Portuguese company installs electric car chargers — free!

Power Dot, a Portuguese startup which is 100% sustainable, is to install electric vehicle chargers for free in car parks.

It is seeking business partners to partner in the free installation of chargers in private public-access car parks while offering to support the costs associated with the operation — a cost of between €3,000 and €100,000 depending on the type of project: direct link to an electric source, type of charger (from slow to fast), number of charge points, average parking time, etc.
The startup’s goal is to establish a maximum number of partnerships with car park owners (which have other associated services such as shopping centres, restaurants, gyms, retail parks, municipal amenities/facilities to grow the business so that the company’s business in electric car chargers also grows in Portugal. In other words the installation is free but the charge revenues go the company.
The company has decided to stand out from other electric charger point suppliers in the market which are licensed by the Directorate-General of Energy and Geology (in a business area where giant companies like EDP, Galp, Prío, Repsol, Mota-Engil, EMEL, among others) also operate and take on the total costs of the equipment, installation and operation management.
Furthermore, Power Dot also later shares a percentage the revenues obtained from electric charging with the carpark owners whose core business is far from electric mobility. As an offset, the car park owners have to grant the respective parking spaces.
In operation since December 2018, Power Dot’s aim is to “consolidate its business model so as to make it one of the main players in the sector in Portugal by partnering with the largest number of car parks possible.”
In the company’s first year of activity alone the electricity used from Power Dot chargers enabled drivers to do a million km, the equivalent of two and a half trips from the Earth to the Moon, saving more than 150 tonnes of C02.
From the start of 2020, Power Dot has 90 charging posts from the north to the south of the country (many of them double points which means 180 points), mostly installed in the car parks of shopping centres (Amoreiras, Espaço Amoreiras, Braga Parque, Arena Shopping, Nosso Shopping, Vila Real, Space Shopping, Alameda Shop & Spot at Mondego Retail Park, in business and office centres such as Lionesa in Matosinhos, Intermarché chains, McDonald’s restaurants, Norauto shops, Lamego and Mafra town councils, and more recently in the Docas de Santo Amaro in Lisbon.
Power Dot CEO José Sacadura said, “Any car park can have Power Dot chargers without any cost or risk to the owner. They just need to get in contact with us and we’ll install and manage the equipment.”
Therefore, the carpark owners offer the spaces and in return get some revenue while adding value to their offer and actively contribute towards a greater range of sustainable mobility solutions.