In this episode of the Climate Innovators Interview Series, I spoke to Chargerzilla CEO Sajith Kumar. Chargerzilla presents a new business model for EV charging stations in which charger owners, from homeowners to business owners, can make their stations available at specific times of day and set their own pricing. They also incorporate a review-style feedback system. I thought this was a clever and fresh perspective on improving charger reliability and incentivizing the build-out of the charging network.
Below you will find a lightly edited transcript of the interview for those who prefer to read. If you prefer to listen or watch, this interview is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and as an RSS feed.
Dustin: Hey everyone, welcome back to the Sustainable Advantages Climate Innovators series. I am here with Sajith Kumar from Chargerzilla. Sajith, could you introduce your role and talk about what you did before coming to Chargerzilla?
Sajith: Thank you Dustin great to have a chat with you. Yeah, my name is Sajith Kumar. I'm the founder of CEO of Chargerzilla. We are a fast-growing startup in the EV charging industry. Previously, I was a project manager. I have 25 years of experience managing multiple projects with a multi-billion-dollar value in the private sector as well recently, I was a senior advisor and also project manager drafting EV policies for the current Administration. plus, I do have a background being an entrepreneur. Before, I had a consulting company managing Federal contracts.
Dustin: Cool, so you’ve straddled the line between public and private, being an entrepreneur and in a big company. Even in the government.
Sajith: Yes, that's correct. I'm mostly in the tech sector and management consulting.
Dustin: Nice, so if I can ask, Chargerzilla, EV charging, I think I saw it's called the Airbnb for charging essentially. Can you tell me a little bit about what prompted you to start with Chargerzilla? What kind of made you want to get going with it?
Sajith: As everybody knows the EV charging industry is growing at 23% cumulative growth rate and especially I am, being an EV owner, passionate about sustainability. I was driving to Washington DC and I was looking for a charging station and there was some kind of range anxiety brewing inside me. That is when I was passing through a neighborhood where I saw a homeowner who had an EV and was charging it. It happens to be the brand of EV I'm driving so I’m about to ask him, “Hey, can I charge my car because you have the same brand of the vehicle.?”
So that kickstarted that concept and I pondered it until I reached Washington DC. Then I was working in the EV policy sector and this was thinking that I should start an EV charger of the community by the community for the community. I kind of feel it that way. Should we be relying only on public charging station providers? This is the basics. Then started working on that concept and we approached some companies who were providing their data to us and then we started with the platform step by step.
Dustin: So Chargerzilla is for the people by the people of the people as kind of an idea. Yes, that's good.
Sajith: That's right. An EV charger sharing network of the community by the community for the community. We are empowering property owners, homeowners commercial property owners to share their chargers through a platform. We are providing that facility plus they can generate a passive income through our platform which incentivizes more property owners to come forward and install a charger. They don't need an electric vehicle. Many people ask, “I don't have an EV how can I put a charger?” You don’t need an EV. You have a refrigerator at home and electricity is everywhere, call an electrician, put in a charging station, and rent it out through our platform to generate income. That’s about it. We are democratizing the EV charging industry.
Dustin: Yeah, and so basically Chargerzilla isn’t owning the charger necessarily here. You're kind of building this layer on top and I guess is the goal to build this aggregation effect like this network where people think hey, let me check Chargerzilla. I need to charge somewhere and I'm not right next to my usual charging stations is that kind of the goal?
Sajith: Yes, you nailed it. We come as an added protection for the EV owners out there on the road and looking for a charging station. Per the Bloomberg report, around 20% of the public charging stations do not work. You may see charger is online and later you know that the charger doesn't work. So these are the main problems that you might have seen across the industry as you are an industry watcher. That's where we are utilizing the underutilized EV charging stations, and when there are more charging stations there is less range anxiety and this will help boost EV adoption. It will lead to decarbonization, our main goal.
Dustin: It’s kind of thinking about the people with the cars who need to charge, they're thinking about, “Where am I going to look for a charger?” So I'd come to Chargerzilla. But what about you mentioned a charger owner doesn't have to be an EV driver like to be somebody that has access to electricity or it could be maybe a small business or something that wants to put themselves out there, I guess. So what would be the incentive for me as the charger owner to go with Chargerzilla versus posting my location on Google Maps and being like hey, I've got a charger.
Do you guys worry about Google Maps kind of capturing that away from you? I know it's founded in 2022. So maybe you're not that worried about competitors yet, but what's kind of your take on that?
