ZipCharge, the pioneer in portable energy and EV charging, today announced that over 10,000 people have registered to pre-order a Go portable EV power bank when they go on sale in 2023. Since launching at COP26 in November 2021 pre-order registrations have flooded in from 88 countries and every continent across the globe.
Pre-order registrations come from every major EV market around the world including the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Sweden with every country of the EU represented as well as established Asian markets including China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, along with the Middle East and African nations including South Africa, Kenya, Guinea and Nigeria. Interestingly, registrations have come from many small island nations in Europe, the Caribbean, Pacific Islands and the Mascarene Islands where there is growing concern about energy resiliency and a lack of EV charging infrastructure to support EV adoption.
ZipCharge is also pleased to announce success in two separate major awards. The ZipCharge Go was awarded the Physical Technology Of The Year: Electric Energy at the highly acclaimed Energy Awards in the UK. The Energy Awards is an annual event celebrating achievements and innovations from across the energy industry. The Energy Awards Judging Panel 2022 praised the ZipCharge Go for addressing a huge growth area with technology that has the needs of both the user and the community in mind.
ZipCharge was also successful in being selected as a finalist at The Proptech Startup and Scale-up Europe Awards 2022 following a live pitch semi-final that took place in Brussels in June. This competition is part of the European Commission’s Startup Europe initiative. ZipCharge is just one of ten startups to progress to the final in September in Brussels, which will see announcement of the winners in each category and division following a final pitch competition.
ZipCharge Co-founder Jonathan Carrier “Reaching 10,000 pre-order registrations in seven months shows the appetite the public has for our innovative portable EV charger. People around the world are seeing how it will transform energy while enabling EV ownership – and there has been particular interest in island nations where there is growing concern about energy resiliency and lack of infrastructure both at home and in public.
“Some 50% of people who registered already have a fixed home charger. They see the Go as an essential tool that provides more flexibility and convenience, to charge anywhere they park. They are also keen to realise the benefits of our unique bi-directional technology giving them the ability to arbitrage electricity simply by leaving the Go plugged into their home electricity. Buying overnight when electricity is cheaper, storing it in the Go to use it to power the home or sell it back to the grid at peak times.”
ZipCharge Co-founder Richie Sibal “We are delighted with the validation of The Energy Awards for Physical Technology of the Year gives ZipCharge as the 2022 panel was made up of judges from across the energy sector. As a multi award winning tech start up, these prizes underline the testament to timeliness of our product. As the EV sector goes through a transformation now is the time to rethink how we use and store energy at both a macro and micro level”.
Launched in November 2021, ZipCharge has developed Go from a concept to B Sample prototype, ready for real-world trials and are on track to enter production and deliver the first units to customers in quarter two of 2023.
ZipCharge is developing the Go based upon the same rigorous engineering approach as major car manufacturers. It is building several iterations of prototypes from validation through to pre-production, all of which will undergo an extensive testing regime. The company’s engineers are currently optimising the performance of the portable EV charger’s key system components, including the NMC lithium-ion battery cells and the ZipCharge-designed bi-directional AC-DC converter. This is to evaluate thermal behaviour, charging performance, safety, durability and full functionality to ensure a seamless and safe ownership experience for everyday charging.
The Go is the central component of a global platform for personal energy management, one that combines hardware, software, machine learning and innovative ownership models to bring clean, affordable energy to more people than ever, to power their homes, charger their EV or use energy on the go. The platform also includes the recently announced GoHub public infrastructure concept, which when aggregated together with batteries in the home, can provide increased flexibility and resilience for the national power grid.
Realising that widespread EV adoption would be hampered by the inability to charge near or at home, ZipCharge co-founders Richie Sibal and Jonathan Carrier identified and developed a solution. Using their decades of experience in automotive electronics systems engineering and product development gained at cutting-edge businesses like McLaren Automotive, Jaguar Land Rover, Lotus, Gordon Murray Group and LEVC – their answer is the Go.
COMMENTS