The Roadie: Is This The Future Of Mobile EV DC Fast Charging?

We check out this promising modular charging system first-hand.

Tom Moloughney

By: Tom Moloughney

Jul 17, 2021 at 5:16pm ET

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The Massachusetts startup, SparkCharge, has been developing and refining its Roadie modular EV DC fast charging system since its launch in 2017. We've been monitoring the company's progress even more closely of late, ever since they grabbed a $1 million investment from Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner when they appeared on the entrepreneurial reality show, Shark Tank.

Last month, during the company's annual "SparkDay" event, the company introduced a new service, ChargeUp, which is basically EV charging as a service (CaaS). With ChargeUp, the customer sets a schedule for their EV to be charged and a mobile charging attendant comes to them and charges their car. The best part is the service is available for as little as only $25 per month.

ChargeUp service is currently only available in the Dallas, San Fransisco, and Los Angeles areas, but Sparkcharge tells us that they have plans to expand to more cities very soon. The ChargeUp app is available for download from both the Apple and Google Play app stores.

ChargeUp program details:

$25 per month for charge delivery within the service area
Charge at home, the office, or anywhere you park your car
Perfect for apartment and condo owners
Eliminates driving to chargers and waiting to recharge
No power access required

Notable timestamps in the video:

0:00 Introduction
1:06 Roadside assistance
2:11 Roadie hardware
3:09 Stackable system, weight & cost
4:41 Roadside assistance availability
5:18 How I'll be using the Roadie system
7:24 ChargeUp charging as a service (CaaS)
9:17 Uses for ChargeUp 10:14 Wrapup

We reached out to SparkCharge and asked for a Roadie system to use for a while and review. We also plan to incorporate the system into our 70-mph highway range tests so we can really drive the cars until they can no longer maintain 70-mph.

What do you think?

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We recently received the system and put together this video to demonstrate what the system is, and how it's used. We'll have additional videos on the Roadie system, including using them in our 70-mph range tests, here on InsideEVs soon.

Have questions about the Roadie system and SparkCharge's ChargeUp service? Let us know in the comment section below and we'll try to get all of your answers when we meet with the SparkCharge team for an interview in the near future.

Source: State of Charge (YouTube)