Twinning parking with EV charging

Twin product suite spans user app, payment terminals and back office software

Twin is a new product range which gives the flexibility to manage both the payment of parking and electric vehicle (EV) charging via a single innovative platform. The Twin suite of products comprises hardware and software in the form of payment terminals, a mobile app for the driver and a flexible back office system for the operator for both parking and EV charging.

The EV charging payment system was created with real world knowledge of the parking industry. What distinguishes Twin from a number of other systems for managing EV charging transactions is that it was developed by a team with hands-on parking management experience.

Developing Twin

Twin is the brainchild of Ashley Kelley who has spent over 10 years building Bank Park from a ground-up car park operator to now managing over 20,000 spaces throughout the UK. This experience provided the insights that gave Kelley his vision for the Twin concept.

It was during lockdown that Kelley decided the way forward for parking is to provide a full suite of products for both parking and EV charging. From contactless payment terminals designed and manufactured in the UK to a mobile phone app, an EV charging platform with VRM access control and a back office operating system.

The back office system is designed to give a parking provider direct control of their parking and EV charging environment. It allows for remote rebooting as well as immediate tariff changes and the generation of user reports.

Kelley said: “Our primary objective was to create a simple to use process for motorists to pay for parking and charging their vehicle either by a contactless terminal or the mobile app. One of the main grievances of the end user is that there are a multitude of apps required to do so. As our Twin system has open protocol it means that most chargepoints are compatible with our EV charging system so the electric vehicle user only needs one app wherever they choose to charge, therefore reducing the number of apps the charging patron must download. Twin gives a ‘one product covers all’ scenario.

“In the process of this development we took the opportunity to improve many old functions that support any operations department by utilising technology to reduce manned services for individual payment terminal visits with smart override updating functions. Thereby speeding up processes and improving the carbon footprint of the operator with technological improvements. That said, we recognised that not all things can change so our product suite can be integrated within existing parking environments seamlessly to assist operators and parking managers to implement changes when existing products are ready to be upgraded or EV charging platform added.”

Launching Twin

After almost two years of research and development, Twin was launched at Parkex 2022. Since then, the range of products have been adopted by a number car park operators nationwide.

Kelley reports: “The UK manufactured payment terminals have proven popular with their large touchscreens and secure contactless payment plus they are extremely reliable. And the Twinpay app is a real success story with over 40,000 users growing daily.”

The Twin portfolio

The Twin suite comprises:

• Twinpay app to pay for parking and EV charging or both

• Twin payment terminals to pay for parking and EV charging or both

• Twin Charge EV platform with open protocol to host and manage most charge points

• Twin Back Office to integrate all the platforms at varying stages as and when products are selected with 24/7 access and reporting.

In a move to combat the problem of range anxiety among EV drivers, Twin is developing a new service that will go live later this year. Kelley said: “The electric vehicle user will be able to pre-book sessions at EV chargepoints on the Twinpay app. This will be a fantastic bonus for the driver and give peace of mind knowing that their journey will be stress free.”

A dedicated Twin showroom in Sheffield is available for prebooked appointments. Twin will be showing its suite of products at Parkex 2023 on stand P120.