Renault launches an app for home charging between individuals

With Renault’s Plug Inn app, individuals with a home charging station can generate new income by offering their installation to other private users.

Available since March 9, 2023, the Plug Inn app was created to make life easier for electric vehicle drivers. It opens up a new network of private chargers made available by individuals in exchange for payment (Renault suggests a rate of €4.5 per hour).

Registration is free, both for those renting out their charger and those seeking one. Plug Inn geolocates the various charging points on a map and provides details about each installation (green up socket or wall box, power output, etc). Reservation and payment are handled directly within the app.

Hosts can evaluate the potential income from renting out their charger on Plug Inn. Their financial summary and other statistics are additionally displayed in a dashboard.

For Renault, private charging stations constitute “a perfect complement to the public charging network, especially during busy periods such as long weekends or school holidays.”

Private Charging Between Individuals: A Bad Idea?

The idea of connecting private individuals has also appealed to Volkswagen, which created a comparable app to Renault’s. However, some believe that it is not sustainable in the long term, especially for tax reasons. This is notably the case for François Gatineau, founder of the consulting firm Mobileese. He believes that charger owners “will soon face tax and social issues”. According to him, “they are offering a peer-to-peer service without any tax being collected by the state, which will ultimately lead to regulation.” He sees more relevant solutions, such as installing charging points on lampposts.

Read also: Charging stations: surpassing 90,000 in February 2023