&Charge newsroom

&Charge is delighted to report a significant expansion of its partnership with MAINGAU Autostrom, marking a new chapter in their collaborative journey. With this enhanced cooperation, users of the MAINGAU Autostrom app can now effortlessly engage in the unique “&Charge Challenges” directly through the app. This integration enables users to earn “&Charge kilometers” for every completed challenge, which can be redeemed for complimentary charging sessions. Challenges range from evaluating the condition of charging points to sharing photos and providing essential details about charging locations.

&Charge’s partnership with MAINGAU Autostrom began in 2020, and it has been a story of mutual growth and shared visions. MAINGAU Autostrom customers enjoy the exclusive benefit of receiving 300 &Charge kilometers upon signing up for a MAINGAU electricity or gas contract, further bridging the gap between energy consumption and e-Mobility. In turn, the MAINGAU Autostrom app benefits from the wealth of charging station images contributed by the vibrant &Charge community, enriching the app’s data and user experience.

Simon Vogt, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of &Charge, reflects on the journey, stating, “Looking back on four years of successful collaboration, we are more excited than ever to deepen our partnership with MAINGAU. This milestone not only boosts &Charge’s visibility within the MAINGAU charging app but also introduces an innovative feature that enriches the user experience. It emphasizes our shared commitment to simplifying, enhancing, and energizing the electric mobility landscape.”

Richard Schmitz, Managing Director of MAINGAU, added: “By integrating &Charge into the MAINGAU Autostrom app, we are creating an additional incentive for our users to share their experiences at charging stations and benefit from rewards at the same time. With direct user feedback, we can improve the data basis of our app and thus optimize the charging experience for customers.” 

&Charge stands as a pioneer in gathering real-time insights at charging stations, leveraging their cutting-edge app and a crowd-sourced approach of over 70,000 e-Mobilists to create unparalleled value for the e-Mobility ecosystem. The &Charge platform, bolstered by the participation of more than 1,500 online stores, allows users to collect &Charge kilometers through a variety of actions, including feedback on charging experiences and online shopping.

Since its inception in 2019, &Charge has become a key player in the e-Mobility sector across 14 European markets, partnering with leading providers of charging solutions and charging station operators. The collaboration with MAINGAU Autostrom not only exemplifies our dedication to enhancing the e-Mobility experience but also signals our ambition to further enrich and expand our services in the future.

About MAINGAU Autostrom

MAINGAU Energie GmbH powers MAINGAU Autostrom, a frontrunner in Germany’s e-Mobility and energy sectors. Based in the Rhine-Main region, MAINGAU offers comprehensive services beyond traditional energy supply, including innovative e-Mobility solutions. With its launch in 2018, MAINGAU Autostrom quickly became a key player, serving over 230,000 customers and providing access to more than 550,000 charging points across Europe. The company’s success is reflected in its substantial turnover and numerous accolades, highlighting its commitment to excellence and customer satisfaction in the rapidly evolving world of e-Mobility.

Learn more about &Charge and how they are revolutionizing the EV charging network here:
https://and-charge.com/emobility-partner

Entering 2024, Charge Point Operators (CPOs) face the essential task of evolving their strategies in the fast-paced e-mobility sector. To increase charging success rates, it’s vital to focus on reducing operational costs while enhancing service quality.

In this blog, we will outline 3 practical ways for CPOs to enhance their charging station services with &Charge, meeting the escalating needs of electric vehicle users with efficiency and effectiveness. Our focus is on boosting operational efficiency, enhancing customer experience, and elevating service reliability—critical elements for thriving in the dynamic world of e-mobility.

Lower Operational Cost

By engaging the &Charge Crowd of over 70,000 E-Mobilists in Europe for station assessments and inspections, operational costs are significantly reduced. This unique approach minimizes the reliance on external technicians and optimizes the allocation of internal technician time, resulting in operational expenditure (OPEX) savings of up to several hundred euros per inspection.

