The loudest complaint about commercial EV charging has almost nothing to do with speed. It is whether the charger works when a driver rolls up, and who picks up the phone when it doesn’t.
Schneider Electric is betting the answer to both is fewer phone numbers.
On July 22 the company launched Charge Pro, a commercial Level 2 charger for the United States that folds the hardware, the management software, the setup, and a five-year warranty into one Schneider-backed bundle. The pitch to a property manager or a fleet yard is simple: buy the box, and the company that made it also runs the network behind it and stands behind the repair.
That is a pointed thing to sell into a market where ChargePoint and Blink have spent a decade defining how workplace and apartment charging works.
Schneider is not a charging startup. It is a French electrical-infrastructure giant with more than a century in switchgear, grid gear, and building power, and it arrives with one argument: operators are more worn down by juggling vendors than by any line on a spec sheet.
Before the launch, The Weekly Driver sent Schneider a list of the questions site hosts ask about deploying and running commercial chargers. The company answered in writing, with the responses attributed to Shawn Bonacorsi, Head of Electrification Solutions for North America.
Key Takeaways
- One vendor, on purpose. Charge Pro packages the charger, EV Connect Software+, commissioning, support, and a five-year hardware warranty as a single Schneider-backed solution, aimed at cutting the multi-supplier sprawl that plagues commercial charging.
- Single-port, two power levels. Each unit is a single-port EVSE rated 48 amps (11.5 kW) or 80 amps (19.2 kW). The full output goes to one car; there is no port-splitting.
- You pick the plug. Buyers order a J1772 or NACS version. A single unit is not fitted with both.
- It won’t brick if you stop paying. One year of EV Connect Software+ is included. Let it lapse and the charger drops to Free Vend mode: it still charges, but loses payment collection, driver authentication, and networked management.
- Uptime, without a number. Schneider leaned on 24/7 monitoring and remote troubleshooting but declined to name a target availability percentage or a service-level guarantee.
- OCPP, with a caveat. Charge Pro supports the open OCPP standard, so it is not a sealed box. Schneider will only guarantee the full feature set and experience on its own EV Connect platform.
- Made in Vietnam. The charger is manufactured in Vietnam and launches in the US first, with Canada to follow later in 2026.
What Charge Pro Is Under the Bundle
Strip away the bundle language and the product is a networked Level 2 charger built for shared, paid use rather than a home garage. Schneider offers it in two power levels, 48 amps at 11.5 kW and 80 amps at 19.2 kW, and each is a single-port unit.
Bonacorsi was direct on a point the spec sheet leaves fuzzy: one charger serves one vehicle, and the full rated output is available to it, subject to the car’s onboard charger and any site load limits. An 80-amp unit delivers up to 80 amps to the car plugged into it.
Operators who want two cords in one spot buy a dual-mount pedestal that holds two separate chargers. Because each is its own EVSE, they do not share amperage the way a split dual-port unit does. The tradeoff is plain: guaranteed full power per car, at the cost of two chargers to serve two spaces.
The connector decision happens at the order screen. Charge Pro comes in distinct J1772 and NACS models, both available in either power level, rather than one unit carrying both cables.
For a fleet standardizing on Teslas or newer NACS-native EVs, that is clean. For a mixed public lot, it means committing a pedestal to one standard or pairing two units.
| Spec | Schneider Charge Pro |
|---|---|
| Type | Single-port commercial Level 2 EVSE |
| Power | 48 A (11.5 kW) or 80 A (19.2 kW) |
| Connector | J1772 or NACS, chosen at order (separate models) |
| Software | EV Connect Software+, one year included at activation |
| Driver payment | QR to phone browser, Apple Pay / Google Pay, or credit card via app |
| Warranty | Five-year hardware |
| Mounting | Wall or pedestal; dual-mount pedestal holds two independent units |
| Built in | Vietnam |
| Target sites | Workplace, multifamily, fleet, destination |
| Availability | United States at launch; Canada later in 2026 |
The Uptime Question It Would Not Put a Number On
Reliability is the whole ballgame in commercial charging. Public data on the older networks has been unflattering for years, with broken or unresponsive stations a routine driver frustration, and a dead charger at an apartment complex or a fleet depot is worse than no charger because someone paid to install it.
So the sharpest question was the plainest: is there a target availability percentage, or a service-level guarantee, and how is it measured? The response described the machinery meant to protect uptime rather than a promise about it. Every Charge Pro runs on EV Connect Software+ with 24/7 monitoring to catch problems early, and Standard Support adds proactive monitoring and remote troubleshooting.
Good practice, all of it. None of it is a number.
