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Meanwhile, Castañeda maintained his own interest
in the EV market, with a particular focus on the de-
sign and technology of motorsport. He remained close
friends with Asunción, and even served as the best man
at his wedding. In April 2015, Castañeda was attending
a different wedding when he received an unexpected
phone call from his best friend.
“Do you want to quit your job and start something
that can be interesting?” Asunción asked Castañeda.
Asunción’s experience working for Tesla had given him
insight into the issues of EV charging. He saw customers
become frustrated with charging problems like billing,
use times, and their EVs failing to charge overnight,
leaving them stranded in the morning. Asunción saw an
opportunity to create a smarter, better charging solution,
and he wanted his best friend along for the ride.
“Ok, why not?” Castañeda replied, confident in hisThe founding of Wallbox
Eduard Castañeda and Enric Asunción met on their first
day of university at UPC in Catalonia, and they’ve been
inseparable ever since. The pair spent their undergradu-
ate years focused on fuel cells, electronics, and renew-
able energy solutions, at one point designing the pro-
pulsion and powertrain of a robot for public spaces to
help people move around more easily. They didn’t know
it at the time, but the two best friends were priming
themselves for the company they would eventually start
together: Wallbox.
Asunción’s work was gaining recognition in the EV
industry, and he was offered a spot working for an EV
certification lab. Soon after, Asunción attracted the no-
tice of Tesla, and he moved on to a position as Program
Manager for Tesla in the Netherlands. His best friend
Castañeda recalled Asunción’s early success: “Enric was
the man at that point.”
THE INFRASTRUCTURE
Images courtesy of Wallbox