EDP's electric mobility solutions win Portuguese edition of the World Summit Awards
EDP EV.Charge - an app for charging electric vehicles in condominiums - and EDP EV.X - an app that supports the transition to electric mobility - are two of the eight innovative ideas that have been selected to represent Portugal in the UN-sponsored awards.
Developed by EDP to support the adoption of electric mobility in Portugal, these apps have just been chosen, among dozens of other apps, to represent the country at the World Summit Awards, an international initiative that celebrates the best digital innovations with a social impact. These awards have the participation of about 180 countries and are sponsored by the United Nations.
The Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications (APDC) received 44 applications from Portuguese projects for this year's edition. A jury headed by the APDC and consisting of representatives from the media and relevant companies and organizations in the Portuguese ecosystem selected this year's eight winners - choosing the EDP EV.X app in the Environment and Green Energy category and the EDP EV.Charge app in the Smart Communities and Residential Developments category. Before the end of the year, the eight best innovations in the world will be selected in each of the competition's eight categories. The big winners of the WSA 2020 competition will be announced in the first quarter of next year.
Developed for smartphones by EDP, the EV.X app was created to encourage the adoption of electric mobility in Portugal and already has more than 24,500 downloads. This app makes it possible to simulate the consumption profile of a driver if they join electric mobility: app users have already made more than 430,000 trips and traveled over 8 million kilometers, averaging almost 19 kilometers per trip. Had they all traveled these distances in an electric vehicle, they would have saved more than €300,000 and avoided the emission of 311 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. More than 80% of these trips could have been made without having to stop to recharge the vehicles, which shows that range is not always an obstacle to the adoption of electric mobility. EDP EV.X is a free app for Android and iOS and is available in 20 European countries and in Brazil.
Offering an innovative charging solution for condominiums, this app has also been selected by the jury. EDP EV.Charge addresses a problem affecting many electric vehicle users - charging their vehicles in the garage when they live in shared buildings, such as condominiums. Thanks to this EDP Comercial solution, charging an electric vehicle in a shared garage is now a simple and quick operation: using a virtual account - an e-wallet - which is available from the EDP app, EV.Charge automatically pays for the energy provided by that particular building, so there is no need to settle accounts manually at the end of the month. Approximately 1500 transactions have already been carried out with this platform, which also makes it possible to optimize the vehicle's consumption expenses, giving users the option to schedule charging to when energy is cheapest in the condominium, according to its rates. EV.Charge also offers access to a portal where condominium managers can monitor the charging equipment's consumption and manage rates and residents' payments.
This is a very important recognition of the path EDP has been pursuing to propel electric mobility in Portugal. From very early on the company positioned itself as a leader in the sector by creating competitive rates, solutions and products to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles and facilitate their charging both indoors and outdoors.
About the award
The APDC (Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications) organizes and promotes the World Summit Awards (WSA) in Portugal and selects eight candidate projects every year for this international initiative, which has been held by the UN since 2003. The purpose of the WSA is to identify and advertise the best global digital projects with an impact on society, selected in each of the eight competition categories. Every edition involves about 180 countries and culminates in the WSA Global Congress, in which the 40 winning projects (eight for each category) and the Global Champions are announced. Many of the winners in previous editions came from Portugal.
The competition categories are:
- GOVERNMENT & CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT
- HEALTH & WELL BEING
- LEARNING & EDUCATION
- ENVIRONMENT & GREEN ENERGY
- CULTURE & TOURISM
- SMART SETTLEMENT & URBANIZATION
- BUSINESS & COMMERCE
- INCLUSION & EMPOWERMENT
