What is the VCS One?

Power to You

The VCS One was developed to enable electricity from your home to be safely delivered over the footpath in front of your house, to your car when it’s parked in the street.

We gained approval from the City of Merri-Bek to conduct a trial group of installations with this product.

The core of the solution was a swivelling boom that is counterweighted and hinged, mounted on a slim post. The boom folded out effortlessly when needed, automatically lifting to a safe height above the footpath. When not in use, the boom folded back elegantly against the slim post.
The boom supported a fifteen metre EV charging cable which was supplied with the installation. Our standard offering was that the cable was designed to plug into a normal power point, which would be sufficient for most drivers, and keeps cost to a minimum.

Charging an EV from a power point can deliver up to 200km of range overnight, depending on the car. Most inner-city EV drivers don’t drive more than about 40km per day, so would only need to top up once or twice a week this way.
For drivers who required higher power charging, or the ability to fully recharge an EV overnight, we offered higher power options.

Fast and Easy

The installation work is undertaken entirely on the private property, rather than including works on or under the footpath in front of the home. This means that the amount of co-ordination with local council is much less than what is needed for other approaches.

The installation also avoids installing permanent or temporary electrical wiring that crosses property boundaries, which saves a lot of safety and compliance work.

These factors make the whole installation process faster and easier. The installation of the core hardware is no more complex than the installation of a fence post.

SPACING ONLY. CLEAR FORMATTING TO MAKE TEXT.

Safe and Reliable.

At VCSA, we’re not fans of EV charging approaches that disrupt the quality of the footpath. Our local governments spend a lot of time and effort making our footpaths usable, not just for pedestrians, but also for kids on scooters, parents with prams, people in wheelchairs or on mobility scooters, and even our friendly Postie.

Adding speed bumps to our footpaths, in the form of protective covers over extension leads, worsens our urban environment. EV drivers have a right to charge their cars, but that right doesn’t trump the right of a person to easily get around their local streets.

This is why the VCS One stays well above the footpath when in use, and out of the public space entirely when it’s not in use.

For the owner, safety and reliability is built into the VCS One product.

Using a counterweight, rather than a spring, adds a little cost – but it means that the boom doesn’t make sudden movements.

The charging cable we offer as standard has built in temperature sensing where it connects to the house. We do this because while there’s only been one case in Australia across over 300,000 cars of an EV charging cable causing a fire – once is one too many.

The charging cable is rated for complete dust tightness, and against high pressure water jets – not just against ‘a bit of wet weather’. Because we can.

The design is inspired by the old Hills Hoist. It’s much stronger, harder, and tougher than it needs to be… because we know that as part of an Australian home, it’ll be expected to endure everything that the weather, the kids, and the occasional careless grown-up throw at it!

We offer a two year warranty, and we’re pretty comfortable it’s not going to be called on much.