Blockchain EV Charging Envisioned

Announcements, Blockchain, Group, Innovation, News | July 14, 2017 By:

eMotorWerks, the creator of JuiceNet, an IoT platform that organizes distributed networks of electric vehicle charging stations, has partnered with Share&Charge to develop a blockchain-based payment system.

The companies will run a pilot in California starting August 1 for a service that will let individuals and small businesses whose homes have charging stations sell their electricity to EV car owners, with transactions paid for on the ethereum blockchain.

The Share&Charge mobile app will connect 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.

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. 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.

“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,” said 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.”

“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,” said 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.”