USA: Amazon now installs EV charging stations for Kia

Kia Motors America has signed Amazon as the distributor for the company’s EV charging stations, including facilitation of installation. Kia is the second carmaker after Audi to take the online (and becoming offline) giant up on the offer.

This means buyers of Kia’s electric and plug-in hybrid models in the U.S. are now offered home chargers with installation booking and facilitation included from a single source via Amazon.

Kia is only the second carmaker to do so as Audi has been using the Amazon service as well, thus offering a turnkey solution that can be directly ordered online, including scheduling the installation. This new offline services approach, however, builds on Amazon having steadily been growing into the EV charging business with a range of home charging products available. Now the company is starting to take a larger share of the market by partnering directly with automobile manufacturers and using the so-called Amazon Home Services department to facilitate installation services in a bundle, which will help streamline the process for new EV drivers.

Orth Hedrick, director of planning and telematics at Kia adds: “Home-charging can’t get any easier than this. Being able to order a Level 2 charger and installation through Amazon further demystifies and simplifies the experience for new Kia EV and PHEV owners.”

In the case of Kia, Amazon has created a ‘Charge my Kia‘ portal on their page. While the carmaker has opted to officially partner with Bosch for the charging solution, Amazon on their marketplace is also advertising other competitors such as ChargePoint and Juicebox to homeowners driving a Kia electric car.

The installation offer is part of the Amazon Home Services, which is a marketplace for everything around the house. Only that the tradespeople and cleaning experts will now be joined by electricians determined by Amazon to be qualified to install a charging station.

electrek.co, engadget.com, kiamedia.com

Additional reporting by Nora Manthey.