https://github.com/adithyaakrishna/zap
https://github.com/adithyaakrishna/zap
Last synced: 11 months ago
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- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/adithyaakrishna/zap
- Owner: adithyaakrishna
- Created: 2021-11-19T22:19:40.000Z (about 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: master
- Last Pushed: 2021-11-21T15:04:38.000Z (about 4 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-01-01T07:07:16.979Z (about 1 year ago)
- Language: Dart
- Size: 3.89 MB
- Stars: 1
- Watchers: 0
- Forks: 1
- Open Issues: 0
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Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
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README
## Inspiration
As the demand for **Electric Vehicles** increases, there are certain challenges that come along with it and one major challenge right now in the **Indian Automotive Scene** is that it still lacks proper infrastructure. Charging stations and electrical points are the need of the hour in most of the metropolitan cities in the country. With rising fuel costs and everyone switching to EV we thought it would be great to build a **Peer-To-Peer** EV Charger network through our application. **Zap** is an EV Charging solution that doesn't require sophisticated infrastructure and investment but can still create a powerful EV **Charging Network**. Anyone with an access to electric socket can list themselves on the app. EVs nearby can visit the point and end up getting fully charged.
Another report by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) projects that the Indian EV market will grow at a CAGR of 36 percent till 2026. The EV battery market is also projected to grow at a CAGR of 30 percent during the same period. This creates a lot of demand for **EV Chargers** across the country both in terms of public and private ones. It's always hard to find chargers and sometimes becomes crucial to have electric sockets in your proximity.
Setting up EV Charging stations involves a lot of upfront investment and poor ROI. That's one of the reasons for the scarcity of EV Chargers in the country. Sometimes all you are looking for might just be a power socket which can be provided by anyone. **Zap** enables individuals to list their electric points on the application for EV Users to charge their vehicles on the go. In the process, the owner of the charging point can end up with some quick bucks.
## What it does
**Zap** is a mobile application which helps users to locate nearby EV Charging stations. Users having access to electrical sockets can list themselves on the application. Once listed, the users nearby can navigate to the charging stations and charge their **Electric Vehicles** at a nominal fare.
A peer-to-peer network where everyone wins :)
## How we built it
This project was built across 3 stages,
- Ideation: The problem statement was analysed and ideas to solve it were brainstormed. Certain features were shortlisted to be prototyped and designed further.
- Designing The App: A survey was conducted among few EV owners and their responses and feedback was recorded. A rough prototype of the Ui was created using Pen and Paper. After this the final User Interface of the app was designed using Figma keeping a smooth User Experience in mind. Along with UI the assets for the app were designed in Figma as well. The color themes we used were generated by using coolors.co
- Developing the Mobile Application:** In this stage, we developed an application to be used by the owners who can list their charging point/power socket through our apps. For the location and maps, we used **Google Cloud's Maps API**. This application can also be used by EV owners to lookup nearby charging stations and navigate to them.
The app is completely coded using dart language with Flutter as the UI Library. To store the data of the locations, we used **Cloud Firestore**. Along with that, we also used basic user authentication that Firebase has on offer.
## Challenges we ran into
- Most of our teammates were first time hackers and it took time for them to get accustomed to how a hackathon works.
- Flutter was totally new to all of us and it took us time to understand the fundamentals before we could write the business logic.
- Getting the maps to show up on the app was the biggest challenge, that's one of the major takeaways for us.
## Accomplishments that we're proud of
- We were successfully able to pull off a fully working multi-platform mobile application.
- Achieved promising results despite all of us being new to flutter.
- Getting the maps to work and to show all the nearby charging stations was the biggest accomplishment. This also got our application's major logic working.
## What we learned
- Developing flutter application from scratch in a timeframe
- Designing and prototyping fully functioning application mockups keeping in mind the **User Experience** of the end-users.
- Working with **Google Maps API**
- Firebase Authentication for users.
## What's next for Zap
- Creating of Wallets for the users of the app to enable faster payments.
- Integrating Payment gateways like UPI, Paypal, etc.
- Building a Low cost IOT enabled Smart Charger and Charging brick for users to use.
- Developing a community section to host events and meet-ups exclusive to Zap Users.