KYLE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 29, 2026--
XCharge North America (XCharge NA), the North American subsidiary of XCHG Limited (Nasdaq: XCH) and a provider of high-power EV charging and battery-integrated solutions designed to strengthen the North American electrical grid, today announced that its flagship product, GridLink, has been named a winner in the 2026 Environment+Energy Leader Awards. The annual program recognizes companies delivering measurable progress in energy management, environmental performance, and sustainability.
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Award-Winning Innovation
GridLink was recognized as a 2026 Judges' Choice Winner in the Business + Infrastructure category for its impact enabling high-power charging in locations where traditional chargers cannot be deployed due to grid limitations, cost, or timeline constraints. This recognition reflects XCharge NA’s commitment to delivering measurable results and helping organizations navigate increasingly complex environmental and energy challenges.
Winners span categories including product innovation, project implementation, startup advancement, and organizational leadership.
GridLink combines DC fast charging, energy storage, and bidirectional energy capabilities into a single, infrastructure-grade system. By reducing reliance on utility upgrades and enabling faster, more flexible installation, GridLink expands access to EV charging while improving grid efficiency, resilience, and overall infrastructure scalability. Each unit supports up to 300 kW of DC fast charging while operating on lower-capacity grid connections, eliminating the need for major utility upgrades in many deployments. The system’s dual-input (208V/480V) compatibility expands installation flexibility across diverse site conditions, while its bidirectional capability enables participation in demand response and distributed energy resource (DER) programs, transforming the charger from a passive load into an active grid asset.
GridLink has been deployed at more than 50 sites across the United States and Canada, delivering over 1.1 GWh of energy in 2024, reflecting sustained utilization across commercial, fleet, and public charging environments. The solution reduces required grid capacity by an estimated 50–80% compared to conventional DC fast charging, enabling deployment in locations that would otherwise be infeasible. It also lowers operating costs for site hosts by up to 30% through off-peak energy management and demand charge reduction. In addition, GridLink systems contributed to avoiding approximately 2.91 million pounds of CO₂ emissions in 2024 by reducing reliance on carbon-intensive peak power.
A Testament to Excellence
Recognition from Environment+Energy Leader highlights GridLink as a standout example of innovation and performance in today’s evolving energy and sustainability landscape.
“As organizations navigate an increasingly dynamic and uncertain operating environment, the ability to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and deliver measurable results has never been more critical,” said Sarah Roberts, Co-President and Publisher of Environment+Energy Leader. “This year’s winners demonstrate the innovation and leadership required to move forward with clarity and impact.”
About XCharge North America
XCharge North America (XCharge NA) specializes in high-power EV charging and battery-integrated solutions tailored to the North American electrical grid. With solutions that store energy, improve grid resilience, and create new revenue streams, XCharge NA is the first scalable open-access EV charging solution designed to strengthen the country’s electrical grid and broader energy infrastructure while providing charging solutions for EVs from individual to fleet. To learn more, please see www.xcharge.us.
About the Environment + Energy Leader Awards
Now in its 14th year, the Environment+Energy Leader Awards program recognizes excellence across products, projects, startups and organizational initiatives that deliver meaningful advancements in environmental programs, sustainability, and energy management. Entries are evaluated by an independent panel of industry experts, with a focus on innovation, scalability, and measurable impact. Winners are recognized as leaders in advancing best practices and setting new standards across the global energy and environmental landscape.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Such statements are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about XCHG Limited's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “objective,” “target,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in XCHG Limited’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and XCHG Limited does not undertake any duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
XCharge North America's GridLink solar-plus-storage DC fast-charging station in partnership with Wildhorse Resort & Casino's Arrowhead Travel Plaza.
PARIS (AP) — Activists worldwide will march in May Day rallies Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as many workers grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
The day is a public holiday in many countries, and demonstrations, some of which have turned violent in the past, are expected in many of the world's major cities.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organizations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
In the United States, activists opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.
Here’s what to know about May Day.
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East are expected to be a key theme in Friday's rallies.
In the Philippines' capital of Manila, protest organizers said they expect big crowds of workers. “There will be a louder call for higher wages and economic relief because of the unprecedented spikes in fuel prices,” Renato Reyes, a leader of the left-wing political group Bayan, told The Associated Press.
“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.
In Indonesia, labor unions have warned against worsening economic pressures at home. “Workers are already living paycheck to paycheck,” said Said Iqbal, president of the Indonesian Trade Union Confederation.
In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.
“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.
Rising oil prices have fueled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16%, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.
Workers' unions traditionally use May Day to rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues.
Protests are planned from Seoul, Jakarta and Istanbul to most European Union capitals and cities across the United States.
In France, unions called for demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere under the slogan “bread, peace and freedom,” linking workers’ daily concerns to conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros ($1.17 billion) in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labor abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda.”
In Portugal, proposed labor law changes by the center-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday — the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” workers' unions said in a joint statement.
Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to expand May Day work to people staffing bakeries and florists. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolizes social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labor code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
Activists and labor unions are organizing street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labor unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires.”
Voicing strong opposition to Trump's policies, organizers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping.”
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown,
While labor and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the U.S. shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would’ve made living in the U.S. without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, traces back more than a century to a pivotal period in U.S. labor history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally turned deadly when a bomb exploded and police responded with gunfire. Several labor activists — most of them immigrants — were convicted of conspiracy and other charges; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honor workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
May Day is now observed in much of the world from Europe to Latin America, Africa and Asia.
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AP journalists Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, Giada Zampano in Rome, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this story.
Union members carefully step through rain-formed puddles to participate in a May Day rally in the rain Friday, May 1, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
People march to mark International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, in Sydney, Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
FILE - Activist and workers raise their clenched fists during a May Day rally in Manila, Philippines, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)
Laborers protest during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Laborers hold flares during a May Day demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. The banner in center reading as 'red salute to the martyrs of Chicago and the struggle will continue until economic exploitation is ended' (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
Members of trade unions take part in a rally a day ahead of the International Labor Day, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Raza)
