AeonCharge is a Seattle, Washington based company on a mission to connect drivers with electric vehicle charging stations. Since its origins as a startup out of Purdue University it has expanded into a much broader business that promises to speed up electric vehicle adoption with its B2B2C software.
According to Green Car Reports, a staggering one in five electric vehicle (EV) owners switch back to gasoline. Challenges, particularly with the lack of convenient charging stations for these vehicles, makes sustaining this new lifestyle all the more difficult.
This is something that Dwi Sutandar knows all too well. He drove an EV from West Lafayette, Indiana to Seattle and almost thought he wouldn't make it.
"I wanted to make the drive just to see if we have enough supporting infrastructure for public EV charging to support that long journey," he says. "But we almost got stranded in Oregon, because all of the charging stations in that particular area were broken," he continues.
Sutandar shares that the mobile app he used at that time to locate charging stations didn't warn him at all that they were broken. By the time he got to Seattle, his vehicle only had a few minutes of power left. "It was a really scary time for us," he says.
But with affordability, efficiency, and reduction of carbon emissions on everyone's minds, Sutandar didn't want to give up, and he took it upon himself to do something about this.
With experience as a Forbes Technology Council member providing expert opinion in the US tech space, along with a background in renewable energy, he came up with a powerful solution to this dilemma: AeonCharge.
Based out of Seattle, Washington, AeonCharge is the first software development company of its kind in the US, that helps people avoid the scary situation that he almost encountered on his drive from Lafayette - getting stranded. "That's the goal," he says. "For other people to avoid a similar situation."
With a desire to make electric vehicles more accessible, he created AeonCharge, which originally started out as an app that you can use to find chargers on the go.
"With the original model of AeonCharge, you could find a parking spot that not only has an EV charger, but you can then make sure that the charger is currently available and working. It was designed to allow you to also activate and pay for a charging session," he says.
Sutandar tells us 80% of EV drivers use more than 6 different mobile apps to find public charging stations in the US. This statistic, along with his growing passion in the renewable energy space, has allowed him to create a company that can put everyone's electric vehicle owners' minds at ease.
After experiencing much success with this idea and gaining interest from other businesses, Sutandar realized that he had the potential to do so much more. He has since expanded his company to serve in six different categories of business including charging aggregators, route planning, fleet operations, fleet management solutions, parking applications, and automakers.
"We just believe in the positive impact we can bring with these renewable energy technologies," he says.
Prior to creating AeonCharge, Sutandar previously served as the Technical Director at Solar Chapter, an international non-profit extension of the World Bank, that provides clean water access for developing countries through renewable energy. Sutandar's responsibility included managing engineers across four continents.
He has also previously been a part of Y Combinator, an American tech startup program which has successfully produced over 100 unicorn startups such as Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Dropbox, Coinbase, and many others.
His company, AeonCharge, represents the future of technology whilst accelerating the electric vehicle revolution. Soon enough, EV drivers will be able to find a parking spot with a charger, and be able to simply plug in the charger to their vehicle to start a charging session without having to click their app or tap their debit or credit card.
EV drivers can plan out their trips conveniently with their favorite route planners without the worry or hassle of charging their vehicles. If you would like to learn more about this revolution and AeonCharge, be sure to visit their website or LinkedIn today.
