Could the charge point of the future have wheels? A company called Zipcharge thinks so, and has developed a system for charging electric cars which it says is three times cheaper and three times faster to install versus fixed on street chargers. The first will be installed in the UK next year. 

The GoHub consists of lockers which house large powerbanks on wheels. These have a capacity of between 4-8kWh, which is enough to charge an average electric car to travel between 15 and 30 miles. Charging is at the same rate as a fixed wallbox charger, at 7.2kW. 

The chargers will be available to rent 24 hours a day with the option to pre-reserve in an app. As the user approaches the hub, the correct bay door of automatically opens to reveal the charged pack. They then pull out the charger from its dock inside the GoHub, wheel it to the vehicle and plug-it in.

GoHubs are three times cheaper to install and don't need dedicated charge bays

Once finished, the user is notified on their smart phone, they collect the Go and return it to the bay allocated via the app. A charge of 4kWh charge will cost £1 with no connection fee, making it lower cost per kWh than a fixed charger. 

The hub has more than 100kWh of second-life batteries which are charged overnight to take cleaner, cheaper electricity.The GoHub comes in two variants; a single sided unit houses five portable powerbanks, or a double-sided GoHub with 10. Both fit into the plot no bigger than a regular parking space. It can also be sited on the pavement or close to where power already exists, making them less disruptive to the street and requiring less roadworks to install. 

The hubs can also be expanded and connected together with minimal investment, to grow in tandem with the growth in adoption of electric vehicles. 

ZipCharge Co-founder, Jonathan Carrier said: “We predict our portable powerbanks will outsell fixed home chargers by 2030, in the same way mobile phones overtook landlines. We have the bold ambition to deploy 100,000 GoHubs globally by 2030 to support EV charging, local grid resiliency and energy democracy.”

The wheeled power pack will supply 4kWh of power - enough for between 15 and 30 miles - for £1