In my two years at NIO, I was fortunate enough to be able to work on some products that have since hit the market. Those products include the EV charger family consisting of a small home charge, a faster DC charger as well as the charging piles for the official NIO charging stations.
When designing the chargers we tried to visually merge the characteristic automotive shapes of the car into a small consumer product that typically is more minimalistic and has to merge into a home environment.
We went for a soft overall shape that now is applied throughout the family. The simple rounded rectangle is then broken up in the 3rd dimension by giving it a soft, spanned surface that in itself is interrupted by a strong receding edge, giving it the slightest hint towards the automotive sphere.
Technically the shape has been chosen to comfortably hold the charging cable and connector while giving easy access to all important interaction elements.
A small, unobtrusive LED light is signaling charging status, readiness or possible faults.
The design was carefully considered to be able to expand to a whole family of products, starting with the compact home charger. This approach also allows for as little tooling as possible, since the head shape can be molded in one piece. This also allows for customization options such as colors and finishes while the main body of the charger always stays the same.
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