Sajith: As we are democratizing the charging market a property owner, a homeowner, can call an electrician to install a charger, set their own pricing, time of availability, and share their charger in our platform. This is increasing the number of charger stations.
The homeowner doesn't need to own an EV we have farm owners and wineries who put a charging station and it really helped them capture more business. People are driving on the highways and they're finding a charging station using our platform. They are going there and leaving the car on charge. They don't need to sit inside the car because they can just walk around and buy farm produce like tomatoes. If it's the winery, there’s wine. If the host is providing a coworking space, you can sit there and use your computer and wifi, and do some work while the car is charging. So, this is more beneficial than a public charger where you need to sit inside the car itself and the car is charging. Many homeowners are providing Wi-Fi and we have somebody who's offering Netflix. These are the added benefits people are getting.
You've mentioned about Google. When a homeowner is putting their charger on our map, people can find and book a charging session. It comes with a lot of privacy, and they can never see the exact address. They can see that area but unless the host accepts the reservation request from the guest. The host can see guest reviews and his profile, and if he's comfortable only the host needs to accept it. Once the guest gets accepted, he can see the address, go there, and charge the vehicle. The address is always masked and the public cannot see it.
Back to Google, Google can put some public charging stations, but it's not a fully comprehensive set compared to what we offer in our platform. We are a one-stop shop for charging stations from all EV charging companies. Public chargers. Fast chargers. Tesla superchargers. Tesla destination chargers plus private chargers that are located at homes and properties that can be reserved at any time you want. By accepting the booking, the host is saying it is reliable. It's working, not like a public charging station where you drive 20 miles and you see it doesn't work and you lose the existing range in the battery. These problems can be avoided.
Dustin: Yeah, so at least for now it's sufficiently different and then we get the private homeowners. It's really that Airbnb concept, right? So when I go to Airbnb, I don't see the address. I see an approximate location.
Sajith: You can see the reviews whether the host was hospitable. Some guests say the host was nice and gave me a glass of water. I was able to use his internet. Those are good things.
Dustin: Yeah, that makes sense. I think that that probably helps get more people on board. I've had this challenge where I've been on a car trip in a rural area driving from Raleigh to Charlotte here in North Carolina, and I was in that scenario that you were talking about. I probably have enough range, but I’d really like to stop for 30 minutes and get a little bit more juice to make sure I get there. I did this trip in the fall. If I was aware, there was something like Chargerzilla. I probably would have tried it. So, how do you think about making people aware of Chargerzilla? Are you guys just trying to figure out word of mouth or do you have some concept of how you're trying to get in with partnerships with some of these other charging networks or what's your thought there?
Sajith: Good question, you know how do we spread the word? We are the EV charger sharing network of the community by the community for the community. Word of mouth has helped us even before we launched our first version of our web and mobile platform. We have done extensive market research and market surveys with the EV owners. The entire system is developed by EV owners, for the community, and not only that, this has helped the EV associations in every state spread the word, northeast to midwest, they are mentioning about Chargerzilla. We are growing by word of mouth as well as we do some events for the communities, which also brings a lot of people to our platform. Now we are going to work with the US government. Installing EV charging stations in underserved areas. It's called a Justice 40 area. It is commercially not feasible for a public charger provider EV to install and make a profit out of it because there's not many EV owners but there are few. That is a place where we are putting in EV charging stations by the homeowners and we are sharing that in our platform. We are going to do that in association with the Department of Energy and Department of Transportation joint office.
Dustin: So that's a right back to your background of kind of straddling the public and private sector right? You're gonna do a little collaboration.
Sajith: Yes.
Dustin: Yeah, that's nice. So kind of a different kind of question for you. There's this Tesla charging standard and a lot of these other carmakers are starting to pick this up. I think Ford just came out with their adapter and everybody was super excited about that. How do you view that kind of standardization on a charging standard that has a lot of charging stations around? Do you see that as a positive because there are less variables for people to think about? “Hey, I just need a place to charge.” What's your thought there?
Sajith: This is a very good step by the government. The Society of Automotive Engineers recommended the government for the NACS adoption for a reason. There are multiple different standards so by going by NACS, we bring standardization. That will really help, in the maintenance and reliability of charging stations. Not only that, it is easy for the EV owner. We also believe in being customer first in whatever features we are developing. Everything is based on the customer focus, what the customer needs, and how to make the customer successful. That's always our policy. So NACS is towards that direction, and it will really help because through standardization it can reduce the cost and can enable more mass production. Not only that, but the same standard can also apply to any locations all over the US. It will really help boost EV adoption. So, that’s in the right direction.
