WARREN — A Los Angeles-based company using Columbus as a guinea pig to develop and manufacture its mobile electric vehicle charging stations is part of BRITE Energy Innovators’ portfolio, using the energy startup incubator to rapidly develop a prototype.

BRITE also will help plan for production “with enthusiastic support, connections in manufacturing and energy, a strong investor base and an ideal location in the heart of American manufacturing country,” Caradoc Ehrenhalt, EV Safe Charge’s founder and CEO, said. Read more

A few companies have introduced mobile charging products to solve unique challenges.The perceived lack of ready access to charging stations is one factor that has limited consumers’ interest in buying electric vehicles. While the number and diversity of locations of EV charging stations are growing, thanks to networks such as Electrify America, chargers can be hard to find in urban centers, or on the outskirts of cities.

For charging network operators and would-be site hosts, determining the best new locations to satisfy the expanding fleet of EVs has been challenging, due to the need to know where the vehicles reside and where they are most frequently driven. However, the necessary data to answer these questions is not freely available, which makes the ability to relocate charging stations if stations become underutilized an attractive option.

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In a world where more and more drivers are moving to electric vehicles, where is EV charging today? To better understand exactly where EV technology is today, we caught up with Caradoc Ehrenhalt, the CEO and founder of a Los Angeles startup, EV Safe Charge (www.evsafecharge.com), to chat a bit about his view of where EV charging technology today. EV Safe Charge rents out EV chargers for events, in addition to having its own business installing charging stations.

What is EV Safe Charge?

Caradoc Ehrenhalt: EV Safe Charge started when I got an electric vehicle, for the environment. The dealer didn’t have much information or knowledge on how to get a charger installed, or where to go and find an electrician, and I figured that others also were experiencing this as well. It turned out, that was definitely the case, and that’s how the company was created. We started doing residential installations, and then commercial installations. We haven’t done any paid marketing or advertising, but more and more companies are finding us, and our business has started developing. It’s been an exciting two years. We were fortunate to be approached to provide mobile EV charging for Jaguar, and have developed that solution, and it’s now a big part of our business. With that project, we provide level 2 and DC fast chargers, providing everything needed for successful EV charging at events, anywhere in this country or Canada. After doing the work for an internal event for them, that led to external, customer-facing launch events around the country. Since then, we have had our chargers on movie studio sets for actors and crew to use for major Hollywood movies, and have also supplied charging equipment for motorcycle companies. One of the things we’ve also done recently, is launch a consulting division, to help companies navigate any of the complex issues to get a charger installed, such as dealing with ADA Compliance. Finally, something I had always wanted as an EV driver, was a really amazing app to help with everything an EV driver would want on the road, and we just announced a partnership at CES with Sumitomo Electric for an app, EV Safe Charge, Powered by Sumitomo Electric.

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