You could earn hundreds of dollars by renting out your charging station.
You could earn hundreds of dollars every month by letting other people plug into your home charging station.
At least, that's what two Quebecers believe as they launch an app that could revolutionize access to charging stations across our vast territory.
There are 400,000 electric vehicle drivers in Quebec," explains ShareCharge co-founder François Boutin-Dufresne. There are 8,000 Level 2 charging stations, so if 10% of the 400,000 electric vehicle drivers agree to share theirs, that's 40,000 more charging stations."
In recent months, the serial entrepreneur bought an electric car. He quickly came to his senses when he noticed the lack of charging stations in the suburbs of Quebec City.
“I was in a charging desert. I saw that my mother's neighbor had one. I thought it would be convenient to be able to plug in there,” says François Boutin-Dufresne, who previously worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
An Uber for charging
So, together with Jay Bouvier, he created ShareCharge.
With the ShareCharge app, you can see which private charging stations are available in your chosen area. All you have to do is reserve one when you need it.
"At first, I thought, ‘Surely something like this must exist,’ but when I searched, I couldn't find anything that did exactly that. No one has managed to build a network that's comprehensive enough,“ he says.
Similar to Uber or Airbnb, ShareCharge allows anyone to rent out their residential charging station at the price they want.
”We estimate that it can range from $1.50 to $5 per hour," says Jay Bouvier, who has years of experience in aerospace.
Public money
Is ShareCharge stealing Hydro-Québec's thunder with its public electric charging network?
Not at all, say Boutin-Dufresne and Bouvier.
They claim that the two offerings are complementary and that they may even integrate their network into Hydro's app one day.
Access to charging stations is not always easy in Quebec. Last May, Hydro conducted a pilot project involving mobile charging on trailers in Louvicourt.
We can see the limits of the Electric Circuit network's development because at some point, there will be no more public money," observes François Boutin-Dufresne, who is inviting people to sign up to his network first in order to reach the magic number of 5,000 charging stations in the coming months.
Launched in 2012, the Crown corporation's Electric Circuit began in St-Hubert restaurants, RONA stores, and transportation agencies.
Quebec's first electric vehicle drivers will remember evenings spent in St-Hubert parking lots in the bitter cold charging their vehicles.
ShareCharge could turn the page on these chilly episodes for good.
Highlights
The Electric Circuit recently partnered with Red E Charge, ChargeLab, and EV Connect. More than 5,500 charging stations are now listed in its app. In Quebec, Bromont, Senneville, Lorraine, Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, and Rosemère are the cities with the most electric cars, according to the Quebec Electric Vehicle Association (AVÉQ).
