BYD is taking a page from the Airbnb playbook by launching a home charger sharing system that lets EV owners open up their personal charging equipment to other BYD drivers — and get paid for the convenience.
Instead of waiting for utilities or charging networks to build out more public infrastructure, BYD is effectively crowdsourcing existing capacity from home chargers its customers have already installed, turning underused residential charging equipment into a shared resource while its owner is at work or away.
Also like Airbnb, the app allows the charger’s owner and user to settle the pricing and availability and other transaction details between themselves, with contact information and messaging also going through the app.
Great, if not totally unique idea
BYD’s system seems to be more polished and, thanks to the integrated card reader, a bit more accessible than similar concepts from Nio and XPeng. XPeng’s system allows charger owners to set different electricity prices at different times (ex.: off-peak electricity at 0.35 yuan/kWh, significantly lower than peak), to cover their electricity costs.
The XPeng system also only seems to support automatic payment through the app, as opposed to the BYD system that bakes a card reader right in.
Electrek’s Take
I don’t know enough about the public charging scene throughout China – a massive country half a world away – to know how much of a need this is serving, but here in the US, I seem to recall that this was more or less PlugShare’s original concept, and could easily imagine a half-dozen scenarios outside of an Airbnb where a simple, app-based system like this could play out positively for both the EV driver and the equipment owner.
Multifamily apartments or condos with deeded spaces, churches, schools, municipal buildings, or other spaces that sit empty most days could be great uses for this, and I bet you guys could think of two or three more. I look forward to hearing about them, and whether or not a brand-specific network could help move the needle for a brand like Harley or Jeep that’s struggling with its EVs, in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: BYD, via CarNewsChina.
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