Regardless of the engine type, one must always juice up the vehicle. And for a conventional vehicle owner, it is a piece of cake, but for an EV owner, finding an EV charging station and charge his EV is like fighting an uphill battle. According to a recent study of the International Council on Clean Transportation, most locales need to build 20% more EV charging stations to satisfy the demand of EV charging stations with the rising ownership of EVs.

Currently, building EV charging station infrastructure along with EV charging station management software is at its early stage. However, sensing the future opportunity, many entrepreneurs have already jumped into a very profitable business.

One such entrepreneur is Scott Mercer who founded Volta charging which is revolutionizing the EV charging station business by letting users charge their EVs free of cost. Yes, you heard it right. In exchange for electricity, Volta Charging does not charge a single penny and still surviving effortlessly. How? Let’s find out. But before that, as a pre-requirement, you need to know the EV charging station market.

Interesting statistics about EVs and EV charging stations

• EV market share in the USA was pretty low in the year 2017. The data shows that the market share of EVs was only 1.2% and the total sales in 2017 were just 187,985.
• But in the year 2018, EV sales reached 328,188 and the market share hit 2%. This was an impressive 63.33% higher than the previous year.
• California topped the chart of most EV owners in those both years.
• Tesla Model 3s has been the most popular EV. Toyota Prius Prime was the second -bestselling EV.
• Apart from the USA, China and Europe are major EV markets.
• In the year 2017, more than 1 million EVs were sold in the world.
• Over time, battery costs are rapidly dropping. In 1995, Li-ion price per kWh was $5000 which reduced to $400 in 2016.
• As of March 31, 2019, there were around 63,303 DC fast charger connections in the US. In the year 2017, it was just 50,627.
• With 3,308 (18.9%) charging stations, Tesla owns the largest charging network.

Carrying this very important information with, let’s move ahead and know how Volta Charging can able to provide free EV charging service and yet manage to earn well. If you are planning to start an EV charging station business by acquiring EV charging station management software, this learning will be very useful to you. You will know-how with the proper technology and business model, you can be the first choice of EV owners.

» Insight into Volta Charging

Volta Charging is the San Francisco -based company that was founded by Christopher Wendel, Michael Menendez, and Scott Mercer in the year 2010. They built their first charging station in Hawaii. Since then, Volta Charging expanded to all major cities of the USA such as San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston.

Volta Charging raised $35 million in 2018 from investors like Energize, and Activate Capital. Recently, in its round C funding round, Volta Charging raised more $100 million. Round C of the Volta Charging was lead by Schneider Electric Ventures, SK innovation, Energize Ventures, and a number of existing partners.

According to company sources, Volta will use this cash injection to expand its business in new markets. Volta will also use this money to build more EV charging points in the cities where they are already enjoying the company presence.

The business model of Volta Charging

You don’t have to overlook this. Because, Volta’s business model holds the answer to your most awaited question, how Volta offers free EV charging service?

Here’s how!

Volta’s business model consists of three major stakeholders - users, real estate owners, and sponsors. Proper distribution of business resources and services is the Volta’s secret of enabling EV owners to charge EVs for free.

» Users

Volta Charging allows users to book the spot for EV charging through the mobile app. When a user reaches the charging station, he can claim his booking by either scanning the bar-code printed on the EV charging station or tapping his NFC-enabled phone to NFC reader of the EV charging station. Then the system verifies his identity and allows him to charge his EV. For the sake of a pleasant user experience, the app shows him the current charging status and notifies him when his EV gets fully charged.

» Real estate owners

Building a charging station requires land and purchasing a land is a costly choice. But Volta Charging has the solution for this. It asks businesses such as grocery stores, entertainment venues, and shopping centers to let Volta Charging build charging points outside of their property.

This business strategy of Volta Charging is so effective that they have successfully built hundreds of charging points without purchasing land. Grocery and shopping mall owners happily tie-up with Volta as the presence of Volta charging stations outside of their property increases the human movement near their shops which eventually helps them to boost the sales.

» Sponsors

Volta has given a dedicated place for sponsors in its business model and there is a reason behind it!

Each charging station of Volta is equipped with an LED screen(55”). On this LED screen of every charging station, Volta lets any brand or individual put advertisements which are, by the way, paid.

In the nutshell, Volta Charging does not buy the land. Instead, it ties up with the property owners and saves a really big amount. And because of the sponsorship business model, it manages to earn, despite offering free charging service to users.

So, after reading so far, if you are thrilled to start an ad-based EV charging station business like Volta Charging, let’s understand the business secret of starting an EV charging station business and earning well through it.

How to start ad-based EV charging station business like Volta Charging?

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To start the EV charging station business, you need to acquire EV charging station hardware and EV charging station software. Only a proper connection and communication between hardware and software of the EV charging station attracts users and makes your company successful.

The EV charging station app keeps communicating with the central EV charging station management software and this EV charging station management software keeps communicating with EV charging station itself.

The connection between all of these three is established automatically whenever a user books the charging spot, claims the booking and pays the charging fee. The central management system stores the details of spot booking and payment and it communicates with the EV charging station to either allow him charging his EV or not.

This whole architecture is very complex. And so, it is always advisable to hire a clever EV charging station app development company which does not only develop the app but build the whole infrastructure for you.

And if you want to choose the path of Volta, the game might turn harder. For the ad-based EV charging business, your charging stations should have a display on which you broadcast the ads. This is what Volta is doing. But if you want to go a mile extra, here is what our business experts suggest. You can integrate a feature in the user app which lets users interact with the ads they are currently seeing on EV charging station’s display. They can either buy the product from the app or just know more about the brand or person. This is a revolutionary idea and no one has applied it yet.

How much does it cost to develop a Volta clone app or develop EV charging station management software?

Coruscate is the top EV charging station app development company, which entertains numerous queries related to EV charging station management software. We accommodate a few highly skilled developers, designers, and data scientists who will help you start EV charging station business from scratch. We will be your business strategic partner and help you to overcome every business challenge and expand your business in new markets.

With our rapid app development technology, we can develop an EV charging station app under $10000 and within 45-55 business days.

To know more about app features and EV charging station hardware, please contact us. You will be rewarded with app demo and free consultation.

Note: We do not make clones of any exact application, clone means to us is how better we can execute your app idea with existing app features and experience.