Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator launches fourth class of startups
The Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator has kicked off its new class of 12 startups. (Elizabeth Raymond / Alabama News Center)
The 2023 class of Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator is underway, and it’s the biggest one ever.
This year’s cohort includes 12 companies — up from 10 in prior years — from nine U.S. states and the nation of Latvia that will undergo an intensive, 13-week mentoring program in Birmingham.
The new class is the fourth for Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator, which was founded in 2020. With the 2023 class, the program has welcomed 42 companies from across the United States and around the globe. Over its first three years, under the leadership of Managing Director Nate Schmidt and Program Manager Brooke Gillis, Techstars Alabama companies created over 200 jobs, including 32 that have remained in the state. The goal of their successors in those respective roles, Matthew Jaeh and Rae’Mah Henderson, is to continue building on that success. Read more
Behold the First Airport in the World to Pilot Mobile Robotic EV Charging Solution
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) Airport has named ZiGGY, the new robotic EV charger from EV Safe Charge, as a participant in the airport’s pilot program to assess cutting-edge EV-charging approaches this summer.
ZiGGY is the first and only mobile EV charger that aims to affordably and safely meet the EV charging needs of virtually any commercial parking lot – including airports – and offer a built-in communications and advertising platform to create a revenue stream for sites and maximize EV owner engagement.
This airport demonstration is the first of its kind anywhere. DFW’s Innovation and Planning teams will host a series of EV charging demonstrations from May through August.
“Airports must meet the growing demand for travelers owning EVs to easily charge while they fly,” explained Caradoc Ehrenhalt, founder and CEO, EV Safe Charge. “In evaluating potential technologies for their pilot, DFW chose to display the tech offered by ZiGGY due to its innovative flexibility to reach every car in a parking lot, not just a few spaces. We look forward to working with DFW with the goal of identifying more options to service their expanding EV-driving traveler base, and we are thrilled to be part of this historic moment.” Read more
DFW Airport Chooses ZiGGY, the Robotic EV Charger, for Groundbreaking Demonstration Program
What’s Happening
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is preparing to showcase ZiGGY, the innovative robotic electric vehicle (EV) charger from EV Safe Charge, as a part of its summer demonstration program. This series of demonstrations, planned from May through August, aims to evaluate advanced EV-charging methodologies. Notably, ZiGGY is the premier mobile EV charger designed to address the charging requirements of almost any commercial parking space, including airports. Beyond its core function, it also features an integrated communications and advertising platform, offering potential additional revenue sources and enhancing EV owner engagement.
Robotic EV charger will get a test at Texas airport
A robotic EV charger will be put to the test at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) in the coming months as part of a pilot program for innovative charging solutions.
Developed by EV Charge Safe, the robot charger, dubbed Ziggy, goes to a car in need of charging plug-ins, and then returns to a staging area for recharging. The mobile unit can also carry advertising as a source of revenue. Read more
Robotic EV Charging Is Being Tested in Texas
EV charging robots are being demonstrated in parking lots at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport this summer.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport will host the world’s first mobile, robotic EV charging demonstration this summer for passengers and employees alike with electric vehicles.
The robot performing the charging is named ZiGGY, and it is to come to your car parked in a DFW Airport parking lot when summoned, charge your car and then drive itself back to its base.
ZiGGY is the creation of Los Angeles-based EV Safe Charge, a privately held company that specializes in flexible EV charging technologies. It creates and implements temporary charging solutions for its large-scale commercial customers, including Jaguar, Porsche, Stellantis, Nissan, Audi, Daimler and Harley-Davidson, among others.
The company was chosen by DFW Airport to participate in a program to demonstrate a series of cutting-edge EV charging stations, DFW Airport said. The demonstration program is scheduled to run from May through August.
In the above YouTube video, ZiGGY is booked by a driver well away from the parking lot where ZiGGY resides. The robot then finds an open parking space, saves it by parking itself there and then notifies the driver what space it has reserved. Once the car arrives, ZiGGY moves out of the way, goes behind the vehicle and starts the charging process. When it’s time to leave, ZiGGY automatically goes back to its station to recharge itself.
“In evaluating potential technologies for their demonstration, DFW chose to display the tech offered by ZiGGY due to its innovative flexibility to reach every car in a parking lot, not just a few spaces,” Caradoc Ehrenhalt, founder and CEO of EV Safe Charge said in a statement.
Once mobile charging becomes commonplace, it could go a long way towards solving the annoying issue of ICEing, when a vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine takes the parking space in front of a charger.
Dallas airport will demo this cute little mobile EV charging robot
Instead of making the EVs park by a charger, this charger can come to the EV.
There are a few things we need to work on if we’re going to properly embrace the electric vehicle revolution. More batteries, for one—tight supplies mean automakers can only build enough EVs to satisfy some of the pent-up demand. Cheaper EVs would be helpful, too, considering that by the end of 2022 the average cost of a new EV was more than $61,000. And charging infrastructure needs to improve, too. Now, a new mobile EV charger called Ziggy might help with that last one.
Installing EV chargers usually isn’t too difficult if you’re a homeowner with a garage or carport, but things can get more complicated for multifamily dwellings and commercial parking premises. Permitting is often a big problem, and there can also be lengthy waits to get electrical infrastructure upgraded, particularly if the plan is to install level 3 DC fast chargers, which can suck up 100s of kWs of electricity from the grid.
Ziggy is the work of the company EV Charge Safe, and it flips the idea of EV charging on its head. Instead of a driver parking by the EV charger, Ziggy is mobile and can come to the car instead.
“The idea really came out of customer demand,” explained Caradoc Ehrenhalt, founder and CEO of EV Charge Safe. “So many people have contacted us asking us if we had a charger with the power on board, because we’re the first company to have created a comprehensive level two and DC fast charger rental solution.”
EV Safe Charge rents (static) chargers, for example, to car makers to use at car launches or ride-and-drive events. “So wherever anyone needs temporary EV charging or if someone is waiting for permits, they can rent our charger,” Ehrenhalt told me.
“What we’re hearing from people that want to use Ziggy around the world—shopping centers, hotels, airports, etc—is the common thread of the infrastructure being very challenging or not possible to put in or not cost effective or takes too much time. And so there really is the need for a mobile charging solution,” he said.
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