An announcement of the partnership was made by Daimler AG at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, and the agreement calls for SPX Service Solutions to provide EV charging installation services to buyers of Daimler's smart and Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles as well as smart and Mercedes-Benz dealerships. This follows the successful start of a pilot programme that began in April for Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-Cell vehicles across five European countries.

SPX Service Solutions will provide European EV buyers and dealerships with a one-stop shopping solution for purchasing and installing the necessary charging equipment for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class E-CELL, the Mercedes-Benz Vito E-CELL and the smart four-two electric drive.

The SPX Electric Vehicle Solutions team will manage all aspects of home and on-site charging, including administering consumer and dealership charging site surveys and coordinating the installation of 230V and 400V three-phase fast charge stations that allow owners to fully charge their EVs quickly. SPX also will provide guidance and help facilitate all necessary permitting and post-installation services.

Tanvir Arfi, president of SPX Service Solutions, said ‘Leveraging ourselves after nearly 100 years in the automotive industry and our EV charging infrastructure expertise, SPX is proud to support the roll-out of smart and Mercedes-Benz electric vehicles.

‘Based on the full suite of services we can offer in Europe, North America and Asia, SPX is increasingly becoming the OEM partner of choice for EV charging solutions and installation services. The fact that we are already in the field overseeing and facilitating EV charger installations is a powerful selling point to OEMs, particularly since we can apply areas of learning that we've collected in addition to leveraging our existing infrastructure and services.’