BERLIN: German startup ubitricity offers an alternative to traditional EV stations, one that can be rapidly implemented and is affordable. It consists of directly integrating a charging point into a street lamp. This solution, which is already present in the UK, is arriving in France and elsewhere.
The limited number of charging stations for electric vehicles is currently preventing such vehicles from being purchased by more consumers. The solution could rest in existing infrastructures.
One of the solutions that ubitricity offers is indeed to integrate plugs and sockets directly into the street lamps. This solution is quick to set up (less than an hour), relatively economical (about 2,000 euros) and most importantly does not require any new infrastructure to be developed since it uses existing street furniture.
The idea is to use lampposts in parking areas, both public and private, or adjacent to parking in malls. The charging station is accessible to anyone, without subscription, via QR Code. Each user only pays for what he or she consumes.
This solution is in sync with the French government's stimulus plan since they want to reach 100,000 accessible charging stations to the public country-wide by the end of 2021. France only counts around 30,000 stations at the moment.
Ubitricity also plans on installing 200,000 charging stations throughout Europe by 2025.
