{"id":338011,"date":"2017-04-11T01:54:26","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T17:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1474942"},"modified":"2017-04-11T01:54:26","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T17:54:26","slug":"char-gy-taps-into-lampposts-to-charge-your-electric-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/char-gy-taps-into-lampposts-to-charge-your-electric-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Char.gy taps into lampposts to charge your electric car"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you have a garage with a power socket, an electric car makes an awful lot of sense. If you park on the street, however, the infrastructural challenge of keeping your electron-powered vehicle topped up becomes complicated enough that perhaps sticking to driving on squished dinosaurs makes sense for a while longer.\u00a0Until Char.gy<\/a>\u00a0comes along, that is.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventy-two percent of drivers in London don\u2019t have off-street parking,\u201d says Richard Stobart, CEO of the London-based Char.gy. \u201cIf you want an electric car, not being able to charge at home is a major disincentive.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, in a world where people want to drive electric cars, cities are trying to clean up the air and car makers want to\u00a0sell<\/em> electric cars, how do you take on the not insignificant challenge of charging car batteries in a dense and fast-moving city such as London? You tap into other, already existing infrastructure, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want to charge their cars while they are doing something else, preferably when they are parked at home and asleep in their beds,\u201d Stobart points out, and offers a solution. The company has\u00a0developed charge points that connect to the existing street furniture: Lampposts. Makes sense: The cables are already there, the local government owns them, and once you\u2019ve gone that far, you may as well make the next couple of logical steps. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur\u00a0vision is that there will be several lampposts near your home with a charge-point that you can park near to charge overnight,\u201d Richard explains. \u201cWe are developing a platform to manage the charging too, using a business model not dissimilar from mobile phone contracts. Users pay a monthly fee for access to the charge points and a free allocation of charge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The early-stage company is running a pilot program with Richmond Council in London, installing a number of units in Barnes and Kew, with the first charging points appearing later this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to create a win-win solution for everyone, not least local government,\u201d says Stobart, addressing part of the challenge of building a marketplace with multiple players. \u201cWe are making it seamless and effectively free for the councils and solving the problem of half of all public charge points being out of service.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" If you have a garage with a power socket, an electric car makes an awful lot of sense. If you park on the street, however, the infrastructural challenge of keeping your electron-powered vehicle topped up becomes complicated enough that perhaps sticking to driving on squished dinosaurs makes sense for a while longer. Until Char.gy comes along, that is. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a> <\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\/ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5817,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[59,66,26],"class_list":["post-338011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-media","tag-techcrunch","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}