That is not unusual for a launch, and Schneider is hardly alone in avoiding a hard figure. It is still the gap a buyer should press on before signing. Monitoring tells you a charger is down faster; it does not by itself commit the vendor to a percentage of hours it will be up, or to a penalty when it isn’t.
Ask what the contract says, not what the dashboard shows.
One Year of Software, Then the Bill Nobody Named
Charge Pro includes one year of EV Connect Software+ and Standard Support at activation. The obvious follow-up is what year two costs, and here Schneider was candid about what it could not yet say.
Ongoing subscription and support pricing is still being finalized, the company said, and will vary by package and site. Customers get renewal options flagged before the included term runs out. A four-year software extension exists, as do bundles that pair Software+ with a support tier called EV Connect Shield.
The reassuring part is what happens if an owner walks away from the subscription. The charger does not turn into a paperweight. It drops into Free Vend mode and keeps charging vehicles.
What it loses is the networked layer: driver authentication, payment processing, and the management features that let a host run it as a business. For a workplace handing employees free electrons, Free Vend might be the goal anyway. For a paid public or apartment site, a lapse means the revenue tools go dark while the hardware keeps drawing power.
Payment, when the software is live, is the part drivers will notice most. There is no app to download.
A driver scans the QR code on the unit, lands in a phone-browser page with the station details and price, and pays with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a credit card. Site hosts set flat-rate or per-kWh pricing where local rules allow, monitor usage through EV Connect, and have session revenue paid to the account they configure.
Removing the account-and-app hurdle cuts real friction. It often decides whether a stranger charges or drives off.
How Locked In Are You?
Schneider markets Charge Pro as one integrated stack, hardware and firmware and software all its own, backed as a single solution.
That is the selling point and, for a wary buyer, the worry. Vendor lock-in has burned enough operators that “fully integrated” can read as “hard to leave.”
Asked whether the charger is OCPP compliant and portable to another network, or a closed Schneider-to-Schneider system, the company gave an answer with two clear halves.
Charge Pro is built around open standards and supports OCPP-based communication, and it is not meant to be a proprietary ecosystem. That is the good half.
The other half: Schneider validates and fully supports the charger on the EV Connect platform, and it will only guarantee performance, the full feature set, and the user experience when the two run together. An owner who wants to move a fleet of Charge Pros onto a different OCPP management system is told to confirm compatibility with that provider directly.
Read plainly, the door is open but the warranty of experience stops at the threshold. Core charging should travel over OCPP; the polished, fully-supported version lives on EV Connect.
That is more open than a sealed system and less open than “buy it and run it anywhere.” It is the nuance a multi-site operator should nail down before scaling.
Where It Lands Against ChargePoint and Blink
Nobody gets a sticker price. Final pricing varies by configuration, software package, channel, and project scope, and Schneider routes buyers to a representative for a quote. What the company would offer is market positioning, attributed and worth taking as such.
By Schneider’s own account, Charge Pro is priced in line with Blink’s single-port commercial chargers, and it claims a lower total cost of ownership than comparable ChargePoint platforms once included software, commissioning, warranty coverage, and ongoing operating costs are counted. The bundled first year of EV Connect Software+ is the thumb on that scale, trimming the upfront network fee that competitors often bill separately.
It is a coherent argument. It is also the vendor’s argument, resting on a year-two subscription cost that has not been published, the figure that decides whether the total-cost math holds past month twelve.
Made in Vietnam, Serviced by Committee
Two practical details round out the picture. Charge Pro is manufactured in Vietnam, a relevant note in a year when tariffs and country-of-origin sit near the top of any infrastructure buyer’s mind. And the rollout is staged: the United States now, Canada later in 2026.
When a unit does fail, the service path runs through the network first. The five-year hardware warranty is Schneider’s, but the first call goes to EV Connect support, which can diagnose many connectivity, configuration, and account problems remotely, no truck required.
Knottier hardware or firmware issues pull in Schneider and EV Connect together. If someone has to physically show up, that is the original installer or another qualified provider, dispatched based on the fault and the warranty terms. Schneider names Qmerit as its certified installation partner for getting units in the ground in the first place.
For a buyer, the upside of that model is a single accountable name and a lot of problems solved without a site visit. The thing to verify is response time when a visit is unavoidable, since “a qualified provider will be engaged” is a process, not a clock.
Which loops back to the one number Schneider would not give.
On the sourcing: This coverage draws on Schneider Electric’s public July 22 launch and on written answers the company provided to The Weekly Driver, attributed to Shawn Bonacorsi. Competitive-positioning and total-cost claims are Schneider’s own and are framed that way; ongoing software pricing and any uptime guarantee were not disclosed. Product images are Schneider Electric press photos. No payment or product was exchanged for this article.
