UK start-up ZipCharge, the pioneer of the world’s first portable suitcase-sized EV charger, has won the British Engineering Excellence Award in recognition of the firm’s R&D programme.
ZipCharge’s ‘Go’ charger removes a common barrier to EV ownership by bringing the possibility of home charging to anyone who cannot plug-in at their home. In the UK, 40% of car-owning households are without designated off-street parking.
“Winning this award is terrific recognition of the hard work and dedication the team has invested in making the ZipCharge Go a portable EV charger you can use every day, whatever the weather and in any location,” said ZipCharge co-founder, Richie Sibal.
“Our customers will expect their EV power bank to be as robust and hardwearing as their vehicle, so we have implemented exhaustive automotive industry testing standards to the unit, the electronics and the software. We’re highly confident it will work perfectly wherever they park their EVs.”
The company had put its EV charger through “meticulous” development processes and standard trials to ensure it is ready for market in early 2023.
The ‘Go’ is now advancing to the validation prototype stage with designs released for manufacturer and hardware testing now underway.
Since 2009, the British Engineering Excellence Awards has been championing and celebrating design and innovation within the UK.
Chairperson of the Awards and stakeholder engagement director at the Advanced Propulsion Centre, Philippa Oldham, added: “ZipCharge took an innovative approach to develop a product that addresses a real need in the fast-growing EV market. It’s a simple concept, but with quite complex technical challenges and the judges were impressed with how they managed this. The value and use case for a portable EV charger is evident, with the potential to break down barriers to EV ownership and I look forward to seeing this product come to market.”