or managing which vehicle got priority. At depot scale with limited space and electrical infrastructure, maximizing vehicles per charging position directly impacted operational capacity.
The BABA compliance was a regulatory requirement-driven feature. Federal funding programs increasingly required U.S.-manufactured equipment. Having BABA-compliant units available meant customers could access federal grants and infrastructure funding without requiring product redesigns or supply chain changes. This was about maintaining eligibility for customer funding sources rather than technical capability.
The Charging as a Service offering bundled with the hardware launch indicated InCharge's business model evolution. Rather than just selling chargers, the company provided charging capacity with uptime guarantees. This shifted risk from customers to InCharge: the company had to ensure hardware reliability and provide rapid service response because downtime directly impacted their service-level agreements.
The offline scheduling capability addressed a specific operational reality: depot cellular coverage is not always reliable at some sites, and customers needed charging to continue even if internet connectivity dropped. Building offline operation into Level 2 chargers meant the entire feature set worked without cloud connectivity.