This media release was originally published by SWTCH Energy on Business Wire, on January 23, 2023.

SWTCH Energy, an electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions provider for multi-tenant properties across North America, today announced its partnership with Bectrol, a Québec-based integrator of EV chargers and provider of industrial automation, distribution and manufacturing of control panels.

This announcement marks SWTCH’s first major partnership in Québec and helps expand EV charging infrastructure for tenants of multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) and commercial properties in the province.

SWTCH’s open charging platform and energy management solution is already interoperable with Hydro-Québec’s Circuit Électrique, a public electric utility in Québec and beyond. This interoperability makes SWTCH a charging provider of choice for regional installers, such as Bectrol.

“SWTCH is honored to partner with Bectrol, a leader in EV charging installation projects in Québec,” said Carter Li, SWTCH Energy CEO and co-founder. “Bectrol has become a regional leader as a full-service EV charging installer, and we’re excited to extend our solution and team to scale the deployment of chargers across Québec together.”

Currently, 46 percent of all registered EVs in Canada are located in Québec. A longtime electrification pioneer, in 2020, Québec committed to banning the sale of all new gasoline-powered vehicles in the province after 2035, several months before Canada committed to the same goal nationwide, and has an ambitious goal of having 1.5M electric vehicles on the road by 2030. These electrification plans, however, require robust charging infrastructure, which will become available thanks to this new partnership.

“We decided to partner with SWTCH because their energy management solution is efficient, reliable, and economical,” said Jean Nicolas Dupéré, strategic co-director at Bectrol. “SWTCH’s technology is completely customizable and easy to install, without locking users into one specific hardware manufacturer or charging network. We look forward to electrifying Québec together, while sharing our connections with manufacturers and electrical contractors.”

While Québec currently has no province-wide regulations to make MURBs EV-ready, the city of Laval already mandates new MURBs to provide electrical structures to accommodate EV chargers. Other cities are expected to follow suit in the coming months and years, making this announcement especially timely.

The partnership between Bectrol and SWTCH follows on the heels of SWTCH’s 2022 roaming agreement with Electric Circuit, the largest public EV charging network in Québec. As a result, SWTCH and Electric Circuit account owners gained the ability to charge on either network, granting SWTCH drivers an additional 3,800 chargers, including 600 fast-charging stations; meanwhile, Electric Circuit drivers gained access to an additional 2,750 chargers at multi-tenant properties across North America.