A Bracknell entrepreneur has cracked a neat solution to a time-wasting problem.
Russell Smith has had an electric car for a year now.
Mostly he charges it at home, but there are times when it needs to be plugged in at a public charging point.
“Charging infrastructure in the UK hasn’t quite caught up with the sales of new electric vehicles (EVs),” he says.
“The bays are nearly always already in use, and you never know how long you’re going to have to wait for the car before yours to finish charging.
“My car takes around 50 minutes..
“A Tesla can take around one and a half hours.
“But the thing is, you never know until you tap on the window of the vehicle in front and talk to the owner.”
Russell explains that only the person charging their car is given an indication of how long the process will take, usually via their phone.
“No one is going to put their phone on the dashboard to let people know, so everyone else is left in the dark,” Russell says.
“In January, it was my daughter’s birthday, and I was sitting in the car, waiting to charge, when I had a light bulb moment.
“I realised that there was a very simple way to let people know how long they would need to wait.
“And it would allow them to do something else with their time, rather than just sitting there.”
Russell sketched out plans for a dashboard disk that he calls the EVtimer, or electric vehicle timer.
A straightforward green disk, it has a dial that drivers can turn to indicate what time they expect their charge to finish.
“It’s a way of being courteous to each other,” says Russell.
“After starting your charge, you indicate the estimated completion time on your EV timer, and put it on the dashboard where the next driver can see it.
“Without it, other drivers can be sitting there forever, and it’s exasperating, waiting.
“But this way, people can go and do a bit of shopping, knowing what time they should get back to their car.”
The development of the idea from first sketch to manufacture has been remarkably quick, Russell says.
“I had no previous experience of marketing, and I didn’t know where to start, but it has all happened so rapidly, and the product is already available and patented,” he says.
“Simple solutions can sometimes be the best.”
Russell is selling the EVtimers online for £5.99 including postage.
To find out more, visit: www.evtimer.net