Implementing the &Charge Support Bot optimizes call center operations, leading to significant cost savings by reducing call volumes.
By reducing the need for expensive technicians and streamlining call center operations, we guarantee a far more efficient charging business.

Increase Reliability

The regular involvement of the &Charge Crowd in station inspections and validations, augmented by the innovative Check-In feature, significantly boosts the reliability of your services. This community-driven approach is supported by &Charge’s technology, which includes sentiment detection to analyze user comments. This system prefilters feedback, reducing noise in follow-up actions.

Our incident management tool uses artificial intelligence (AI), which improves efficiency and ensures an accurate maintenance process, keeping charging networks at peak performance.

Users can easily rate their charging experience either through the &Charge app’s Check-In function or by scanning a QR Code available digitally or physically at the charging station. Such integration not only reinforces station dependability but also consistently upholds high service standards, ensuring a seamless and satisfactory experience that customers can rely on. We are now seeing an increasing number of our partners are making the QR code available to users.

Enhanced Customer Experience

At &Charge, 2024 is all about enhancing the EV charging experience with real-time user feedback at the point of sale. Our approach includes simple, on-site feedback methods like Thumbs up/Thumbs down and a free comment field (“&Charge Check-In feature”), complemented by feedback sourced from various platforms in the markets. Every piece of feedback is reviewed and classified by our AI, providing clear action recommendations and incidents directly to CPOs for swift improvements in customer experience.

Additionally, our ‘customer insights’ module offers robust market research, delving into user behavior and requirements. This data-driven strategy ensures our network not only meets but anticipates the evolving needs of EV drivers.

&Charge – The Ultimate E-Mobility Partner

As we move forward into 2024, it’s an exciting time for the e-mobility ecosystem. The steps we take now will help to shape the future of sustainable transport. &Charge, with our innovative approaches and community-driven insights, stands as a leading e-mobility partner for both EV drivers and CPOs, poised to make a significant impact on the sector.

Let’s embrace these opportunities and continue to grow together. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and happy charging from all of us at &Charge!

&Charge, the leading platform for smart user engagement in the EV charging ecosystem, is set to revolutionize the EV driver experience with the introduction of an innovative SupportBot feature in the &Charge app. This new, recently released feature, aims to address common challenges faced by EV drivers, particularly newcomers to address common challenges faced by new and existing EV drivers to enhance their charging experience. The SupportBot was recently launched on the Source London charging network, operated by TotalEnergies, and is now available at all of their charging stations across London.

One of the primary challenges EV drivers face is navigating the complex charging infrastructure. Authentication issues, such as occupied charging spaces, malfunctioning membership cards and problematic card payments, and unexpected charging interruptions, can lead to frustration and wasted time, even when the charging infrastructure itself is fully functional.

&Charge’s new SupportBot feature is designed to provide immediate support and assistance to EV drivers when they encounter these common challenges. By offering real-time guidance and solutions, the SupportBot helps:

• Secure charging sessions: The SupportBot will help EV drivers troubleshoot authentication and payment issues to ensure a smooth and secure charging session.

• Route to available charging stations: In cases where a charging station is unavailable or facing technical issues, the bot will guide drivers to the nearest available charging station, prioritising the charging stations of &Charge partners. 

• Preventing drivers from getting stuck: By addressing problems swiftly, the SupportBot will prevent EV drivers from getting stuck at charging stations, allowing them to continue their journeys without issues.

• Reduce call center dependence: The bot aims to divert EV drivers from traditional call center support to a more efficient and user-friendly digital alternative.

The introduction of the SupportBot aligns with &Charge’s commitment to enhancing the overall EV charging experience. It offers added value to both businesses and EV drivers, as it is expected to reduce call volumes, and offer personalised support and fast(er) assistance. 

Nicolas Garnier, Managing Director of TotalEnergies Charging Solutions UK, states “launching the new SupportBot on our Source London network is a proud moment. This milestone gives customers even more ways to get the support they need, without having to make a call (although our phone lines are available 24/7, 365 days per year).

