We’re ready to launch
We finally got the Electric Together web-app into testing. We believe that it’s the world’s first EV product recommendation tool!
The app allows you to create a unique and shareable vehicle profile through which you can recommend the products you love, such as renewable energy, insurance or home charging points. Additionally, users can embed product customer referral codes into their profile (rejoice Octopus Energy, Bulb and Tesla customers!), helping to share rewards as they encourage new owners to switch to electric.
A bit about why I got into this…
In short, I love the ultimate combination of product design, engineering and driving experience that cars have given us. It is a journey that started in 1989 with a Triumph Herald convertible in 1989 (thanks Nan), and will probably end with a sublime Porsche GT3. In-between I have owned a VW Beetle, a few ubiquitous VW Golfs, and a V8 Audi — sorry Polar bears.
In short, I have always been a petrolhead.
But the cars I drove were polluting my neighbourhood, the atmosphere, and were fuelled with oil. So I started walking and cycling more, to the point now where I have more than halved my car mileage.
I’m also attracted to technology that has the power to disrupt. To do this it needs to be genuinely better than what preceded it and have the ubiquity that means it can be useful to millions of people.
Electric cars are app stores on wheels
The Polestar 2, that I now drive, is a sublime piece of design and mechanical engineering. Mine is powered by renewable energy and feels twenty years ahead of many oil-burning cars that populate our roads. Whilst the cars available today are still sold at a premium, it will not be long until we reach price parity, and that’s when things will really get interesting. (See https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/ for more information on trends.)
Furthermore, connected cars, like Polestar and Tesla, will have a huge impact on the way we travel in the future. Open data, APIs and easy to use software is already normalised in much of our daily lives — think of Uber, AirBnB, FaceBook, Zap-Map.
So a year ago I sat down with some friends and we imagined what products might be needed as the UK quickly moves into mass EV adoption. We had some very radical ideas and some simple ones (a better way to buy EVs perhaps?). We think that we have brought something unique and valuable to the EV consumer landscape, but will leave it to you to tell us if we have made something genuinely useful.
Finally, a huge thank you to the good people that have helped us along the way: James Ellis-Brown (@bmwi3guide), my co-conspirator and general EV expert; Martin and Kevin at Spin-up.io who developed the software, Cameron Blunt who manages our data, and the advice and counsel of Nick Siantonas and Jon Bardill who added considerable domain expertise.
I look forward to seeing your EV profile!
Arjo Ghosh, Co-Founder Electric Together
For more information:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arjoghosh/
My Electric Together profile: https://app.electrictogether.com/arjo-polestar
