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BETA Technologies Receives UL Certification for its Charge Cube, the company’s latest fast electric charging product

BETA Tech­nolo­gies has received UL cer­ti­fi­ca­tion on its Charge Cube, the lat­est in the company’s fam­i­ly of elec­tric charg­ing prod­ucts being rolled out in a con­nect­ed net­work across the U.S. 

This cer­ti­fi­ca­tion — which was grant­ed by UL, a nation­al­ly recog­nised test­ing lab­o­ra­to­ry — con­firms BETA’s Charge Cube is com­pli­ant with safe­ty reg­u­la­tions and stan­dards. This cer­ti­fi­ca­tion fol­lows exten­sive elec­tri­cal, mechan­i­cal, envi­ron­men­tal, and elec­tro­mag­net­ic com­pat­i­bil­i­ty test­ing, includ­ing rel­e­vant por­tions of IEC 61000 for elec­tro­mag­net­ic com­pli­ance.

With this, the Charge Cube can now be per­mit­ted to meet the imme­di­ate needs for elec­tric air­craft and ground EV charg­ing. The UL cer­ti­fi­ca­tion also dras­ti­cal­ly sim­pli­fies the per­mit­ting process for elec­tri­cal util­i­ty hook-up.  

Chip Palom­bi­ni, BETA’s Head of Charge Prod­uct, said: “Hav­ing the only UL-cer­ti­fied charg­er designed specif­i­cal­ly for elec­tric air­craft pro­vides our cus­tomers with a sense of con­fi­dence and safe­ty in our prod­ucts as they pre­pare for future oper­a­tions. BETA is focused on the inter­op­er­a­ble ground sup­port equip­ment that will enable elec­tric avi­a­tion right along­side the actu­al elec­tric air­craft.

“To receive this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion from a nation­al­ly rec­og­nized lab like UL val­i­dates what all of us in this indus­try are work­ing toward. It demon­strates that the tech­nol­o­gy is ready for the mar­ket, and our grow­ing list of cus­tomers proves that the mar­ket is ready for this tech­nol­o­gy.”

BETA’s Charge Cube is designed to opti­mize for safe­ty, inter­op­er­abil­i­ty, sim­plic­i­ty, and effi­cien­cy. The charger’s 50-foot cord is the longest of any cer­ti­fied charg­er avail­able and it works along­side BETA’s Ther­mal Man­age­ment Sys­tem (TMS), offer­ing increased option­al­i­ty for a vari­ety of air­craft designs and ground oper­a­tion needs.

Like all of BETA’s charge prod­ucts, the Charge Cube is mul­ti­modal and inter­op­er­a­ble, uti­liz­ing an inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized charg­ing stan­dard (CCS) to ensure com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with elec­tric cars, trucks and air­planes. 

CCS has been adopt­ed glob­al­ly as the charg­ing pro­to­col for elec­tric avi­a­tion through the pub­li­ca­tion by Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion Man­u­fac­tur­ers Asso­ci­a­tion resource paper, Inter­op­er­abil­i­ty of Elec­tric Charg­ing Infra­struc­ture, and by EUROCAE ED-308 — Guid­ance on VTOL Charg­ing Infra­struc­ture

Palom­bi­ni added: “We look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to roll out our charg­ers and mak­ing our net­work as dense as pos­si­ble as avi­a­tion com­pa­nies and oper­a­tors pre­pare for what comes next.”

The newest gen­er­a­tion of Charge Cube will join BETA’s grow­ing net­work of charg­ers across the U.S. and Cana­da. To date, BETA has cer­ti­fied charg­ers online at more than20 air­ports across Amer­i­ca, with anoth­er 50+ air­ports, heli­ports, and ver­ti­ports in devel­op­ment.

As with its all-elec­tric air­craft, the company’s charg­ers have been pur­chased by a diverse mix of cus­tomers, includ­ing the U.S. Depart­ment of Defense, U.S. air­ports, oth­er elec­tric air­craft devel­op­ers like Archer, and glob­al fixed base oper­a­tors like Sig­na­ture Avi­a­tion and Atlantic Avi­a­tion.

The growth of BETA’s charge net­work is designed to increase access to elec­tric avi­a­tion. With its reduced oper­a­tional ener­gy costs and sig­nif­i­cant green­house gas emis­sion reduc­tion, elec­tric avi­a­tion will enable region­al air mobil­i­ty and unlock new mis­sion sets that allow for more effi­cient car­go car­ry­ing and com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tions. 

The charg­er has proved com­pli­ance to numer­ous UL stan­dards, includ­ing UL 2202, Elec­tric Vehi­cle Charg­ing Sys­tem Equip­ment (AC to DC); UL 2231–1 Per­son­nel Pro­tec­tion Sys­tems for Elec­tric Vehi­cle Sup­ply Cir­cuits – Gen­er­al Require­ments; and UL 2231–2 Per­son­nel Pro­tec­tion Sys­tems for Elec­tric Vehi­cle Sup­ply Cir­cuits – Pro­tec­tive Devices for Use in Charg­ing Sys­tems, includ­ing Sec­tion 24 Elec­tro­mag­net­ic Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty and IEC 6100 Elec­tro­mag­net­ic Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty test­ing.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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