This SupportBot, deployed on Source London, is a great example of customer service innovation, made possible through our collaboration with our partners at &Charge.”

Simon Vogt, CSO and co-founder of &Charge: “We are quite excited about this cooperation. Source London is one of London’s largest electric vehicle charge-point networks and we are proud to be a trusted partner and help realize solid benefits for their charging infrastructure.

After we successfully established the cooperation last year, the launch of the SupportBot marks a huge milestone towards innovative support and assistance for EV drivers” 

Are you an EV driver? Download &Charge on the app store (Apple) or get it on Google Play (Android).

For businesses that want to improve the charging experience of EV drivers, contact &Charge here.   

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About &Charge 

&Charge is the leading platform combining smart user engagement with value-added services around EV charging. The technology company has established unique “plug and play” value-added services (Software as a Service) in the global E-Mobility ecosystem, available on the &Charge Value Platform via flexible APIs or the partner dashboard. & Charge’s smart reward mechanism is based on the first sustainable loyalty scheme for EV drivers. Users can collect &Charge kilometers for their activities like feedback on charging sessions and online shopping in more than 1,500 partner shops which can be redeemed for free charging sessions. This smart mechanism empowers the huge &Charge EV driver crowd and its strong daily engagement for crowd-sourced data around EV charging. 

The corresponding &Charge app is the dedicated daily companion for EV drivers and impresses with a unique gamification approach by which users also can reach certain levels and receive batches for their engagement. &Charge makes charging cheaper, more reliable, and just fun for every EV driver. Porsche Ventures and Helen Ventures have invested in the platform to accelerate the development and roll-out across Europe further.

Find more information at https://www.and-charge.com.

PRESS RELEASE

Introducing the &Charge value platform in the UK – offering CPOs the chance to enhance their business

Electric vehicle adoption is accelerating globally, and the demand for reliable, efficient, and user-friendly charging solutions is on the rise. CPOs play a big role in shaping this ecosystem, and &Charge is enabling them to take a giant leap forward in achieving their business objectives. The &Charge Platform offers CPOs real-time insights, enhanced reliability, and profitability in the ever-evolving EV charging industry.

&Charge’s value platform introduces a suite of tools and insights that enable CPOs to market their charging stations, increase the uptime of their charging infrastructure and use improved data around the charging location. These are some examples of things that the &Charge value platform offers:

• &Charge Operations Management makes it possible to engage the experienced &Charge Crowd to perform validations and checks on site (incl. dedicated Services Level) instead of sending expensive technicians and third party providers (e.g. time critical validations of incidents, complete audits and assessments of the entire infrastructure)

• &Charge Reputation Management is your direct line to every EV driver at your charging stations. Receive real-time feedback on the charging experiences of your customers incl. the Net Promoter Score (neutral) as key KPI for your daily operations

• &Charge POI Data Management offers validated, enhanced and enriched POI data from and around charging stations to always guarantee the highest possible data quality for your charging network and increase the overall appearance and brand awareness

• &Charge Loyalty / Retention Management offers a campaign tool to acquire new customers and enrich existing customers by a smart reward mechanism.

These real-time data insights empower CPOs to make data-driven decisions, optimize operations and provide a superior charging experience.

The success of &Charge’s value proposition is validated through partnerships with industry leaders such as IONITY and Source London. IONITY has integrated &Charge’s solution to gain structured feedback and insights from users, ensuring the quality and performance of their charging stations. This is what IONITY says about the collaboration: 

‍ “The collaboration with &Charge is an important component of our quality assurance: feedback related to our charging stations is fed into our systems in a structured way via an interface. We can then evaluate potential issues and act quickly. The crowd-source approach of &Charge helps us to intensify the relationship with our customers across borders and to benefit from the daily experiences of the community.“

Source London is also collaborating with &Charge to enhance the overall charging experience for EV drivers and gathers real-time feedback on the charging experience via dedicated &Charge QR code on every charging station in London. The upcoming integration with an innovative Support Bot further showcases &Charge’s commitment to innovation and problem-solving in the industry.

