The idea

With “charger next door”, we want to make private charging points owned by drivers of electric vehicles, aka wallboxes, accessible via an app and thus make our contribution to the development of the charging infrastructure. Especially in rural and suburban areas, there is a great demand for charging infrastructure that cannot be met entirely by the current providers on the market. We want to enable and encourage enthusiasts and early adopters of electric mobility who own a wallbox to share it with other electric vehicle drivers.

In this way, we will expand the charging infrastructure by integrating private charging points, a resource of which so far no use has been made. At the same time, we want to form a community that gives all of its members a reliable opportunity to charge their electric vehicle everywhere in Germany.

With only a few steps, our users can enquire if a wallbox is available – the procedure resembles the booking process of popular platforms, such as Airbnb: The available wallboxes are indicated on a map. Via an integrated calendar, a request can be sent directly to the owner of the wallbox.

With our idea, we are addressing the current and future problems of the charging infrastructure which, by 2030, must make charging facilities available for up to 10 million electric vehicles. We are thus making a valuable and resource-conserving contribution to developing the charging infrastructure in rural and suburban areas – to prevent range and charging issues from becoming the showstopper of electric mobility.

Motivation behind the idea

The future of mobility is facing radical changes – climate change targets must be met, the emission of greenhouse gases must be reduced. At the same time, there is a growing interest in convenient and innovative mobility strategies. This presents both industry as well as policymakers with the great challenge of having to reconcile economic and ecological considerations. Therefore, future solutions must accommodate an integrated approach, be sustainable and provide real added value to society by being easy to use. Despite numerous efforts, funding measures and pilot projects, many problems have remained unsolved so far, thus presently stalling the uptake and spread of electric mobility. With our „charger next door“ idea, we want to make our contribution to turning the transformation of the transport system in Germany into a success and, at the same time, supporting the aspect of sustainability. We are addressing problems that drivers of electric vehicles currently face on a daily basis. With our solution, we want to create a reliable alternative to the existing charging infrastructure in order to allay EV drivers’ range anxiety and take a fresh approach to safety and reliability aspects in charging thanks to our community.

Biographical sketches

Florian Bindges graduated from Hamburg University with a Master’s Degree in automotive engineering. During his studies at university, he gained valuable experience in the field of project management, of technological development by OEMs and the conceptual design of future intermodal mobility services. He works as a technological adviser at MHP in the field of research and development transformation with a focus on technological development and innovation in the automotive industry.

Tobias Hübener is studying for a Master's Degree in industrial engineering, specializing in mechanical engineering, at Berlin University of Technology. During his time at university, he has already gained experience in various companies in the conceptual design of new mobility strategies and in the development of new digital products.

Within the context of his master thesis, Fabian Crome is currently studying alternative options for charging infrastructure at Berlin University of Technology and is about to complete his Master’s Degree in industrial engineering, specializing in mechanical engineering. The focus of his studies and his professional activities is on the automotive industry and electric mobility.