The goals sound like a breath of fresh air in the charging station field: Provide EV drivers with easy access to participating charging stations using common authentication credentials Enable one bill for all charging usage Accurately provide aggregated EV charging station location data and Utilize open national interoperability standards. That company will "enable charging network interoperability, exchange session data and allow financial billing reconciliation services among electric vehicle charging networks." The jargon means that Collaboratev will provide a service similar to that which happens between banks to enable sending money from one bank to another.Īdditionally Collaboratev plans to encourage other charging station network operators to join, with the vision of a allowing electric car drivers to "seamlessly charge among all affiliated charging networks." The connection between the Blink and ChargePoint networks will be implemented later this year. To implement the agreement, ECOtality and ChargePoint have formed a new company, Collaboratev, LLC. In February, ChargePoint announced an expansion into Atlanta.
ChargePoint and Blink are both constantly expanding. Each of the networks have different membership requirements and payment strategies, which increases confusion, difficulty and cost to the consumer.ĮVgo is based in Texas but is currently expanding into California and the Washington DC area. Most metropolitan areas have a mix of charging station operators, forcing electric car owners to become a member of each network. ChargePoint and Blink are the two big dawgs in the field and there are other companies entering such as NRG's eVgo.
The collaboration will allow Blink and ChargePoint network members to use charging stations belonging to either network, while in the background the companies exchange data and financial reconciliation between themselves.Ĭurrently public electric vehicle charging services are divided into several charging station networks. ECOtality and ChargePoint announced on Thursday a collaboration that will resolve a minor annoyance in electric vehicle ownership, the need to be a member in multiple charging station networks.