Powering through the freeze: Peer-to-peer EV charging

It was during a trip with our friends during the National Day holiday. We rented an electric car of a certain brand and planned to drive from Shenyang to Changbai Mountain for fun. The weather in Northeast China is very cold, which directly leads to the exaggerated cruising range of the car, but we didn't notice this. It wasn't until the cruising range was less than 30 kilometers that we prepared to go to the service area to charge. However, the electric car ran out of power and broke down on the way to the service area.

We had no other choice but to call the road rescue team. Due to the bad weather and heavy rescue tasks, we were charged 8,000 CNY. This amount is very large, so we want to create a fast and convenient electric vehicle road rescue equipment or power bank that can reduce the cost of road rescue and promote the sustainable development of electric vehicles.

When our product is fully deployed, electric vehicles will be able to charge each other—just like how a fuel-powered car that runs out of gas can borrow fuel from another car. Our product will make this capability available for electric vehicles. This is a game-changer for the industry, as it can almost solve the problem of breakdowns due to power failure. Even in the harsh winter of Iceland, if an EV equipped with our product breaks down, it only needs to "borrow a little electricity" from a passing vehicle, eliminating the need to spend a fortune calling a road rescue team. This will save a great deal of human, material, and financial resources.

Participating in this challenge has been significant for our growth, especially since our project originated from a real-life experience. During that trip in the frigid Northeast, our car ran out of power unexpectedly due to the cold, costing us a whopping 8,000 CNY for rescue. This experience inspired our project to develop fast, convenient EV rescue equipment.

The challenge has pushed us to deeply integrate professional knowledge—such as battery performance in low temperatures and portable charging technology—to solve this practical problem. It has also cultivated our critical thinking: for example, analyzing how extreme cold affects EV batteries to design solutions for harsh environments. Additionally, communicating with peers from different regions has given us new perspectives on sustainable development, broadening our horizons and helping us refine our project to meet real market needs.

There was an interesting and rewarding moment during our preparation process. When we were optimizing the plan for mutual charging, we had a heated discussion about charging interface compatibility.

To verify our ideas, we voluntarily visited several electric vehicle stores on weekends to collect first-hand data. During this process, we unexpectedly met a senior engineer who has been engaged in electric vehicle technology research for many years. He was very interested in our project and gave us a lot of professional suggestions. This chance encounter not only helped us improve the project plan but also made us more confident in our research direction. It was a pleasant experience that deepened our enthusiasm for the project.