Allison interviews Anne Campbell, founder and CEO of PlugP2P, about their peer-to-peer EV charging marketplace. PlugP2P safely connects owners of EV chargers and electrical outlets to EV drivers needing a charge.
As a PlugP2P host, you can list your EV charger and electrical outlets, set your calendar and price, and accept and decline reservations. The service enables contactless payments so you can safely and securely collect payments. You also can rate and review your charge guests.
As a PlugP2P guest, you can check calendars and request a reservation, securely pay through the app, and rate and review your charge hosts.
PlugP2P has a mobile app for both Android and iOS making the service easy to use on the go. The service is expected to launch in early 2025. You can sign up for launch notification at the website below.
Learn more at https://plugp2p.com/
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Transcript of Interview:
Allison: We’re big fans of electric vehicles and we really believe in being able to charge anywhere. And one of the problems to be solved is what if you’re, I don’t know, going to a ball game or something like that and you need to charge, but you also need to park. And it’s possible that Plug P2P might have the answer to this. So I’m talking to Ann Campbell, the founder of Plug P2P, and she’s going to tell us all about their idea of how this can be solved.
Ann Campbell: Yes.
Allison: Okay, great. Thank you for stopping by.
Ann Campbell: Plug P2P is a mobile app that helps connect people who own an EV charging device. And it could be an electrical outlet because most people have a mobile charger, or it can be an actual Tesla charger or a J1772 charger. So we connect people who own those charging devices. They use them a couple times a week. They just sit there unused most of the time. There are over 4 million of them in the US today. And we want to sort of create a marketplace so that people who have a charger and people who need a charger can find each other. And we think this is going to be really helpful to people who drive EVs because they charge at home most of the time. But sometimes they could be visiting someone, they could be going to a game somewhere, they might be spending the afternoon at the park at a soccer game. And it would be nice if they could just kind of park across the street or down the street or around the block and let their vehicle charge while they’re sitting there watching that football game for four hours. And everybody wins.
Allison: You know, wait a minute, we’re all larcenous. So we want the money. So I’ve got I’ve got a Tesla charger in my car … I mean in my garage. And I’m I’m a nice person. But I pay 52 cents a kilowatt hour during the peak time and 26 during the off time. So I’m going to want some compensation. What’s your idea there?
Ann Campbell: So you set your calendar, you set your price, you get to decide. The host is in full control of the situation; when someone wants to come to your house to charge, you can decide to accept or decline that charge event. And they know what your calendar is, they know how much you charge, and you’re going to charge. Market discovery is something that we enable. So if you can charge 20 bucks an hour during that football game that’s right around the corner from your house, you’re going to do that. And you should do that. And, yes, we’re able to do that.
Allison: Because they’re also parking their car, aren’t they?
Ann Campbell: Absolutely. So it’s a win-win for everybody. And you know, our app will allow you to kind of discover what people are willing to pay. And you should be compensated because you’re sharing your property, you’re you know, you’re giving them an electric charge. So there’s really a bit of a win-win benefit all around by using our app.
Allison: So that’s, that’s really perfect. You’re ready to wind this up. And I’ve still got more excitement about this. I like the idea that I get to set the charging. So if it’s a children’s soccer game across the street, I might get a buck an hour. But if I’m at SoFi Stadium, I’m down the block there; I’m going to get bank for that because I’m allowing them to park and charge their electric vehicle at the same time.
Ann Campbell: That’s right. And if you’re on a highway exit ramp, you might get 20 bucks an hour, whereas you know, on Memorial Day weekend, and somebody really, really needs to charge, it could be an electrical outlet, you don’t even have to own an EV charger. So you as a host, you know, there are people who drive EVs that have mobile chargers that plug into a regular electrical outlet, you just need to have it checked by an electrician, make sure it’s safe. And we do ask you those questions. And so we just want it to be a really positive, outstanding experience for everybody.
Allison: That’s interesting. So you’re only going to get maybe five or six miles per hour of charge on a 110 outlet. But if they also get parking during an event like that, that’s worth the money. That’s interesting. It may not even be somebody who owns an electric vehicle and doesn’t even have a charger. But I’ve got an outlet, or maybe I’ve got a dryer outlet, maybe they’ve got the charger. So some things like that. You’ve built the infrastructure for all of this math to be done. I don’t have to worry my pretty little head about how to do it. But all I do is set the charge.
Ann Campbell: That’s right. That’s right.
Allison You just tell us what I said to charge, I meant money.
Ann Campbell: That’s right. You decide your schedule, you decide how much you want to charge. And you put it out there. If you’re selling something on, you know, eBay or Airbnb or Uber, you know, this is what I have to offer. This is what I want to charge. And then you find matches like guests will be able to find you if you have what they need. And the beauty of a marketplace is it allows buyers and sellers to find each other and negotiate a price. And so if you set your price at $50 an hour, you get no customers, you know that if I want to be in this business, I got to drop my price. Some weekends you might be able to get $50 an hour, some weekends it might be two or five or three, whatever it is, you’ll find out.
Allison: I love this. So the site is plugp2p.com – peer to peer.com. And I’m sorry, is this already available today?
Ann Campbell: We’re launching in the next couple of months. We’ve been working on the software for about a year now. We’re putting the final bells and whistles on it. We want it to be a really amazing user experience. And we think everybody’s gonna love it when we get it out there. It’ll be downloadable on the Apple Store and the Android Play Store. It’s for iOS and Android. So look for it in a couple of months. But you can go to plugp2p.com to get us your email, we’ll let you know when it’s going to be launched. So we can keep you in the loop, you can sign up. And you can either be a charged guest, a charge host, you can be both. And you know, we’re just going to create this awesome ecosystem so that people can find each other and start EV charging and solve this big problem that the whole society is dealing with.
Allison: This is fantastic. And I expect a personal phone call when this all goes live. But this is great. One more one more time. I’m going to plug p2p.com.
Ann Campbell: You’ll learn all about it. You can email us we’ll answer any questions. Give us your email and we’ll keep you posted when we go live.
Allison: Perfect.
Ann Campbell: Thank you.