DooH/ EV charging company Jolt is entering the Canadian market, planning for 5,000 new charge points. Offering free charging, they aim to turn driver data into a valuable new advertising network.
The Australian EV charging company Jolt is expanding to Canada, with plans to install 5,000 charging locations. In this new market, the company will replicate the business model it operats in the UK, New Zealand, and Australian: Electric car drivers will receive 7 kilowatt hours of free charging, which equates to 40 to 50 kilometers of range. The DooH screens integrated into the chargers are supposed to help recoup the cost of this free charging.
This is a concept, other providers have struggled with in the past, particularly the US company Volta, which was the first to combine DooH screens with charging stations. Jolt’s approach is different because it offers only part of the energy for free. This free amount, however, serves as an incentive for drivers to register in the Jolt app. The first-party data Jolt gains through those registrations is made available to advertisers. They can then use these data to promote their products on both the DooH screens and within the app, which also features built-in advertising slots.
The first Jolt charging stations in Canada were installed this week in Richmond Hill, located in the Greater Toronto Area. Several hundred more will be installed in the coming months. The rollout is intended to support the Canadian government’s goal of installing 200,000 public charging stations by 2030.
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The business model of combining DooH with EV charging stations has had mixed success in the past. Only recently, the German start-up Numbat, which used DooH screens as additional income, filed for insolvency. Jolt relies on a partial cost model and the use of first-party data, combined with large screens in high-traffic locations. This could create a promising advertising network in the future. However, the challenge of running an EV charging network with sustainable profit still remains.
