Volkswagen has unveiled an application that connects owners of private charging stations and motorists with electric cars looking for charging points, whether they are on a business trip or on vacation in France.
With this application, called Shargy, the manufacturer wants to create a community of owners of charging stations for individuals in France.
The idea is to monetise the use of these plugs by third parties. Any individual who has installed a charging station at home or has a domestic outlet accessible from the outside can thus offer access to their charging point on Shargy. The same goes for professionals, hotels and restaurants with such infrastructures.
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VW hopes to roll out the app in other countries with Belgium high on the list of those ready to follow suit.
The owner of the charging station defines its characteristics as well as its availability on the application. They can then offer the billing of their terminal by the hour or for the whole night, which will be perfect in the case of a low-power domestic outlet requiring a longer charging time.
"One of the main obstacles that customers encounter on electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles is the low coverage of the public charging network in France," Volkswagen France says on their website.
The tariff is free, even if the application systematically indicates the average price per kWh generally recorded in France according to the declared power of each terminal. For their part, motorists only have to search for the terminals available nearby on a map and make their choice. Reservations and payments are made directly within the application.
In the end, this application aims to be able to facilitate access to private solutions when public terminals are scarce while guaranteeing their availability and proper functioning. Shargy is available for free on the App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android).
