CHENNAI, JAN 22
Aiming to save Mother Nature, Lono Mobility Technologies Pvt Ltd, a startup incubated by the Crescent Innovation and Incubation Council (CIIC) has launched a Mobile Application ‘ChargePool’, a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) in Chennai on Friday.
CIIC is glad to announce the launch of an app called *”Chargepool”* by our very own incubatee *”Lono Mobility Technologies Pvt. Ltd”. The product launch took place at the EDII-TN premises in the presence of the CEO of StartupTN- Mr. *Sivarajah Ramanathan*, pic.twitter.com/lP2rlweJht
— PARVEZ ALAM (@parvezalamm) January 21, 2022
Shivaraja Ramanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Tamil Nadu Start-up and Innovation Mission (TANCIM) has officially launched the ‘ChargePool’ App at the Entrepreneurial Development And Innovation Institute at Guindy in the presence of M Parvez Alam, CEO & Director (CIIC), founders of Lono Mobility Technologies Pvt Ltd, Vikash Sharda, Hitesh Hiran and Naveenkumar Alle.
- TANCIM CEO Shivaraja Ramanathan officially launches the ‘App’ of Lono Mobility Technologies – a startup incubated by CIIC
Launching the App, Shivaraja Ramanathan said, “The TN is forefront in encouraging and creating industry-friendly atmosphere for budding startups through TANCIM under the guidance of the Chief Minister MK Stalin. The government is committed to reduce carbon emission to reduce global warming in all spheres. In line with this, the government will extend its fullest cooperation for the startup Lono Mobility and believe the product will help in faster adoption of electric vehicles in the state and entire nation.’’
He also appealed the TN startups to continue to operate from the state instead of relocating to other states.
Reply to query on allowing Home Charging stations for commercial purpose, Shivaraja Ramanathan said that it is a policy issue and decision has to be taken by the government. To sink with the innovation and technological development, the state has to amend the policies as per the need, he added.
Vikash Sharda, co-founder, Lono Mobility said, “Our main objective is to enable the pool of EV chargers for optimising their utilisation as this will help unlock the huge potential of EV market and fuel its growth.”
Hitesh Hiran, co-founder, Lono Mobility said, “We are in the process of adding more features which will not only provide hassle free charging of EV but also simplify the EV life journey for its owner.”
M Parvez Alam, CEO & Director of Crescent Innovation and Incubation Council added that India’s EV industry is still at a nascent stage which is expected to reach USD 17.01 billion by 2026, hence it has huge potential for growth, with people moving towards renewable energy. Tamil Nadu is moving at a commendable pace in the EV space, preceded by Karnataka.
Electric mobility is the prime focus area of the Government, however, the adoption of EVs is also dependent on availability of network of charging stations. With India registering more than 5 lakh EVs in past 2-3 years, we have approximately similar no of charging stations in use for home/personal and captive use purpose. Over 95% of chargers are estimated to be under home and captive use category by the year 2030. Enabling access to these charging stations through ChargePool platform can solve the problem of charging stations availability and fuel the growth of EVs adoption in the country.
Features of ‘ChargePool’ App
ChargePool is an end-user platform where one can list the charging stations as well as an EV user can search compatible EV chargers and book slots for charging sessions.
Under P2P pooling of charging stations, any EV user can add home / captive charger and provide access to fellow EV user / driver as per its convenience. An EV user who wishes to avail charging session, sends a request to selected home charger owner, who can review and approve the request using the ChargePool application. Both users can interact through Chat as well as Contact / Call feature using ChargePool application.
ChargePool uses Google Maps API (Mother of various user-friendly Applications) enabling user to estimate distance and time to reach EV charging station. Further, user can click on “Direction” button which redirects it to Google Map navigation to reach concerned charging station from its current location.
One of unique feature of ChargePool is to enable EV user view charging stations and identify stations which are compatible with its EV.
ChargePool is charging technology agnostic platform and has their development roadmap clearly laid out. It is working towards enabling smooth journey planning for EVs by providing real time integration of charging networks to enable P2P roaming free access across networks. The team is currently in discussion with both EV manufacturers and EV Charging Networks to enable ecosystem towards this end.
ChargePool platform has so far listed over 200 public charging stations and is aiming to pool more than 10,000 home chargers and over 1000 public charging stations over next 1 year. The free app is available currently on android. Company is working on next phases of platform development and app will be made available for iOS soon.
Many new features will also be added in the App in future, the founders said.
