ZipCharge reveals first portable electric vehicle charger

ZipCharge has unveiled its first portable electric vehicle charger, the ZipCharge Go, at the COP26 conference in Glasgow.

The company says it wants the Go to bring the benefits of home charging to all, with a reported 40% of car-owning households not have designated off-street parking.

ZipCharge describes the Go as a global portable EV charging platform that combines hardware, software, machine learning and innovative ownership models to bring affordable, practical charging to EV owners. It says it also creates an intelligent energy management platform that provides flexibility and resilience for the national power grid.

The product was designed by ZipCharge co-founders Richie Sibal and Jonathan Carrier, who between them have decades of experience in automotive electronics systems engineering and product development at businesses like McLaren Automotive, Jaguar Land Rover, Lotus, Gordon Murray Group and LEVC.

ZipCharge Co-founder Jonathan Carrier “We’re delighted to be launching the Go at COP26, it’s the perfect place to introduce ZipCharge to the world. In light of the Government’s recent Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener manifesto announcement, never before has the automotive industry had cause to innovate so rapidly to help us reach a low carbon future.

“One of the key barriers to wider uptake of EVs is charging anxiety; the inability to charge near or at home. ZipCharge removes that hurdle and in doing so, will democratise EV ownership.”

The portable charger works through high energy density NMC lithium-ion battery cells and associated power electronics. A bi-directional AC-DC inverter enables two-way charging from the grid to the unit, and from the unit to the grid, so the power bank can be used to store cheap off-peak energy and feed it back into the grid at peak times.

ZipCharge co-founder Richie Sibal added: “Our technical approach to engineering the Go as a lightweight, compact and safe charging solution, and then evolving that into an EV charging platform reflects our intention to combine the development of battery-based systems with the lowest future environmental impact possible.”

The product was unveiled at the landmark COP26 summit in Glasgow, with the first customer-ready models expected for Q4 2022.