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All owners of electric vehicles familiar with "the fear of the short cord," that is, fear to remain without charge, before reaching a suitable outlet. How to deal with the problem?

You can ask about this phobia Norwegians, because in this country the largest number of electric vehicles per capita. A list of new words years compiled by the Language Council of Norway in 2013, includes the word "rekkeviddeangst", which in Norwegian means the same fear to go too far from points of recharging. Even in the new racing championship Formula E for electric vehicles it is for this reason require two cars for one driver.

Indeed, the fear of discharge of the battery is one of the main reasons for the slow spread of electric vehicles. One way to solve this problem is creating cars with superior, more capacious batteries. The other way is the invention of a vast network of charging stations. The first version of years occupied the minds of scientists. The second method is constrained by the amount of costs; only one (relatively small) country — Estonia — has managed so far to create a nationwide network.

But if you could create a network without major capital investment? This decision is trying to implement a British startup Pod Point throughout the United Kingdom and its founders just raised more than $ 1.9 million in investments through crowdfunding. At first glance, Pod Point is not much different from the American company Charge Point. Neither the company do not invest their own money in the construction of the nationwide network of charging stations. Model Pod Point based on the selling (or leasing) of equipment companies that can offer charging for a price or for free, depending on their wishes. Major supermarket chain Sainsbury's has installed 176 points recharging in its stores across the country. Heathrow and Gatwick airports are also using the charger Pod Point.

CEO Eric Fairburne says that this model encourages the installation of charging devices exactly where they are in demand, as noted by the stores or interested entrepreneurs. The availability of charging stations in busy public areas also helps reduce the "fear of short cord". If the charger will be located in places where people are most often left on Parking their cars, for example, in malls or office buildings, this will allow them less to think about how much energy they have left to get home.

Pod Point earns not only on equipment but also on the provision of services. Customers use offer for pricing. Individuals — mobile app to pay for energy. And found a new, third way of making a profit: Fairburne says Pod Point conducts negotiations with the national utility company on the issue of supplying power at peak hours. He States:

"We can suspend the process of charging all consumers for 60 seconds". This will allow the utility company to balance the load in the network in accordance with power consumption. Pod Point will receive a Commission for these services.

Company Pod Point is still low. She put about 17 thousand chargers, most of which are used in private homes or for internal purposes of companies (such as charging the vehicle fleet). About 1.3 thousand devices intended for public use, says Fairburne.

But now the company is focused on growth: Pod Point has collected more than the goal of 1.9 million dollars on the crowdfunding website Seedrs, and the campaign is still almost four weeks. In exchange for this amount, the company will give 7% of its shares. Investors have every reason to believe in success: Fairburne says the company is already profitable. The growing popularity of electric vehicles are also unlikely to slow down: sale of working only on electric traction cars in the UK in the period January to October grew by 144% compared to the same period last year.

Source: insider.pro/EN/article/3114/