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Vietnam has hundreds of thousands of e-scooters and an unstable energy provide. One may assume that these two issues sign hassle when put collectively, however right here’s how some Vietnamese are utilizing their e-scooters to enhance stability of {the electrical} grid and assist small companies keep away from blackouts.
In Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, Vietnam’s most populous metropolis, energy outages are fairly widespread. They’re typically scheduled or introduced forward of time, however energy outages do happen on a weekly foundation, in varied elements of town.
Consequently, bigger companies could have a generator of some type readily available to maintain issues working when the ability goes out, however many Vietnamese have small, single-person proprietorships (assume small retailers, meals carts and so forth) that won’t have the assets for one thing like that.
However there’s an energetic and enterprising group of e-scooter customers who’re attempting to supply a cellular answer to this downside – with the massive batteries they carry round of their bikes.
The initiative, referred to as Re:Cost has been taken on as a grassroots effort by house owners of Dat Bike e-scooters. Dat Bike is an area Vietnamese model, launched in 2019 and nonetheless comparatively small within the scheme of issues, however with an energetic on-line group round its customers.
Dat Bike put collectively a video showcasing the hassle from its group:
To date, the Re:Cost effort has been taken on by a comparatively small set of about ~10 customers, however they need to develop their attain, inform their story and get extra folks concerned.
They’ve arrange a hotline for native companies in Ho Chi Minh Metropolis, and to date have helped a number of eateries, bakeries and low retailers, a tattoo parlor, and a grocery retailer.
And as this can be a group effort, Re:Chargers haven’t been charging companies for his or her providers, they only need to assist out. Although they’re blissful to simply accept free snacks in return from the ice cream freezers they save.
Dat Bike e-scooters have as much as a 5kWh battery, and will be paired with a 1kW or 2kW inverter to show them right into a 220V energy supply. These inverters can run for 4 and a couple of hours respectively at full load and on a full battery, and are sufficient to energy, for instance, the lights and a couple of freezers for a small comfort retailer for 3-4 hours.
The group has been publicizing its efforts by a Fb web page and TikTok account (each in Vietnamese), and is hoping to recruit extra customers to hitch within the effort.
Electrek’s Take
Whereas this can be a small effort (to date), in a rustic that Electrek doesn’t cowl a lot or get a bunch of readers from, after we had been pitched this story by e-mail I couldn’t resist.
Not solely is it a enjoyable little story a couple of group effort that’s offering assist for small companies who want it, it additionally helps to spotlight one of many sensible advantages of EVs.
One of many widespread refrains about EVs is “what if the ability goes out?,” however right here now we have an instance of EVs providing a profit when the ability goes out.
We’ve seen it earlier than, with EVs being extra resilient in disasters and offering cellular energy for flood response. However the Dat Bikers present that you just don’t want a 98+kWh battery to unravel issues, only a comparatively small 5kWh battery may help for sure functions.
If we lastly begin to see the proliferation of bidirectional charging, V2L, V2G and what-have-you, this kind of factor might grow to be extra widespread, and may showcase an enormous potential advantage of EVs.
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