The world is about to have a new best friend. A robot that will charge electric vehicles anywhere and can do so in any country in the world. This portable charging station moves on four wheels and has a name: Ziggy.
Posted at 11:45 a.m.
The ideal ally for drivers of electric vehicles, Ziggy has the physique of a large walking cabinet that transports stored energy and can move around briskly, especially in parking lots. It will thus reach users and make their lives easier by recharging their vehicle in a very simple exercise which should satisfy the needs to be met.
Great need to fill
If you drive an electric vehicle, you have surely noticed that when it comes to charging, the conditions are not yet good enough to favor the consumption of electricity instead of gasoline, as we should be to help the planet regain health.
Electric vehicles still have a long way to go before they can become widespread on our roads. One of the main obstacles to their success: the networks of charging points, which currently exist only in insufficient quantity and do not have a modern infrastructure corresponding to what we use today.
In many countries, the structures are also deficient to marry the new technology. One only has to think of all those buildings that were built in another era, which are not at all adapted to the advent of electric vehicles and which do not have the power required to recharge them.
In fact, problems with recharging electric batteries are so widespread that they inadvertently slow down the momentum of many motorists in the purchase of an electric vehicle.
We can understand that the consumer does not want to be anxious about his possibilities of transporting himself without the hassle of refueling. Hence the hopes founded in Ziggy.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY EV SAFE CHARGE
EV Safe Charge intends to offer Ziggy’s services in the parking lots of office buildings, hotels, shopping malls, entertainment centers, as well as residential properties.
The charms of simplicity
Its operation is simple. Using a mobile app, a vehicle’s infotainment service or a call center, the driver using Ziggy can reserve a space in a parking lot for their electric vehicle.
Once the place is reserved, the robot friend goes to the scene, parks himself in the parking space and keeps it until the driver of the vehicle arrives. Once his client is on the scene, Ziggy backs up to give way, and positions himself behind the vehicle.
All the driver has to do is take out his cell phone, scan a QR code to validate the order and connect to the charger to get supplies. He can pay for his use on site, or remotely.
Ziggy is also expected to have side-mounted digital billboards that could also be used to display mobile advertising, local news or how-to information.
In short, nothing rocket science about all that, just like what the one who invented it wanted.
Made in Los Angeles
The creator of Ziggy is called Caradoc Ehrenhal. His company, based in Los Angeles, is called EV Safe Charge and his wish is to revolutionize the habits of charging electric vehicles.
He intends to offer Ziggy’s services in the parking lots of office buildings, hotels, shopping centers, entertainment centers, as well as residential properties.
Eventually, we can think that valets and attendants will also be able, at the request of the customer who leaves their car keys, to unplug Ziggy once charging is complete.
Trials are already underway in the parking lots of three hotels in the United States, in California (at the Holiday Inn Express in Redwood City and at the Opera Plaza in San Francisco) as well as in New York (at The William value).
Until Ziggy came along, Caradoc Ehrenhal was already selling chargers to car dealerships, car manufacturers and utilities. With Ziggy, a whole new horizon is offered to him.
For the moment, he hopes that his company will be able to go into production in 2023, to ensure deliveries of his walking robots to customers from the turn of the year 2023, if not the beginning of 2024.
If we are not talking here about an extraordinary technology, let’s say at the very least that for the drivers of electric vehicles, Ziggy could become a new, amusingly appreciated accomplice.