AMPECO team building this summer was held from 7th to 9th August and 11 members of the team spent a great time together. This time, we chose the Central Balkan region in Bulgaria and especially the region of Uzana where the geographical centre of the country is. Uzana is a winter resort in Bulgaria and it is located at the foot of Ispolin peak at 1,420 m above sea level, near the Bulgarka Nature Park in the Balkan Mountains.
The fully-electric concept of AMPECO teambuilding
The mission of AMPECO is to enable charge point operators and e-mobility service providers to start and grow their EV charging business. We wanted to add this “electric” flavour to the trip and organized all vehicles to be electric. All members of the team were excited and eager to drive all vehicles and share the experience. The team travelled by the following fully electric car fleet:
Tesla Model 3
The favourite one among all the team members – I am sure, you are not surprised!
We had the privilege of driving the Performance edition of Tesla Model 3 and it was a blast. All-Wheel Drive Dual Motor with 400+ km range did not need a single charge while the acceleration was the biggest hit among all. The other features that stand out among AMPECO R&D and sales teams were:
- 360° rear, side and forward-facing cameras which provide maximum visibility;
- 160 m forward-facing radar which provides a long-range view of distant objects;
- The expansive Glass Roof which provides more headroom and UV protection;
- The Autopilot advanced safety and convenience features which help the driver in the most inconvenient situations.
BMW i3 with Range Extender
The second favourite to Tesla Model 3 came in BMW i3 with Range Extender. Its stunning exterior design was approved by all colleagues at AMPECO. The gorgeous interior made the travel comfortable and cosy which ruined the “small car” prejudice of everyone.
You put your foot down, and it throws you back in your seat – not quite to the degree a Tesla does, but it’s definitely rapid enough. BMW claims the i3s can now sprint to highway pace in just 6.9 seconds – which is four-tenths faster than the regular i3.
Nissan Leaf 40
We added the Nissan Leaf 40 to AMPECO EV fleet by renting it from our friends from Travel by electric. The Nissan Leaf was surely the closest one to the ICE cars the colleagues were used to drive. It is extremely pleasant to drive and offers a maximum range of 280 km after a full charge of the 40 kWh battery.
With quite a lot of space, a comfortable ride and just enough range to get you where you are going, the Nissan Leaf is a solid EV – no wonder it is one of the best selling ones and very popular in Europe.
EV road trips during AMPECO team building
Early morning on Friday we gathered together on the meeting location in Sofia and headed to Uzana. We carefully prepared the trip to match the range every car is capable of and mitigate the energy losses caused by the high speeds on the motorway.
We charged the Nissan Leaf twice – on a petrol station fast charger near Pravets and a free public EV charging station in the car parking of a supermarket in Veliko Tarnovo. On the other hand, the BMW i3 got just a refresher of charging while waiting for the Leaf to reach 80% full battery in Tarnovo. The big winner, Tesla Model 3, was waiting impatiently without any need of charging to reach the final destination where a home-charger installed by e-cars.bg was available to charge all AMPECO electric vehicles.
Great views from Uzana
The criteria when choosing the hotel was not solely relied upon the availability of EV charging stations but also the location. We enjoyed two great days refreshing with the amazing mountain views and enjoying the fresh air in the region.
All colleagues needed to spend time and get to know each other because we had doubled the team since March 2020 and hadn’t seen the new colleagues in person. Most of the discussions were related to the future of electric vehicles and EV charging but we also found a lot of common interests among sports, camping, mountaineering and others. And let’s not forget the most important – we came out all to be great food lovers!
Strategy meeting in Bozhentsi
One of AMPECO team values is hard-working so it is not in our blood to skip the working part. On the second day, we did another EV road trip to the village of Bozhentsi, an architectural reserve situated 15 km east of Gabrovo, where we held two strategy sessions with the whole team on the future of the company.
In the first session, together with Stefan Ivanov (Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer) and Alexader Alexiev (Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer), we shared AMPECO company journey from the beginning until now – how the product evolved, how we found and won our first clients and all the lessons learned.
In the afternoon session, we discussed the plans for the future of the company and where we are heading. Every team member participated in the discussion and we all crafted and agreed on 6 main pillars to concentrate on and accelerate the future growth of the company:
- Technical excellence;
- Continuous innovation;
- Competitive product;
- Reliable service;
- Customer acquisition and retention;
- Strong team.
What’s next for AMPECO in 2020
The past year was a great success for Ampeco. Although COVID tried to slow us down for a month or two our business keeps growing month over month. We are building up our platform (new exciting features are soon to be announced), expanding our team and most importantly we are helping more and more customers worldwide to start and grow their EV charging business. We are successfully addressing the needs of different type of businesses – from public charge point operators to fleet operators and EV charge point installers.
