Terminal Energia acquires Vonk’s electric car charging business

Terminal Energia has entered into an agreement with Vonk Technologies, a company developing charging solutions in Estonia, which has seen Terminal acquire Vonk’s electric car charging business. The deal covers both public and private chargers and represents a strategically significant step in the development of Terminal’s charging network.

Although Vonk has taken the decision to no longer operate chargers or provide a charging service to end customers, its cooperation with Terminal will continue so as to provide charging solutions in combination with LukuExpert lock systems.

“We’ve seen for ourselves that Terminal has come up with a unique and truly innovative charging solution that offers electric car owners added value and helps to solve a lot of the problems related to fair cost-sharing in apartment buildings when it comes to electricity,” said Riho Ever, a member of the management board of Vonk Technologies. “Those sorts of solutions are only able to be offered by companies that also sell electricity.”

As an example of Terminal’s innovation, Ever pointed to the company’s ability to offer its customers the opportunity to “take their home electricity tariff with them wherever they go” and to make the most of a fixed electricity price for their household while charging their car at the exchange price. Terminal’s innovative solution also enables work cars to be charged at home, helping to avoid double VAT. “By working with Terminal, we’ll be able to offer our customers a whole lot more,” Ever added. “That’s the main reason we decided against directly offering a charging service ourselves.”

Kuldar Assmann, a member of the management board of Terminal Electric, says he is very satisfied to be partnering with Vonk, whose public chargers he is sure will make an excellent addition to Terminal’s network – particularly in view of expanding charging possibilities. “For our company, these will be additional electricity sales points that bolster our full-service energy concept,” he explained.

Assmann says that Terminal has been developing its electricity sales services for many years. “Our most recent innovation was to link home electricity use to electricity use on the move,” he noted. “It makes no difference to us whether our customers use electricity at home, on the road or at their destination. Their contracts include ongoing discounts on fuel and other services, too. We’ve turned the logic of electricity consumption on its head.”

Terminal Energia recently became the first full-service energy provider in the region to bring all energy carriers to customers – everything from motor fuel and electric car charging to household electricity and food – which it is doing in bundles.

The public chargers installed by Vonk have already been connected to Terminal’s charging network. Cars can be recharged using a Terminal payment card or via the Cloudics mobile app, in which customers need to enter their bank card details. There are currently 115 charging nodes in Terminal’s network. The parties have chosen not to disclose the value of the deal.

Sister companies Vonk Technologies OÜ and Luku-Expert OÜ launched their electric car charging service five years ago, offering customers chargers alongside smart lock and access solutions. Their focus was on establishing charging points not only in apartment buildings and private homes, but also in office blocks and public car parks.

The family-run AS Terminal began life as Tartu Naftabaas in 1968. Today, the company operates two liquid fuel terminals in Estonia, is a wholesaler of liquid fuels, produces and sells electricity, offers a charging service for electric cars and operates 46 manned and self-service fuel stations around Estonia, employing more than 300 people.