Public charging has a tragedy-of-the-commons problem: the car that finished charging two hours ago is still on the charger, and the driver who needs it is circling. PowerGoodies attacks it with incentives instead of fines. Charge at a partner operator and you earn points; unplug within a window after the car is full and you earn a bonus. Points buy gift vouchers. Operators — Leap24 and Agri Go Charge in the Netherlands, TotalEnergies in Belgium, Source EV in the UK — get chargers that turn over faster and a reason for drivers to pick their network.
PowerGoodies BV is a Dutch company; I built their Android app, all of it.
What the app does
- Find a partner charger. A map of PowerGoodies locations with filters for fast chargers and connector types, live availability per connector, and running promotions — extra points at charge points that need the traffic.
- Charge and earn. Plug in and the session shows up in the app, earning points while the car charges, with the balance updating at the top of every screen.
- Unplug on time. When the car is full the session flips to Parked with a countdown. Unplug before it runs out and the bonus lands. Push notifications remind you, and tell you when charging windows are most rewarding.
- Spend the points. A shop of vouchers from Dutch and Belgian retailers — bol.com, Zalando, Adidas, Coolblue, Rituals, HEMA, Etos — and a wallet of the ones you’ve redeemed. Charge history shows every session and what it earned.
Building it for Android
The interesting engineering is in the session state. A charge isn’t something the phone can see; it’s something the operator’s backend reports. The app has to reconcile what the operator says (plugged in, charging, finished, unplugged) with what the user sees, keep the points balance honest across those transitions, and drive a countdown that is fair to the second because money — small money, but money — depends on it. Notifications need to arrive at the right moment, not when the app happens to be open.
Around that core: a map that stays responsive with hundreds of pins and per-connector availability, promotions that vary by location and time, a shop and voucher wallet backed by third-party fulfilment, six languages, and every EV brand’s worth of drivers on every kind of Android phone.
Where it stands
Released on Google Play in May 2024, the app has passed 10,000 installs with a 4.3-star rating and is updated regularly as operators and rewards are added.
