From Idea to Pilot: Our Journey to Building Smarter EV Charging
Every startup has a story. At Rollyy, ours began not in a lab or a workshop, but with a simple question: how can we make electric mobility easier for everyone?
The world is moving electric fast, Europe alone expects more than 65 million EVs on the road by 2030. But while cars are scaling quickly, charging infrastructure isn’t keeping pace. Building fixed stations is expensive, takes years, and requires space that cities and businesses don’t always have. We wondered: What if instead of building chargers everywhere, we could move energy directly to where vehicles are parked?
That question set us on a journey that would transform an early idea into real prototypes, live pilots, and partnerships across Europe. Here’s how we got here.
Early Days: From Fleet Management to Charging
Rollyy didn’t begin as a charging company. Our first focus was fleet management for robots — software that could coordinate and optimize autonomous machines. While exciting, it quickly became clear that this was a long and difficult path, with high barriers and slow adoption.
With the guidance of our mentors and advisors from different incubator programs, we took a step back. We asked ourselves where our expertise in robotics and connectivity could solve a real, growing problem. That’s when autonomous charging entered the picture.
Our research showed that Asia had been experimenting with autonomous charging solutions for more than five years. Yet in Europe, the field was almost untouched. We saw an opportunity, and a responsibility to bring this innovation closer to home.
Why Finland Was the Perfect Starting Point
We didn’t have to look far to find the right environment. Finland stood out as one of the most innovative countries in the world, with a culture that embraces new technology. On the streets, you can already see food delivery robots in action. Regulations for autonomous mobility are in place, creating a supportive legal framework for experimentation.
This environment gave us the confidence to test our concept. And we weren’t alone. Even before we built our first prototype, we were approached by parking operators who had been searching for solutions like ours for over a year. That early validation showed us we were on the right track, and it helped us learn firsthand about the real challenges faced by parking facilities, municipalities, and charging operators.
From Concept to Prototype
With a clearer direction, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. Our first prototypes focused on solving three critical challenges:
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Battery capacity — equipping each robot with 30 kWh (the first proto had 11 kWh), enough to deliver a full EV charge.
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Autonomous navigation — making sure robots could move safely and reliably in parking facilities.
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Connectivity — leveraging 5G and edge computing to ensure real-time communication with vehicles and fleet systems.
We tested in parking areas, in labs, and even in Nordic winter conditions. Each iteration brought us closer to a robot that could function not just in theory, but in the real world.
Pilots, Partnerships, and Feedback
2024 became a turning point for us.
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At IFA Berlin, we unveiled our MVP to the public. The feedback was immediate and clear: this is something companies and cities have been waiting for.
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Back home in Finland, we launched our first live demo in Oulu with parking operators, putting our robots to the test in real-world conditions.
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Through accelerators in Portugal, we connected with charging operators and investors in the Netherlands. These introductions led to conversations with airports and municipalities in Spain, where we also discovered valuable testing data from previous autonomous robot projects.
DEMO APP:
Every step gave us more than just visibility. We gathered feedback, numbers, and insights from the ecosystem, and most importantly, we shaped a business model that brings value to all players: cities, operators, fleets, and drivers.
Today, Rollyy is no longer just an idea, it’s a growing solution that’s moving from pilots to real deployments. We are working with municipalities, parking operators, airports, and fleets across Europe to validate technology, prove value, and scale impact.Our vision is clear: to create a flexible, scalable charging network powered by autonomous robots. Because the future of mobility won’t wait, and neither should charging.
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