7 ways Atlantans are saving the planet—or our little corner of it

Georgia Tech students are making charging your electric car easier

Range anxiety is the neurosis du jour among electric vehicle owners, who fret over whether their cars literally will be able to go the distance. But in doing some research for an entrepreneurship class at Georgia Tech, undergrads Josh Lieberman, Isaac Wittenstein, and Dorrier Coleman realized that the real problem might most appropriately be termed “charge anxiety.” It’s not that there are no charging stations nearby; it’s the wait that comes when all of the spots are filled and the drivers aren’t around to move their cars once the charge is done.

The guys got to thinking: What if there were a more efficient way to use the existing power infrastructure? TEQ Charging was born. Short for The Electric Queue (and a nod to its roots as a Tech project), the technology is somewhere between a power strip and a switchboard, allowing multiple drivers to plug their cars into a charging queue. From there, TEQ uses electromechanical relays to move the power to the appropriate car based on timing and demand. Drivers use an app to request power and get their place in the queue. It’s like a cloud-based light switch for your car, except that you don’t even have to take on the responsibility of turning it on and off.

This article originally appeared in our August 2016 issue.