The ZipCharge Go is a new portable electric car charging station that its creators believe could bring wallbox-style recharging for electric car owners with no driveaway space or garage of their own.
With complete wheels and a retractable handle, the ZipCharge Go is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack housed within an aluminium spaceframe and recycled plastic casting. It can be manoeuvred around like a travel case and used as a store of energy from a household plug that can then be used to charge a street parked electric car.
It has been designed by two British engineers with previous experience in automotive electronics and product development at McLaren, Jaguar and Lotus.
The Go can be expected to hit the market at the end of 2022 with a price similar to that of a typical 7kW wallbox home installation – a figure that can range from anywhere between £500 to £1,000 depending mainly on whether or not the UK Government home charger grant is taken into consideration.
However, the Go will be available via subscription too, from £49 a month.
The ZipCharge Go will come with a capacity of up to 8kWh, which, depending on the EV it’s plugged into, should deliver between 20 to 40 miles of range. For context, 8kWh of power is enough to provide a new Fiat 500 with roughly a 20 per cent recharge, falling to around ten per cent for a car with a larger battery like the Volkswagen ID.4.
Like many home wallboxes and public fast charging points, the power flow is rated at 7.2kW. It means a fully charged Go point will take around an hour to deliver 8kWh of charge to the battery of the car it is connected to.
According to its creators, the Go can be kept at home for off-street parking recharging or neatly stored in the boot of a car for recharging at a destination with no direct plug access. However the weight of the unit has yet to be confirmed.
Integrated 2G and 4G connectivity means that those using the Go can track charging progress via a smartphone app, while a bidirectional AC-DC converter means that any excess power can be sent back to the grid at peak times.
Zipcharge says it intends to create a range of portable chargers beyond the Go, with smaller, lighter 4kW options too.
