Ford Motor Co. bought California-based electric vehicle charging technology developer Auto Motive Power, Ford confirmed in an email. TechCrunch was the first to report the news.
As part of the deal, Ford is acquiring AMP’s technology, its team of nearly 150 employees, as well as the company’s facility in Santa Fe Springs, California, according to TechCrunch.
Ford did not disclose the amount it paid for AMP.
According to Ford, the automaker plans to vertically integrate AMP’s EV charging technology for its new Model e division, which is tasked with developing software, vehicle connectivity solutions and charging technologies for its EVs.
“Ford is focused on accelerating EV adoption and improving charging experiences for as many customers as we can,” Ford spokesperson Emma Bergg said in an email. “Ford and AMP determined the advantage of their technology is best realized with deep integration into Ford’s EV products, which will allow for optimizing both cost and performance while improving experiences for our EV customers.”
AMP’s EV charging technology could help Ford in its transition to Tesla’s NACS charging port. AMP developed a Tesla NACS-compliant onboard charger that’s integrated with DC fast charge contactors to support bi-directional charging. It can also be used to tap into an EV’s reserve battery power when the vehicle is not in use.
AMP also developed an energy management system with vehicle-to-everything capabilities to harness the stored energy from an EV’s battery to help power the grid.
In addition, AMP developed an all-in-one energy management unit it calls the “ampEMU” for EVs. The company refers to it as a complete energy management system. The unit includes an onboard charger, power distribution electronics and supports fast charging up to 500 amps. It’s compliant for vehicles equipped with the NACS or Combined Charging System port.
Although Ford is adopting Tesla’s NACS port on its vehicles in 2025, the automaker is also building out its own charging ecosystem called the BlueOval Charge Network.
This week, Ford said it’s expanding the Blue Oval Charge Network in North America by 25%, to include more than 106,000 chargers. In addition, Ford’s EV customers will have access to over 15,000 Tesla charging stations by May 2024.
In May, Ford announced it joined the National Charging Experience Consortium, which is a cross-industry group of automakers, EV charging providers, utilities and the Department of Energy national laboratories. The consortium aims to improve EV charging in the U.S. Its initial focus is on payment processing, user interfaces and vehicle-to-charger communication.
