One key barrier to EV adoption is off-road charging facilities, or a lack of access to them. From lack of a private driveway to needing landlord permission, many can struggle to find suitable off-road parking facilities for their potential EV.
‘GoPlugable’ was created to address the problem and presents a community EV charger sharing solution. Many off-road EV chargers are left unused during the day, opening up potential for others who need to charge their EV and have no access to a private charger.
GoPlugable users are able to rent out EV chargers from neighbours, or those in there surrounding area, for an agreed cost at an agreed time – in theory, making the process simple and stress-free for both user and host.
Frankie Youd spoke with Maebh Reynolds, CEO, GoPlugable, to learn more about how users become involved and to highlight the importance of EVs when it comes to encouraging women into the automotive space.
Frankie Youd (FY): How did you get into the automotive space and create GoPlugable?
Maebh Reynolds (MR): I am from Belfast in Northern Ireland. My background is in mechanical engineering. I studied at Queen’s and did my Masters Degree there. I was always very much surrounded by a lot of petrolheads as you can imagine. I’ve taken a bit of a career pivot into the EV industry, which is a really great industry to be in.
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By GlobalDataAbout two years ago, I met my co-founder Andrine Mendez, and he had told me about his experience of switching to an EV. Essentially, his landlord would not let him install the home charger, which was super-frustrating after he had just bought his first Nissan Leaf. Back then, the public infrastructure wasn’t where it quite is today. At that time he got by through borrowing his neighbour’s EV charger, and then paying his neighbour cash to borrow it two nights a week.
Having learned from his experience, we decided why don’t we commercialise on this concept? There are hundreds of thousands of home chargers or private business chargers that aren’t being fully utilised, or in the home that perhaps are only use twice or three times at night during the week.
We thought: why don’t we create a marketplace where people can receive a return on investment on their home charger? In the process they would also meet other EV drivers in their community. This would offer a way for people to book chargers in advance when they know there is a need and take out the pain-points arising from using public infrastructure alone.
How do people become involved with GoPlugable?
We’re currently live on Apple and Android Play stores. Usually, users will download the app after a referral – typically someone that lives near them. For example, this could be a neighbour that has a home charger, and from that you can receive some referral credit, as well, to use in the app and give it a go.
When you download the app, you can instantly view a map of charger hosts that are in your area, or you can go through our onboarding process where you would give your name and address. We also go through an extra step of user verification just to enhance the security of our platform. With a quick selfie and a picture of your driver’s licence we’re able to verify your identity and that offers a lot of peace of mind to our hosts as well.
From the host side you would simply state what charging hardware you have, take a picture of it, take a picture of how to access the charger, just so there’s no surprises when anyone turns up – especially if anyone has any accessibility needs. They can judge suitability before making a booking.
A charging host would also give their availability. If a host prefers to have someone come and charge while they’re at home, they can specify those days. Or if a host is not too picky as to someone coming to charge when they’re not in the home at all, they can choose their preference.
They also choose their charging rates and prices. So of course, depending on what EV charging tariff you’re using, you would give your price and then add a small mark-up. If you’re living in an urban area, you can also add a parking fee, which is quite a unique feature. In theory, the charging hosts can charge whatever they like. However, there is a pop-up that will inform you of the average pricing in your area, just so you don’t become outcompeted by other hosts that are around you.
Then the customer who wants to charge can use the app to compare different prices and different charger speeds. They then schedule their booking. Once the booking has been approved, they get the exact address of the host.
Could you discuss the community events that the company hosts?
We host a lot of community-based events. We’ve had them in Belfast, Dublin, and Drogheda in Ireland. We’ve called the series ‘Electric Circle’. It’s more of a B2C concept, with a community approach where we bring EV drivers together and people who have questions around EVs. We also have some speakers on for ten minutes to discuss what the whole journey looks like from a different aspects and perspectives.
We just finished our Belfast edition. We have been doing them every quarter over the last year. It’s brilliant because then we can take some of our partnerships and really leverage those as well.
