Following the launch of its Warsaw pilot network in July, the Polish company ChargeEuropa has announced its expansion to 1,000 charging locations over the next two years. ChargeEuropa relies on advertising to finance its charging stations.
The young company sees the advertising concept as “the secret recipe for building and operating profitable e-charging networks in cities”. The charging stations are built with integrated 65-inch touchscreens for advertising and says its partners include BMW, Netflix, Bolt and Opel.
In ChargeEuropa’s concept, the advertising revenue also partially covers investment costs. From the company’s point of view, electric car drivers therefore benefit from additional locations that can be implemented thanks to advertising funding. And since the advertising customers pay for it, the charging itself should be free of charge. Charging processes can be unlocked via the company’s own app.
Although details about the charging stations themselves – apart from the size of the touchscreen – have not yet been mentioned, press photos show that the permanently attached charging cables are spiral cables with Type 2 plugs. This would indicate a purely AC charging solution with a maximum of 22 kW. DC charging cables are not visible in the pictures.
After the completion of the first locations, ChargeEuropa has decided to transfer its model to cities throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. ChargeEuropa says it has already secured 1,000 sites in key cities in Poland, Croatia, Bulgaria, Chile, the Philippines and in France. In France, for example, ChargeEuropa says it has entered into several partnerships with commercial property owners such as French shopping centre giant Klepierre and Transgourmet – owner of the European Selgros Cash&Carry network – to offer sites in their busy car parks.
“Cities don’t have to invest large amounts of taxpayer money to preemptively create EV charging networks anymore” says Euan Wheatley, COO of ChargeEuropa. “We move into markets with a healthy advertising ecosystem, allowing us to primarily monetize our charging networks with brand partnerships to sustain our growth from day one”.
CEO of ChargeEuropa, Matt Tymowski says: “Our concept grants us first mover advantage into cities with strong growth potential, letting us build out critical EV charging infrastructure that is key for clean transportation in the community. We come in, built out the network, so that they can be ready for the first wave ahead of time.”
A similar concept with ad-supported charging infrastructure is being pursued by the US company Volta Charging, which announced its expansion into Europe last year.
Information via email.
Keyword: ChargeEurope to add 1,000 charging stations globally