Dustin: Yeah, so this is kind of like “the rising tide lifts all the boats” kind of thought is what you have on that.
Sajith: It’s a field of challenges. This is all one of the challenges standards and it can help.
Dustin: You alluded to a Department of Energy Justice 40 partnership. Is there anything else coming for Chargerzilla that you can speak to? Any partnerships that you guys have coming up or anything super exciting that you want to talk about or talk more about the Department of Energy thing? That seems pretty cool also.
Sajith: Yes. We are planning to install charging stations in underserved areas. That is one component of our macro strategy. We are a growing startup. We are still capturing more market share; we are sharing our brand to help solve most of the range anxiety problems. So we are expanding and innovating. We are tying up with the federal govt for highways, meaning fast chargers on the highways, as well as destination charges for places like hotels, shopping centers, and workplaces.
We also have partnerships with businesses and governments. The (DOE) program is one among them. There are more programs running at the state, local, and county levels. We are also working on integration with the firms in renewable energy to reduce the environmental impact of charging. We need to ensure that clean energy sources power charging stations. That is off-grid charging and entirely environmentally sustainable based on renewable resources only. This could involve installing solar panels using renewable energy credits to offset electricity consumption. Also smart charging solutions. People can utilize our app to charge their car at an off-peak time so that it is less load on the grid and less cost to charge an EV in their home. We have been integrating this feature into our mobile apps.
Also, there are more mobility services partnerships within the connected transportation ecosystem. We have a partnership with ride-sharing companies, car manufacturers, and mobility service providers to offer integrated charging solutions for EV fleets and shared vehicles. Uber and Lyft drivers are driving every day and when they go to a public charging station, it's already taken. Then need to find another place. Using our app, they can reserve a charging station. For example. If they have a reservation for one o'clock they go there leave the car and can go for lunch or take a break and come back. So, the user can schedule his time using our mobile app.
We are, with community engagement and public awareness, we are collaborating with the Clean Cities Council of Greater Washington, Clean Cities Council of Maryland, San Diego, nationwide advocacy groups, and educational institutions to raise awareness of the benefits of EVs and the importance of charging. We are working on building a partnership with all those. One of the components is the federal agency, but in addition to that we are working with the private sector or else to increase the number of EV chargers in the industry.
Dustin: So you guys are a very good place for someone looking to work in partnership and Business Development. You’ve got a lot of stuff coming it sounds like.
Sajith: Yes, we have that in the mission and roadmap we have developed already. There is never enough, there are still missing things and we'd like to fill the gap and move forward definitely. Whatever help we can do to make the EV owner out there on the road successful, to reduce range anxiety, and to get a charger next door.
Dustin: So what's the thing that's blocking you guys up in the next year? Is it time? Is it bodies? What's the hurdle that you wish would just go away so you could go even faster?
Sajith: We take everything as a challenge. Whatever the EV charging industry and the EV ecosystem are experiencing, any challenges will be the same for Chargerzilla. We are here to help. If you want to mention a blocker, there's not much because EV charging is a fast-growing industry. More people are adopting EVs and the governments federal, state, and even local are so proactive in drafting policies for the charging sector. There are not many blockers. At the same time, we need to have more charging stations. When there are 30 million vehicles on the road. We need 12 million to 13 million charging stations. So that is a huge challenge that should be tackled. For EV adoption, that is a major blockade. We can see that the market is growing, so the Chargerzilla concept of people sharing their charging stations increases the number of charging stations. So, we are helping in the industry to solve the problems.
For EV adoption, that is a major blockade. I can see that the market has to grow so Chargerzilla is coming up with the concept of people can share underutilized charging stations and we incentivize this. This increases the number of charging stations. So we are helping in the industry to solve the problems.
Dustin: Yeah, I think It's nice to just have the problem of we just need to run fast, I think that you can do hopefully.
Sajith, this was fun, and I appreciate you taking the time and good luck with Chargerzilla. We'll be keeping an eye on you.
Sajith: Nice talking to you Dustin. Thank you again.
A Conversation with Sajith Kumar, CEO of Chargerzilla