President Joe Biden recently signed the CHIPS and Science Act, which will add nearly $50 billion in investments that will benefit American semiconductor manufacturers. SparkCharge, which provides mobile charging stations for electric vehicles, previously received $1 million in investments from Marc Cuban and Lori Greiner on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”
After the bill was signed, Aviv stopped by rolling out to discuss its impact in-depth.
How does the passage of this bill help your business and how will it affect the way people travel in the future?
The CHIPS bill is really going to be instrumental in not only helping companies continue to innovate and grow, but from the consumer side, it’s going to open up the door for us to get electronics and electronic products in a quicker fashion, and also in a more cost-effective fashion.
When you think about the fact that the price of chips has skyrocketed over the past couple of years, chips that used to cost $1.98 can now cost anywhere, you know up to $400. When you see that type of price increase that typically gets passed along to the consumer. Having these chips made here in the United States is a big deal because, hopefully, it’ll bring that cost down dramatically, which makes these products easier to access.
Where did the idea for SparkCharge come from?
The idea started while [I was] in college at Syracuse University. I had a focus in environmental economics. I remember the professor coming into class one day and saying, “If you want to solve a huge problem for the world, solve the problem of infrastructure for electric vehicles.” I really started the company with that idea in mind.
We’ve sold products, not only in the United States, but all around the world. We’re expanding in locations and we launched two amazing products. Number one is the Roadie, which is the world’s first mobile on-demand EV charging station, which we’re super proud of. It allows an EV owner to have range, basically brought to them with this device up to 20 kilowatts of speed — one mile every 60 seconds — and it’s an amazing innovation. … We launched our mobile app called Currently. Currently allows EV users to select where they’re at to deliver a Roadie to them.
What is the price range for SparkCharge?
With Currently, it’s really affordable. You can go as low as $5 a month with the service and then the price per kilowatt hour is as low as I think 51 or 51 cents. In most cases, during peak charging times it’s actually more affordable to use our service than others.
Are these services available 24/7?
Almost. I believe in most areas right now, we operate until midnight or 1 a.m.
How was it making it all the way to the White House?
It’s amazing. It’s a surreal moment, it was a very proud moment, not only for me but for my family. Meeting President Biden and the vice president, they’re down to earth and very welcoming.
