App to ease ‘range and charge anxiety’

An app for electric vehicle journey planning popular in Norway is being adapted for New Zealand EV users.

Auckland energy company Vector and Dutch start-up Chargetrip have teamed up to ease ‘range and charge anxiety’ by tailoring the app for New Zealand conditions and to individual drivers.

Range anxiety describes the stress experienced when a destination is beyond the EV’s range, while charge anxiety is caused by charging station queues.

The similar Chargetrip service has been used by more than 50,000 EV drivers in Norway, and the adapted app will offer Kiwi EV drivers route planning and navigation guidance, suggesting optimal charge stops along the way.

Elemental Excelerator – a growth accelerator that has funded more than 50 projects globally – is helping fund the app’s adaptation here.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Chargetrip, with support from Elemental, to create a tool that improves the overall experience for EV owners, who we know have very different needs compared to drivers of internal combustion engines,” Vector group chief executive Simon Mackenzie says.

“We have invested in new EV related technologies such as Vehicle-to-Home, which allows EVs to become mobile sources of energy and we are now excited to be working towards improving the user experience for EV drivers.”

The app will include information for public charging locations throughout New Zealand, their availability (to avoid queues), as well as real-time assessment of environmental factors that can impact EV batteries, such as topography and temperature.

It will utilise data from the NZ Transport Agency’s EVRoam database of public EV charging infrastructure.

EVRoam collects data directly from EV charging infrastructure providers and freely distributes it to a wide range of transport maps, apps and websites.

The app will also inform people about their carbon dioxide savings per journey and will be compatible with every EV type.

“Range anxiety, waiting lines, and complex logistics are some of the biggest hurdles to rapid EV adoption,” Chargetrip chief executive officer Gideon van Dijk says.

Elemental Excelerator managing director Ramsay Siegal says the project is a perfect example of how start-ups and utilities can collaborate for transformative change.
“We’re excited to share lessons from New Zealand to support faster EV adoption worldwide.”