Lono Mobility plans pool of home chargers

The founders of Lono Mobility says the chargePool app enables the sharing economy of the charging infrastructure.

As electric vehicles gain popularity and there is an all-around push to increase adoption, range anxiety continues to be a key concern. Lack of adequate charging infrastructure is often cited as a key roadblock. This is exactly what Chennai-based start-up, Lono Mobility Technologies is trying to address with its ChargePool app.

The company, incubated in the Crescent Innovation and Incubation Council (CIIC) in Chennai, recently launched this app which aims at peer-to-peer (P2P) pooling of electric vehicle charging stations. Co-founded in 2021 by VikashSharda, Hitesh Hiran and NaveenkumarAlle, Lono Mobility plans to have 10,000 chargers accessible on the app over the next two months. 

“Currently we have over 500 chargers spread across Chennai, Bengaluru, key cities of Maharashtra and more. It is basically at places where there are more EVs. We are continuously adding more and aiming to have 10,000 chargers in the next two months,” said Vikash Sharda, co-founder, Lono Mobility.

He said that each of these 500 chargers were physically verified and authenticated by them. The company has been collaborating with educational institutions and roping in interns to do the verification process. “We now want to scale up and add more chargers in the app,” he added.

Optimised use

“Lono means low or no emission and has a presence in the US. The success of EVs depend on charging solutions and without this, we cannot think of going electric. In a country like India where the demand is huge, there is a need to set up the charging infrastructure at a rapid pace. Our role is to optimise the use of chargers.”

ChargePool is an end-user platform where one can list the charging stations and EV users can search compatible EV chargers and book slots for charging sessions. Under P2P pooling of charging stations, any EV user can add a home/captive charger and provide access to fellow EV users as per convenience. 

An EV user who wishes to avail a charging session has to send a request to the selected home charger owner, who can review and approve the request using the application. Both users can interact through chat as well as contact/call feature in the application. ChargePool uses Google Maps API enabling users to estimate distance and time to reach EV charging stations.

Sharing economy
“One of the unique features of ChargePool is to enable EV users to view charging stations and identify stations which are compatible with their EV. Here is where we enable the sharing economy of the charging infrastructure. What it means is our app will have all the charging stations details,” he explains.

Last month at the launch, the CEO of the Tamil Nadu Start-up and Innovation Mission, Shivaraja Ramanathan said, “We believe the product will help in faster adoption of electric vehicles in Tamil Nadu and in India.” Hitesh Hiran, co-founder, Lono Mobility says that “It is in the process of adding more features which will simplify the EV life journey for its owner.”

“There are almost 40,000 electric car owners and everyone will have a home EV charger. Even if it is used at night for charging the vehicles, it is going to be idle through the day. We thought of using it like it is in carpooling and that is what we are trying to do. Globally, we see a shift towards sharing and this will also be moving towards it,” added Sharda.

Further elaborating, the co-founder said the app aims at integrating home chargers for four-wheelers. “In a community, if we could enable sharing of chargers, it would be beneficial. Availability and acceptability matter here. Also, if one can just buy an electric car without a charger, that would reduce the cost of the vehicle,” he said.

“With India registering more than 500,000 EVs in the past 2-3 years, there are approximately similar numbers of charging stations in use for home/personal and captive use purposes. Over 95 percent of chargers are estimated to be in the home and captive use category by 2030. Enabling access to these charging stations through the ChargePool platform aims to help solve the problem of charging stations availability,” he added.

For now, Lono Mobility is not looking to add two-wheelers as they are mostly charged like a mobile phone. Also, with the option of swapping batteries, the company is monitoring how the industry scenario pans out. “The target would be four-wheelers but a certain percent of two-wheelers can also be expected. The main aspect is going to be peer-to-peer,” he clarified. 

Upgrading to 2.0
The ChargePool app is currently free and is available on android. Lono Mobility is working on the next phase of platform development and the app will be made available on iOS too. They are also working on the next version of the app and are looking to add more new features to the existing one. The version 2.0 will also have a journey plan with a compatible charging station, membership pass and the like.

The co-founder spelt out the plan of action saying that “The journey plan will help owners to plan their trips based on the charging requirement. The membership pass will allow users to charge their vehicles without owning a charger. This is where we are looking to collaborate with the OEMs. By enabling more sharing, the entire cost of the ecosystem could get come down and that is what we believe.”

Lono Mobility is now actively looking for funding. With which it aims to improve the app, enhance the size of its team and address several other aspects of the business. “So far, it has all been bootstrapped,” he admits.

At present, ChargePool is not levying any charges for using the app. “We intend to create an ecosystem and enable charging. We need to provide all the facilities for the EV owners and infrastructure players,” Sharda said. He pointed out that the main problem is the availability of charges and that unless this is addressed, the adoption rate will not increase. “Once there are enough transactions happening, we will introduce some charges. Also, when partnering with OEMs, it would also levy some charges accordingly,” he said. The company is in discussion with OEMs for partnerships.

“We are also in discussions with the Tamil Nadu government for collaborations. Our target is the smart cities and we will approach other state governments also. All those who are in the EV space, be it the OEM, last-mile connectivity players or any other infrastructure players, will directly or indirectly be connected with us,” he said. 

This feature was first published in March 15, 2022 issue of Autocar Professional magazine.