Startup DeCharge is attempting to make a big splash in the EV world with community-owned charging stations.
American EV charging stations largely remain under the control of large companies and networks, such as Tesla's Superchargers.
"EV adoption is skyrocketing across the U.S., but infrastructure hasn't kept pace," Mohan Kuldeep Ponnada, founder and CEO of DeCharge, told Environment+Energy Leader. "Our vision is to decentralize energy access and create an open network where anyone can earn by powering the future of mobility."
DeCharge is currently operating a pilot program in New York and Los Angeles, with further expansion into Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and other areas on the horizon.
How does it work? DeCharge lets property owners install its chargers. The property owners set prices and stand to benefit financially from real-time payments and long-term revenue sharing, per the report.
DeCharge's business model addresses a critical need: as of early 2025, only 183,000 public charging ports were available in the U.S., well short of the 1.2 million needed by 2030, according to Department of Energy estimates cited by E+E Leader.
Additionally, the platform uses decentralized blockchain for payments and AI for various other tasks, such as load balancing and pricing optimization.
Without the resources of a giant corporation or a municipal government, DeCharge is seeking new and innovative solutions to doing business in the EV market in ways that will hopefully not just appeal to the early adopters, but also newer EV users.
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