Middlebury Institute Student Wins Startup Challenge Monterey Bay’s Student Division

“Winning the StartUp Challenge was exhilarating and rewarding!” said Lannon. “The Charge City idea came to me a few months ago and I was able to fine tune my idea through Professor Jeff Langholz’s Green Business Feasibility Assessment class.” The International Environmental Policy student envisions transforming small and medium-sized business parking lots into Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS), with the goal of installing two to 10 charging stations per location. The business model employs incentives offered by the State of California to offer businesses zero-cost-down charging station installations. “Over the summer I plan to incorporate, raise seed capital and launch a pilot at a medium sized business in Santa Ana, Orange County. I’ll be running on the lean start-up model with the goal of scaling in 2020.”

The mission of the venture is to accelerate the creation of electric vehicle charging stations up and down the state, using a model that is potentially scalable on the national level with appropriate incentives. Lannon’s proposal notes that a 2018 executive order from California Gov. Jerry Brown set a goal of five million zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) and 250,000 public chargers, including 10,000 DC fast chargers. California currently has 500,000 ZEVs on the road and needs seven million electric vehicles by 2030 to meet its climate goals.