‍With the &Charge Value Platform, CPOs can confidently navigate the evolving landscape of EV charging, providing seamless, reliable, and rewarding experiences to EV drivers. &Charge’s mission to transform charging into a fulfilling experience extends to both consumers and businesses, contributing to the growth of the electric vehicle ecosystem worldwide.

Want to become part of the world’s leading platform to gain real-time insights at charging locations? Please visit https://and-charge.com/#/emobility-partner

–  

About &Charge 

&Charge is the leading platform combining smart user engagement with value-added services around EV charging. The technology company has established unique “plug and play” value-added services (Software as a Service) in the global E-Mobility ecosystem, available on the &Charge Value Platform via flexible APIs or the partner dashboard. & Charge’s smart reward mechanism is based on the first sustainable loyalty scheme for EV drivers. Users can collect &Charge kilometers for their activities like feedback on charging sessions and online shopping in more than 1,500 partner shops which can be redeemed for free charging sessions. This smart mechanism empowers the huge &Charge EV driver crowd and its strong daily engagement for crowd-sourced data around EV charging. 

The corresponding &Charge app is the dedicated daily companion for EV drivers and impresses with a unique gamification approach by which users also can reach certain levels and receive batches for their engagement. &Charge makes charging cheaper, more reliable, and just fun for every EV driver. Porsche Ventures and Helen Ventures have invested in the platform to accelerate the development and roll-out across Europe further.

Find more information at https://www.and-charge.com.

Press contact

For more information and media opportunities, please contact And-ChargePR@nexxtindustry.com – Phone +31 85 060 13 11.

By contributing to &Charge, you are actively contributing to a better charging infrastructure! Did you know that you automatically collect points with every EV enthusiast contribution and participate in a league every month?

‍A league starts anew every month – for promotion and relegation the monthly points collected during the league are counted. The most active users of a month advance to the highest league – so you have the opportunity to reach the top of the ranking every month again.
Enthusiast points also increase your Enthusiast level and unlock you for additional features.

In total there are four different leagues (Schuko, AC, DC and HPC league). There are 10 points for checking in at a charging location and 5 points each for each completed charging location challenge, accepted image, wallbox sharing session, added charging location, improved record at charging location and verified record.

How to do a check-in:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lfwZ0YwpIYo

How to solve a challenge:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PJ-RTy6wbXc

Your EV Enthusiast points can be spent on various loot boxes that contain random content.
Redeeming points for a crate only reduces the number of points you have available, so you and other &Chargies can still see how many points you’ve earned in total.

There are five different loot crates to choose from, which can contain either common, rare, epic or legendary stickers, profile frames or kilometers.

Try it out right now and become an EV enthusiast:
https://kylomtr.me/ln/zwOiB

In our new series “Charging station of the month”, we will report in future on charging stations that have particularly caught our eye this month. These can be, for example, top-rated charging parks with particularly outstanding equipment (lighting, w-lan on site, etc.) or curious examples of unusable charging columns that could be forwarded to the charging station operator by the &Charge community.

Just recently, something happened in Remscheid West (Germany) that we have not seen before either. At the highway location in Remscheid West, a truck actually crashed into an HPC charging station. Less than 15 minutes later, this incident was reported by the community via the &Charge app – including detailed challenge photos and descriptions.

Pics made by &Charge users in the &Charge app:

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Although the incident was promptly reported to the CPO (charging point operator) by the police, the challenge photos were instrumental in assessing the property damage and were passed on to the insurance company for further investigation.
The CPO has informed us that the reconstruction of the station will be started immediately.

The entire &Charge team would like to thank you, also on behalf of the CPO, for your commitment and dedication! You are actively helping to ensure that defects can be reported more quickly and thus also remedied more quickly.

Thank you very much!