Nazar Shymone-Davyda, founder of the nonprofit Tesla Club Ukraine, was one of the first Ukrainians who invested in an electric car.
He bought his car from U.S. electric vehicle company Tesla Motors. When he drove it 560 kilometers from Lviv to Kyiv on a single charge, he “realized that it was the future.”
That was in 2014. Since then, the number of electric vehicles in the country has grown from a modest 59 to over 23,300 cars, according to automotive business association Ukrautoprom.
But even though Ukraine’s electric car market seems to be gaining momentum, poor roads, few parking spaces and a shortage of electric vehicle chargers limit the pace.
Shymone-Davyda and his business partners — Lyubov and Lena Artemenko — have stepped up to popularize electric transport in Ukraine and fix at least one of these problems. They founded Go To-U, a mobile application that shows drivers a map with charging stations and allows them to book the stations and avoid lines.
The startup has already connected over 65,000 chargers in 47 countries and 70 of them are in Ukraine, where it started. As of today, the startup is valued at $15 million.
The founders of Ukrainian startup Go To-U Nazar Shymone-Davyda, Lyubov and Lena Artemenko pose for a photo during the opening of one of Ukraine’s biggest charging stations for electric vehicles in Lviv on Aug. 10, 2020. Go To-U has developed a mobile application that shows drivers a map with charging stations and allows them to book the stations to avoid lines.
Сhargers in Ukraine
Go To-U is a software startup, so it doesn’t manufacture charging stations.
The startup offers its services to businesses like shops, malls, cinemas, hotels and petrol stations and encourages them to buy electric car chargers to attract more customers. It puts them on its map and, for that, charges businesses a subscription fee of 8–30 euros a month.
Most of the current 8,530 charging stations in Ukraine have been installed by local firms like AutoEnterprise, Electro UA and Ionity. But Shymone-Davyda believes that many Ukrainian companies use low-quality equipment that can harm the vehicle in the long run. So he advises local businesses to buy certified charging stations from foreign manufacturers like Swiss ABB or Austrian Keba.
One such station with a capacity of 22 kilowatts costs nearly $1,604 and charges a car battery ten times faster than a regular socket — in 3–4 hours rather than 20 hours.
It is a low-powered station — the most common type in Ukraine. Usually, drivers can use it for free, but sometimes local companies charge $0.18 for a kilowatt.
In Ukraine, there’s a shortage of the newest quick charging stations, which can charge a car in 20–30 minutes, because they are expensive — one 50-kilowatt station, for example, costs nearly $40,000, according to Igor Kovalev, head of electric car charging stations company Yasno E-Mobility, a subsidiary of Ukraine’s largest energy firm DTEK.
Kovalev’s Yasno E-Mobility has installed 23 quick charging stations in Ukraine and partnered with Go To-U, so drivers can find them on the map on the app.
For quick charging, drivers pay $0.32 for a kilowatt and Go To-U takes 20% off the top when users book the station via the mobile app, another way the startup makes money.
According to Shymone-Davyda, fast charging stations — superchargers — are needed to charge newer electric cars with higher capacity batteries. However, the majority of local electric vehicles in Ukraine remain secondhand imports from the U.S. and have a lower capacity.
So although these stations save drivers’ time, Ukrainian businesses are reluctant to invest in superchargers because the pay-back period for them is around seven years compared to three years for a regular charger.
Green attracts customers
Electric car drivers usually charge their vehicles overnight, getting enough charge to get around the city during the day, said Ukrainian Serhii Shum, who bought a Renault ZOE electric car two years ago.
However, sometimes Shum has to recharge his car in the city, so he uses the Go To-U app.
According to Shymone-Davyda, both users and businesses win when they use the service. While recharging a car, a driver can go shopping, have lunch or go to watch a movie in the cinema nearby.
Ukrainian businesses, including Dima Borisov’s popular restaurants, Planeta Kino cinemas and many hotels and shopping centers across the country, are eager to invest in charging stations, Shymone-Davyda said.
Although businesses cannot profit directly from charging, they rent out the piece of land to install the station and attract new customers all over Ukraine. Via the app, users can even book a table or a hotel room, because Go To-U has integrated popular platforms like Tripadvisor and Booking.com into its app.
According to Shymone-Davyda, it is less expensive to install an electric car charging station near shopping malls or restaurants because they are already connected to the grid and can share their power.
To connect to the national grid on their own, charging station owners must pay nearly $200 per one kilowatt of a charger’s capacity. For a permit to install a standard 22-kilowatt charger, they will pay $4,400.
Running from the US
Like many Ukrainian startups, Ukraine-founded Go To-U is registered in the United States because it is easier to run business and find investors there.
The startup has won nearly $18,000 in a competition organized by German automotive company Volkswagen and was invited to participate in a program for startups organized by U.S. accelerator Techstars, where Go To-U was valued at $3 million.
“We are a global company,” Shymone-Davyda told the Kyiv Post. He said that, although the local market has the potential to grow, Ukraine doesn’t have enough money to invest in infrastructure and electric vehicles.
The Ukrainian government exempted imports of electric cars from the value-added tax until 2024, making it less expensive for Ukrainians to import these vehicles. As a result, many local businesses started to encourage their employees to switch from petrol to electricity.
“It helps the environment and reduces the maintenance expense,” said Shum.
According to Shymone-Davyda, Ukraine’s electric car market would grow even faster than in Europe and people would buy more cars if the country’s economy was stronger.
“Ukrainians love everything new and modern,” Shymone-Davyda said.
