ampUp: Community Charging

EV charging can be hard. ampUp helps to make it easy.

By: Tom Moloughney

Feb 12, 2020 at 8:48am ET

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What type of chargers should I buy? How many do I need for my employees? Can I manage access and set pricing?

These are questions first time buyers of charging stations are asking but seldom getting clear answers to. “Throwing a lot of money at an infrastructure problem is very costly and often requires significant electrical equipment upgrades”, says Timotej Gavrilovic, co-founder of electric vehicle startup ampUp. “If electric vehicles are going to become mainstream, as many are hoping for, the industry needs simple, efficient and low-cost solutions that solve specific customer needs.”

According to the Department of Energy, there are over 63,000 public combined Level 2 and DC fast charger connections in the United States. More electric vehicles on the road means more fueling stations, and cities have been keen to install chargers in public places like schools, retail stores, and parking lots. However, since EV drivers spend an incredible amount of time at work, workplace charging makes a lot of sense for current and future EV tenants.

“Electric vehicle chargers are proliferating where people spend the most time - at the workplace, home, and private campuses. It is the new normal,” says Thomas Sun, CEO and Founder of electric vehicle startup ampUp. “A workplace will install multiple chargers, but they face challenges of access, scheduling, demand overflow on weekdays, and dormant activity on the weekends. For these reasons, ampUp is giving charging station owners the tools needed to manage these functions in one place.”

With so much to consider for a first-time charge station buyer, ampUp is educating site hosts of best-in-class charging equipment to solve for the many complexities that can come with ownership. Every site has its own set of challenges, and ampUp works with the host to determine which equipment suits their specific needs best. The Ycombinator backed startup has teamed up with charging partners such as Enel X, Blink, ClipperCreek, and ControlMod to deliver a simplistic charging and management user experience too.

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“EV Charging software can be grouped into infrastructure and community management”, adds Thomas Sun. “Infrastructure management includes software to hardware communications and control, something many players in the EV charging space already do a great job at. ampUp’s unique focus is on community management, which is all about the EV charging experience for both site hosts and drivers.”

The solution offers customers flexibility to their charger installation and feature needs, including:

Smart Scheduling
Access Control
Driver notifications and opt-in
Pricing & Payments
Analytics & Monitoring

Perhaps the biggest challenge facing potential site hosts for electric vehicle charging stations today is the lack of credible, comprehensive information. The electric vehicle charging industry is still in its infancy and there can be a lot of misinformation if you’re not working with a credible source. The primary mission at ampUp is to make EV driving easier, smarter and hassle-free. We accomplish that by removing barriers and making EV charging simple, both for the service provider, and the end-user.

You can learn more about ampUp’s charging management solution by visiting ampup.io or contacting the team at info@ampup.io.