Crowd Charge launches smart charging app for EVs

Crowd Charge has launched a new smart charging app that enables drivers to charge their electric vehicles (EVs) at times when their supply is cheapest or greenest.

The company claims the platform could cut the electricity bill of the typical EV driver by up to 30 per cent – or between £240 and £360 per year.

The app was developed in partnership with academics from the University of Reading as part of the Electric Nation trial led by Western Power Distribution. The project saw smart chargers installed in the homes of nearly 700 EV drivers for a period of at least two years.

Around half of the participants managed their charging through an earlier version of the Crowd Charge app. The company used feedback from the trial to tweak and improve the platform.

Crowd Charge says the app can work with any EV, any charge point (if granted the right access), any energy supplier and any tariff. It can communicate with the chargers either directly via wifi or the mobile network or through the back-office systems of operators.

The app can also facilitate vehicle-to-grid charging, allowing users to earning money by reselling power during periods of high demand – up to £500 per year according to the firm.

It will be able to coordinate actions of a large number of vehicles, allowing them to operate as a single big battery.

The engineering team at the company worked with the Nichicon Corporation to help deliver the UK’s first domestic vehicle-to-grid charger – a modified version of the manufacturer’s existing vehicle-to-home design, of which 5,000 have already been installed in its home market of Japan.

To date, the chargers have been used in four innovation projects in the UK. They include an ongoing strand of the Electric Nation trial, which commenced in April 2016 and is due to finish in October.