KIGT: The Apple of Charging Stations

6 years Scott Cooney 0 Comments
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Just like the first wave of most technologies, home EV chargers tend toward the … utilitarian side. Not so with KIGT, where UX/UI have been top of mind since the outset. Paul Francis, CEO of KIGT, told me in a recent interview that the energy industry is still caught in a mindset of just getting the technology right. A big part of our EV revolution, however, is market adoption, and for that, KIGT’s sleek, user-friendly design is helping expand the EV charging market to customers with style and a more advanced UX/UI in mind on top of functionality.

“For EV Drivers, KIGT is a user-experience company that makes EV charging more flexible, affordable, accessible, and enjoyable,” said Francis.

KIGT’s Mini3 home charger, with quick reference touchscreen dashboard.

Of course, they’ve got the tech worked out, too. Working alongside partners such as UC Riverside and Cleantech San Diego (SCEIN), KIGT is siting charging stations in places where people park their cars the most. To help large-scale customers like UC-R, KIGT integrates and then standardizes all new requirements for utility-grade infrastructure so that EV charging is smarter and easier to operate for the site host and utilities during demand response times.

KIGT is currently looking for connections to commercial real estate and multi-family developers, electricians and general contractors, and automotive OEM V2G demonstration partners. Also, it is offering people the chance to get a charger for just $99. For those qualified, incentives can cover the rest of the cost. Submit your application here to see if you qualify.

They also like to have some fun. Check out their EV story competition, where you can enter to win prizes and miles.

In addition to being an innovative and truly customer-facing company, KIGT also gives back. Francis and his team recently launched the first ever EV technician training program, in partnership with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI). A diverse group of students was recruited to help cast a wide net and reach beyond the usual choir of EV enthusiasts, and to start creating a new workforce of certified technicians who can help fix and maintain EVs.

Paul Francis of KIGT helped put on the first ever industry-wide Electric Vehicle Technician Training Program.

Click here to read KIGT CEO Paul Francis’s bio on Cleantechies, where the rest of my interview with him covers vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, the history of KIGT, and what it’s like being a Black CEO in the cleantech industry.

Know a Black leader of a cleantech company? We’d love to feature them, as part of our company’s anti-racism efforts. Cleantech can and will solve all the world’s problems for all the world’s people, but can only do so if it’s inclusive and features members of all races in its leadership. Let us know here. 

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Scott Cooney

Scott Cooney (LinkedIn) is a serial eco-entrepreneur focused on making the world a better place for all its residents. Scott is the founder of CleanTechnica and was just smart enough to hire someone smarter than him to run it. He then started Pono Home, a service that greens homes, which has performed efficiency retrofits on more than 20,000 homes and small businesses, reducing carbon pollution by more than 27 million pounds a year and saving customers more than $6.3 million a year on their utilities. Scott wanted to contribute to native ownership of the clean energy revolution, so he gifted Pono Home to a long tenured employee with native Hawaiian roots for just the liquidation value, turning down a mainland company interested in purchasing the company. In a previous life, Scott was an adjunct professor of Sustainability in the MBA program at the University of Hawai'i, a consultant at Saatchi & Saatchi S, where he worked with a team to educate and empower millions of employees to live healthier and more sustainably. He is the author of Build a Green Small Business: Profitable Ways to Become an Ecopreneur (McGraw-Hill) , and Green Living Ideas. Scott is an occasional investor, currently he has investments in Rivian (RIVN).

Scott Cooney has 190 posts and counting. See all posts by Scott Cooney