In 2021 a Tesla Model S ran out of charge at a major London shopping centre car park exit ramp, causing frustration for several other drivers who were stuck waiting for the vehicle to be towed.
If the management had followed Heathrow Airport’s example and had a ZAPME charger to hand this would have not made the national news as simply, as the problem would have been fixed in a few moments.
ZAPME has been designed to give up to 150kW of charge, which would have been enough juice to get the vehicle back up the ramp to the Tesla Supercharger in the car park above.
Let’s imagine that’s Easter 2022 – with the explosive growth in new EV registrations and the far lagging installation of fast chargers around the UK, there will be a lot of people running out of juice. This is especially the case with more than one major EV charging network being reliably unreliable in the experience of EV owners.
James Foster, CEO of ZPN Energy, said: “Now, what if 50 EVs broke down on critical interchanges as their owner’s credit from busy or broken chargers looking for some juice elsewhere? Utter chaos would break out.”
Just one major roadside recovery provider can recharge cars at the roadside
Currently, only one major roadside recovery provider has the ability to recharge cars at the roadside, using their vans’ diesel engines to produce a very slow charge that might not even provide a big enough range to get to the next charger.
With EVs unable to be towed and prone to breaking down in inopportune moments, a fleet of estate cars and vans with the ZAPME and ZAPME Max units could be a solution to the worst case scenario.
In the example of the ZAPME Max with its 150kW capacity, 10 units around London could deal with approx. 75 EV flat batteries, freeing up the motorway network in just an hour or so. This is thanks to the units being able to pump out up to 300kW of charge, or around 50kWh a minute.
James Foster said: “The ZAPME charging unit is one of those products that when you understand the concept, you can’t understand why no one else has developed them.”