A Spark of Change: The Birth of EV Zoo
Serena Vantage, an EV daily driver and Airbnb superhost for over a decade, loved her electric car but dreaded the nightly street-parking hustle. No garage and no driveway meant she had to snag the spot right in front of her house—or her car wouldn't charge. Overtime her range anxiety grew. Sometime she wouldn’t be able to charge her car at home for days. When she would get her spot the electric charging wires snaking across sidewalks from the house were ugly and a lawsuit waiting to happen. One rainy morning, while walking her dogs, she tripped over a neighbor's cord charging an electric Jeep. Sprawled on the wet pavement, frustration ignited inspiration.
She'd faced it all: stretching cords like tightropes, borrowing a neighbor's outlet in a pinch when her range ran dry, and wrestling with slow, unreliable public chargers. But that fall flipped a switch. Serena saw the wide, unused parkways lining her street—and a solution sparked to life. What if she could charge her car anywhere, anytime, without the hassle? What if homeowners could earn cash by sharing their power?
With California pushing hard for EVs—35% of new cars zero-emission by 2026, 100% by 2035—Serena fused her EV struggles with her peer-to-peer hosting savvy. EV Zoo was born: smart chargers with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, lockable and metered for safety, paired with an app linking EV drivers to homeowners with juice to spare. Drivers pay for convenience; hosts profit from accessability. A win-win that powers a greener future, one charger at a time.
