Chargie has launched an online service to allow electric vehicle drivers to book a charge at domestic chargepoints across the UK.
Users will be able to access the domestic, wall-mounted chargepoints of other electric vehicle owners signed-up to the service.
The company says that although Chargie was designed to focus on home chargepoints, there has been an unexpectedly positive response from B&B and hotel owners, who see that having bookable charging at their locations will appeal to EV travellers either as a lunch stop or as a destination.
Chargie co-founder Jan Stannard said: “Chargie will start to change the way EV drivers think about charging options.
"At the moment, they think about ‘home’ charging and ‘pit-stop’ charging at a motorway or similar public chargepoint.
"With Chargie, they have ‘stop-off’ and ‘destination’ charging, with the advantage of a formalised booking system and a charge you can rely on while you shop, attend a meeting, or charge overnight when on holiday.”
The way Chargie works shares several characteristics with Airbnb’s web-based hospitality marketplace.
The EV owner wanting to charge their car finds an exterior-wall-mounted chargepoint on the Chargie website and sends a booking request to the owner.
The owner can then review the profile of the person making the booking before accepting or declining it. Once the booking is accepted, the user pays via Chargie and the system contacts both parties to confirm details.
The chargepoint owner specifies their per-charge cost when they register on Chargie and Chargie adds a small service fee, which is halved if the person has already put their own chargepoint on the network.
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