Starting this summer, California residential and commercial owners of electric vehicle charging stations enabled with eMotorWerks' JuiceNet smart-grid charging technology will have the opportunity to rent out charging time on their stations to EV drivers participating in a new peer to peer (P2P) network powered by MotionWerk's Share&Charge open platform. Share&Charge was founded by the innogy Innovation Hub whose purpose it is to evolve an innovation portfolio for innogy SE, Germany's leading energy company. The Share&Charge mobile app connects EV drivers with available residential and commercial EV charging stations and facilitates blockchain-based payments from visiting EV drivers to station owners. The new sharing platform aims to increase the availability of public charging stations and decrease range anxiety current and prospective EV drivers experience. This partnership marks the first peer to peer charging network to use blockchain technology in North America.
"In today's marketplace, the availability of public EV charging is still of concern to potential EV drivers. However, P2P charging opens the opportunity to break free of infrastructure limitations and gasoline oligopolies to access electricity for their cars," says Dietrich Sümmerman of Share&Charge. "By establishing networks of individuals willing to share their EV charging stations, we are opening up more charging options to EV drivers, while at the same time ensuring station owners are compensated accordingly. As one of the most popular EV charging solutions in the United States and Europe, eMotorWerks is the perfect partner for our debut in the United States. With this new sharing technology we are bringing to North America, we aim to prove how blockchain technology can make sharing and payment easier and more efficient. We are excited to enable anyone, from individual, to small company or large utility to share their charging stations for an accelerated growth of emobility."
Expanding its P2P charging network already established in Germany, Share&Charge leverages decentralized and transparent Ethereum-powered blockchain technology to allow people to interlink with each other to share and bill products and services securely and conveniently. Through the app, residential and commercial owners of JuiceNet enabled stations can share their charging asset with other EV drivers in the network. Meanwhile, any EV driver can download the Share&Charge app to see available charging facilities on a map and navigate to the closest charging station for charging. With a few clicks in the app, the station owners can choose the times to share their service with others and set the price to charge visiting drivers.
California owners of any JuiceNet enabled devices who would like to share their charging stations are eligible to participate in the new P2P network, but initial participation will be limited on a first-come first-serve basis. Currently compatible devices include charging stations such as eMotorWerks JuiceBox Pro, Aerovironment EVSE-RS JuiceNet Edition, Clipper Creek HCS-40 JuiceNet Edition, and Nayax EVMeter. Additionally, the new service is compatible with eMotorWerks' JuicePlug smart-grid charging adapter that allows any charging station by any manufacturer to participate in the program. All drivers of an electric vehicle can sign up to make use of the shared residential charging stations.
"One common issue we see in the growth of EV adoption is 'range anxiety,' which stems from an overall lack of charging stations for some shorter-range EVs currently on the market. To accelerate the EV revolution, we must increase the number of charging options available," says Val Miftakhov, CEO of eMotorWerks. "By allowing individuals and companies both small and large to make their stations accessible to the public, and to be be paid for their use, station owners gain the opportunity to have their station pay for itself over time, while drivers can feel confident in knowing they'll always have enough charge to get where they are going."
The joint pilot program between eMotorWerks and Share&Charge is slated to begin August 1 of 2017. Users can sign up to participate for the program by filling out the registration form on eMotorWerks website or by sending an email to shareandcharge@emotorwerks.com.
(Photo Source: eMotorWerks)