Bottom Line
Charge Pro is a credible entry, not because it out-specs the field but because Schneider is selling something the field has struggled to deliver: one company answerable for the hardware, the software, and the fix. The integration is real, the QR-and-wallet payment flow is a genuine friction cut, and Free Vend mode means a lapsed subscription doesn’t strand a working charger. The open questions are the ones that decide a fleet-scale rollout, and Schneider left two of them open. There is no published uptime guarantee and no year-two software price, and the OCPP openness comes with the full experience fenced to EV Connect. For a workplace or apartment operator tired of chasing four vendors to keep two chargers alive, the pitch will land. Just get the availability commitment and the renewal cost in writing before the fleet grows past a handful.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Schneider Charge Pro?
Charge Pro is Schneider Electric’s commercial Level 2 EV charger for the United States, launched July 22, 2026. It bundles the charging hardware, EV Connect Software+ network management, commissioning, driver support, and a five-year hardware warranty into a single Schneider-backed solution aimed at workplaces, apartment communities, fleets, and destination sites.
How much power does the Charge Pro deliver?
Each unit is a single-port charger offered in two levels: 48 amps (11.5 kW) or 80 amps (19.2 kW). The full rated output goes to the one connected vehicle, limited only by the car’s onboard charger and any site load management. There is no amperage splitting between ports.
Does the Charge Pro support both J1772 and NACS?
Yes, but not on the same unit. Buyers choose a J1772 or a NACS model at order time, and both connector types are available in the 48-amp and 80-amp configurations. A single charger carries one cable, not both.
What happens after the first year of EV Connect Software+?
One year of EV Connect Software+ and Standard Support is included at activation. Before it ends, EV Connect notifies the owner of renewal options, including a four-year software extension and bundles with EV Connect Shield support. Ongoing subscription pricing had not been published as of launch.
Can a Charge Pro still charge if the software subscription lapses?
Yes. If the subscription is not renewed, the charger switches to Free Vend mode and continues charging vehicles. It loses the networked features, including driver authentication, payment processing, and charging management, but the hardware does not stop working.
How do drivers pay at a Charge Pro?
A driver scans the QR code on the unit, which opens a mobile web page with station details and pricing. Payment goes through a digital wallet like Apple Pay or Google Pay, or a credit card via the EV Connect app. No account or app download is required for the wallet flow. Site hosts set flat-rate or per-kWh pricing and receive session revenue through their EV Connect account.
Is the Charge Pro OCPP compliant?
Charge Pro supports OCPP-based communication and is built around open standards, so it is not a closed system. However, Schneider only guarantees full performance, features, and user experience on its own EV Connect platform. An owner wanting to run the chargers on a different OCPP management system should confirm compatibility with that provider first.
Does Schneider guarantee a Charge Pro uptime percentage?
Schneider did not name a target availability percentage or a formal service-level guarantee. It points to EV Connect Software+ with 24/7 monitoring, proactive support, and remote troubleshooting as the tools meant to keep chargers available. Buyers should confirm any uptime commitment in their contract.
How does Charge Pro pricing compare to ChargePoint and Blink?
Schneider does not publish a per-port price and quotes each project individually. By its own account, Charge Pro is positioned in line with Blink’s single-port commercial chargers and claims a lower total cost of ownership than comparable ChargePoint platforms once software, commissioning, warranty, and operating costs are included. Those are Schneider’s claims, and the year-two software cost that affects them was not disclosed.
Where is the Charge Pro made and where is it available?
Charge Pro is manufactured in Vietnam. It launches in the United States, with expansion to Canada planned later in 2026. Installation runs through Schneider’s channel partners, with Qmerit named as its certified installation partner.
Who handles repairs under the five-year warranty?
The first step is EV Connect support, which can remotely diagnose many connectivity, configuration, and account issues. More complex hardware or firmware problems bring in Schneider and EV Connect together. If an on-site visit is needed, the original installer or another qualified service provider is dispatched based on the issue and the warranty terms.
Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn is the writer, photographer, and publisher behind The Weekly Driver. He cares about how cars drive and what they're like to own. He covers automobile industry news, car shows and events, and new car reviews. The reviews come from behind the wheel: day trips that favor back routes, treating a good meal as half the reason to go. He directs and produces the visual media, matching each car to a setting and mood that fit it. When he's not reviewing new cars, Michael races paddleboards, camels, and ostriches, along with the occasional exotic car on the racetrack, and has driven in every state and country visited.
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