The app that unburdens EV drivers
The completely revamped Charge Assist app offers electric car drivers all the charging functionalities they need. The app is built in Flutter, which makes the (further) development highly efficient. Thanks to the white label architecture, the app is released by various GreenFlux partners with their own look & feel.
The assignment: rebuild an outdated charging station app
GreenFlux offers all kinds of smart solutions for electric charging networks and has charging station operators, charging card and charging app providers, energy companies and automotive parties as customers. With GreenFlux’s Charge Assist app, users can search for a free charging station, navigate to it, see the charging status and pay via various payment options.
Pinch took over the development of Charge Assist a few years ago. In the meantime, the code of the native app had become so outdated that a complete rebuild was necessary.
The process: from Discovery to further development
GreenFlux and Pinch first laid a good foundation through a two-week Discovery sprint. Based on GreenFlux’s strategy and goals, we conducted research into areas for improvement compared to the existing app, the journey for users, competing apps, suitable technologies, KPIs and the use of quality assurance (“QA”). Within this sprint we also made a first prototype. After the Discovery phase, design, development and QA followed. Before the new app went live, it was thoroughly tested.
The collaboration with GreenFlux was based on co-creation, in which we continuously worked together. The GreenFlux Product Owner was involved on a daily basis, always collaborated on priorities and together with our scrum master, was very close to the development team. There has also been intensive collaboration in terms of design as evidenced by the active role of GreenFlux’s design lead. Finally, the QA was also a joint effort.
The challenge: an easy-to-use Flutter app
Because of the efficiency for development and further development, GreenFlux preferred Flutter, which allows developers to build an app for both iOS and Android simultaneously. We have thoroughly investigated whether Flutter was suitable in this case. The conclusion? Absolutely. Advanced functionalities such as direct insight into available charge locations, integration of various payment options, tracking a charging session, station management and billing can all be built in Flutter.
The challenge was to create a clean, thoughtful, simple and fast user experience that is as close to a native experience as possible, then build in Flutter but applicable as a white label. The integration with the existing backend programming was also an important part of the project.
The result: clean app that works seamlessly
The result is one to be proud of. The Charge Assist app, which is available for Android and iOS devices, has been completely renewed and has a clean and very clear design. In addition, there are still plenty of ideas to further expand the functionalities of the app in the coming period.
Our app is not just released by GreenFlux. The modular app is suitable for white label and is successfully marketed by various partners of GreenFlux with their own look & feel. This app, of which we are particularly proud of, makes even more impact within the energy transition from fossil fuels to electricity!
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Josien Jansen as Product Owner GreenFlux: “Together with the Pinch team, we really realized the app in co-creation. Pinch’s Flutter experience, daily stand-ups and good communication ensured a great result. We also worked together with the Pinch team in Amsterdam and especially in Málaga, the daily stand-ups with the entire team created a good vibe. A very nice project in which we all had the same goal: a smart, user-friendly charging solution for EV drivers.”
Rutger Plantenga as Chief Product Officer GreenFlux: “It was very nice to work with Pinch. Together we laid a very good foundation for the project with the Discovery process. The result is not only a perfect Flutter app, but also generated many ideas for further optimization.”
