Photo: Portable Electric
The charging infrastructure of electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the most important elements of the rollout of the new technology, and while stationary charging stations have largely become the norm, one Canadian company plans to offer mobile charging instead.
Canadian company Portable Electric plans to roll out Canada’s largest clean-energy mobile EV charger, according to BC Business. The company focuses on producing high-performance mobile electric generators, called Voltstack power stations, which are currently being sold in nearly 10 countries around the world.
Fun Fact: Portable Electric, one of our event sponsors, used VOLTstack
units to power the festival with clean energy! pic.twitter.com/xIOLjtgdph— Lumiere Vancouver (@LumiereYVR) November 15, 2018
Portable Electric Founder and CEO Mark Rabin said, “I’m sure most people are saying right now that their next vehicle’s going to be all-electric or hybrid.” Rabin continued, “There’s no holding back, so now the biggest next question is going to be, what about charging? What about range anxiety? And as we start to roll out the EV charging infrastructure, we believe that 15 percent of all charging infrastructure will need to be mobile and resilient in some fashion.”
Portable Electric has partnered with Vancouver’s Teck Resources and Community Energy Association to produce the Voltstack power station, and they plan to begin rolling the mobile charging units out in the third quarter of this year, specifically to the East Kootenay communities of Fernie, Elkford, and Sparwood.
The Voltstack units will be designed to be deployed en masse but will focus simply on boosting an EV’s charge levels far enough to get them to a fast-charging station. Beyond just charging EVs, Rabin believes the units could be perfect for other electric mobiles like ATVs, as well as a number of other practical uses.
Volkswagen also shared a teaser of a mobile charging robot last year, though their unit looks much smaller and less heavy-duty than Portable Electric’s Voltstack, which sits upon a trailer and is meant to be carted around on streets.
