39 E-Mobility Engineering | July/August 2026 Fast-charger manufacturing | Insight and product lifecycle management, with approximately 70 of the site’s 500 employees focused on R&D. This colocation of engineering and production allows ABB to rapidly deploy new software tools and manufacturing process improvements directly to the factory floor. Embodying ABB’s broader industrial automation philosophy, the plant uses autonomous guided vehicles to connect production lines to an automatic warehouse, enabling 24/7 operations with optimised stock control and full traceability. Each DC charger passes through numerous sensors during assembly, with AI-powered optical inspection systems comparing boards to expected photos and using machine learning feedback loops to improve defect detection over time. Responding to the pressure to manufacture in the US, ABB established production capacity for 10,000 DC chargers annually in Columbia, South Carolina, starting operations in early 2023. The facility was developed in partnership with global manufacturing partner Flex to speed production rampup. The plant produces Terra 184 DC fast chargers (up to 180 kW) and Terra DC Wallbox units (up to 24 kW), both of which are NEVI-ready and compliant with Federal Highway Administration BABA requirements. ABB’s manufacturing model delivers exceptional consistency, traceability, and regulatory agility – advantages that are difficult for smaller competitors to replicate. The company’s ability to produce NEVI-compliant chargers from a US facility positions it to benefit from federal infrastructure spending. However, this comes at the cost of high capital intensity and the inflexibility of large-scale automated lines when market requirements shift. Tesla vertical integration Tesla’s approach to charger manufacturing is inseparable from its broader strategy as a vertically integrated car manufacturer. Tesla manufactures Superchargers primarily to serve its own vehicles, although that is rapidly changing. The company controls roughly 80% of its supply chain, from battery cells to power electronics to charging infrastructure, giving it an unusual degree of coordination between vehicle and charger development. Tesla’s primary Supercharger manufacturing facility is Gigafactory New York in Buffalo (USA). The 1.2 million square foot facility, leased from the State of New York, produces both Tesla Solar Roof products and Superchargers, and the number of V4 Supercharger posts that it has built surpassed 25,000 in June 2025. Replacing the 250 kW V3 Supercharger, the 325 kW V4 marks serves the ecosystem, not the charger market. The Supercharger is a component of the Tesla ownership experience, optimised for vehicle integration rather than standalone sale. While this originally locked customers (and Tesla itself) into proprietary interfaces, this changed when the company opened the NACS design files to the public in November 2022, leading to a wave of vehicle manufacturers announcing their migration to NACS through 2023 (see below) and mass vehicle integration during 2025. Kempower offers a third path characterised by modularity and localism. By standardising on 50 kW power blocks that stack to any desired capacity, Kempower avoids retooling its lines for different power ratings. By sourcing locally in Finland and building a US factory in North Carolina, it insulates itself from global supply chain shocks. ChargePoint takes the most radical position of all. Instead of owning and operating factories, the company codevelops hardware with AcBel Polytech and manufactures through Kinpo – a global electronics giant with 24 production bases. ChargePoint’s core competence lies in software, network operations and AI-driven quality validation. Each of these models has particular strengths and vulnerabilities. High-automation global scale model With more than a million EV chargers sold across 85 markets, including over 50,000 DC fast chargers, ABB has built a global production footprint designed for scale, regulatory compliance and continuous quality validation. Its flagship manufacturing facility, in San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy, is a 16,000 m² ‘centre of excellence’ representing an investment of US $30 million. Valdarno’s output comes from seven automated production lines, supported by 15 testing facilities capable of simulating over 400 charging sessions per day. Research and development are tightly integrated in a 3200 m² section of the facility dedicated to prototyping ABB E-Mobility’s centre of excellence in Valdarno, Italy, is its flagship manufacturing facility (Image: ABB E-Mobility)
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