It’s great because in each localised area there are different, smaller businesses and installers who we can bring on board to share what they’re doing as a small business and be able to reach out to the wider community.
I think that in the EV industry there are so many of B2B events and there is a lot of business to be done of course, but I think we’re really missing that consumer-led dimension that isn’t just for full-on EV enthusiasts, but also for people that are in the middle, or have questions.
At a lot of our events, it’s 99% male turnout, and we don’t get a lot of female turnout. I think it’s that idea of people being worried that if they go to a car event that they don’t want to appear uninformed, or silly, if they ask a basic question.
I think by having these approachable events where people can all come together and break down those barriers, and just have a very casual conversation about EVs, we will hopefully get to a point where we can have more diversity and representation, too. Women drive most of the buying decisions at home, so it only makes sense that they’re present at these types of events and learn what it is like to buy an EV, drive one and fit it to their lifestyle.
Do you think that the design and features of EVs will encourage more women to become involved with the automotive industry?
I think the great thing about EVs is all the integrations and software that come with them. I think it’s certainly very helpful, especially if you’re the one who does the school run and you’re trying to decide what solution works to get from A to B. Or you have a screen there that you can keep your kids occupied when you’re driving. There are lots of features that are very attractive for women and mothers as well, which is what we’ve heard a lot these events recently.
It’s about making it a very approachable market. At the very start of my journey in this business, coming from an engineering background, I’m used to a very male-dominated space, but I think with EVs it’s even more heightened, which is quite surprising.
It is a very supportive industry, for lots of men and women who are doing amazing things and are very supportive and coming together on this one mission just to make it more accessible for everyone.
I would love for other women to see that about the industry as well, from a consumer level.
What are your thoughts on UK Government goals when it comes to public EV charging infrastructure?
It would be very welcome if it did come into play. I think with uncertainty over the date for the stop of pure petrol and diesel car sales, it is hard to judge what the EV market will be like further out.
A lot of it is driven by policy, but at the same time I feel like a lot of smaller companies and those that are really driving innovation have a huge role to play as well. I think a lot of smaller EV companies, or ones that are just coming into the industry, are really driving that change.
Who knows what will happen policy-wise, but this is what people really want. There are a huge amount of people that do want to switch to an EV in principle, but they want other innovations out there also. I think whilst it would be great to have lots of public chargers out there for the community, some pain points may well still exist. The idea of diverting a journey while you’re on the motorway to get to a charger and there might be a queue, or it might be broken and you’ve no idea when you’re going to get back on the road – these kinds of concerns, or perceptions, really matter.
I don’t think we have any clue from Governments on how it will affect public charging infrastructure and electricity pricing as well. I’m a little uncertain of how it will all play out, but I think I have a lot of faith that these early innovation companies will be a driving force.
What short-term and long-term goals would you like to achieve with the company?
One of our main missions is that within the EV industry is to debunk some assumptions that are becoming less relevant. In the early adopter days, it was so often perceived that the traditional EV driver would be the high-income male, who is either retired or late in his career, and has a driveway.
As we move towards more mainstream adoption, it’s a different set of parameters. We start to realise that for people who live in flats, who are renting their homes, or want to buy an EV from the second-hand market, their needs and requirements are quite different. Especially if you have a family or children, household transport needs become more complex and it can be really hard to manage charging on the go.
We want to democratise EV ownership and make sure that not being able to charge from home is not going to be a barrier if you decide that this is the right time for you to switch to a sustainable lifestyle. I think that’s a huge goal for us.
I think it’s one of the biggest barriers and there is a bit of an unlevel playing field when it comes to who can access the EV market, with both the higher initial [purchase] costs involved and the lifestyle implications of charging an EV on the go.
We would also really love to scale what we’re doing. At the moment we are we are currently starting pilots with small businesses as well. There are so many business premises with chargers not being utilised. So gyms, office spaces, hotels, or small, slower chargers, that perhaps are not being fully utilised; there is an opportunity to rent them out to the wider communities on our platform and essentially create this one-stop shop for slow bookable charging. That is a big part of what we want to make happen.