Long charging times? From burden to bonus!

Many drivers are reluctant to switch to an electric vehicle, partly because charging takes longer than refueling. At Designworks, we challenge whether charging times are truly a problem – and propose a solution: Let’s retire the idea of the traditional 'gas station.'

ABOUT PETROL PUMPS AND POWER STATIONS

The world is going electric; in Norway, 95 per cent of new registrations are already electric vehicles (EVs). But in other countries many people remain critical of the fact that it takes significantly longer to charge them than to refuel a combustion engine car. There’s a fixed view that refueling has to be quick above all else. Not least because petrol stations smell of fuel, the pump handles are sometimes oily, and motorway service stations often don’t feel particularly comfortable or safe.

TRANSFORMING THE CHARGING EXPERIENCE

At Designworks, we’ve been asking ourselves whether long charging times should be seen as a hindrance at all. Couldn’t drivers use charging times to relax? To catch up on work, or have meetings? Why can’t charging time be quality time? Then these 20 or 30 minutes would no longer be lost time, but a gift: from burden to bonus.

We view EV charging as a holistic customer experience: from the journey to the station through to payment. For example, we designed the fast-charging infrastructure for IONITY, a joint venture between the BMW Group, Daimler, Ford and Volkswagen. Designworks was responsible for the open, bright, clear and user-friendly architecture of the charging stations. At night, customers can see the illuminated ring on the charging stations from afar, the colour of which indicates whether the space is free. The ring visualises progress during the charging process. The digital experience was particularly important to us: from the touchscreen in the charging station to the matching smartphone app. Above all, everything should feel like a personal “recharging” instead of a stressful and annoying daily agenda item.

CAN´T WAIT TO GO CHARGING!

More and more EV charging concepts are adding leisure activities in the equation to transform the charging experience into a positive one. A great example of what this might look like on a large scale can be found in China, where Designworks Shanghai is involved in designing the charging points for a national “Supercharger” network. Most of them are located in the underground car parks of shopping centres or office buildings. This means customers aren’t driving to the stations for the sole purpose of charging but are going for other reasons too such as shopping, eating out or attending business meetings.

We have worked with our colleagues at BMW to ensure that the navigation system in the car can also find the charging points precisely within a building. Charging slots can be reserved in the BMW app. The charging points are visually striking enough for drivers to see them from a distance and be able to tell at a glance which slots are free.

MULTI-PURPOSE URBAN STATIONS

The concept of the “Nth Space”, developed by a joint team of Designworkers from Los Angeles and Munich together with the internationally renowned architecture firm Gensler from San Francisco, goes even further. The basic idea is that a petrol station takes up an unnecessarily large amount of space for its function – especially in an urban environment. This is because traditional petrol stations are single-storey buildings with a roof over the pumps. The vision is to transform charging stations into multi-storey, multifunctional buildings where people can do sport, meditate, work on their projects in co-working offices or meet friends and business partners for lunch. All this while their EV is being charged on the ground floor.