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Austrian Phone Booths Turned into EV Charging Stations

Telekom Austria has come up with an idea for old telephone boxes, planning to turn them into recharging stations for electric cars. The company said that the telephone boxes in Austria are becoming obsolete, since almost nobody uses them anymore, preferring mobile phones.

Telekom Austria believes however that the booths can become useful again be converting them into recharging stations for electric vehicles. There are currently just 223 electric cars registered in Austria, so the scheme is still in its infancy. There are, however, 3,559 hybrid vehicles on Austrian roads, out of a total 4.36 million cars. But the Austrian motor vehicle association (VOeC) predicts the number of electric cars in the country will reach 405,000 units by 2020.

We are bundling our strengths from different corporate segments to realize this highly innovative project. We are combining the company’s fixed net infrastructure with our long-standing expertise in the mobility area, for instance, with successful services such as mobile parking. By joining forces, we are enabling a future-proof service for our customers, making a significant contribution to improving the country’s CO2 balance,” said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group.

Telekom Austria operates 13,500 phone boxes around the country. This week the company unveiled its first charging station in front of the company's headquarters in Vienna. The plan is to convert 29 more phone boxes by the end of this year.

During the initial trial period, recharging will cost nothing. An electric car needs around 6.5 hours to be recharged, an electric scooter 80 minutes and an electric bike 20 minutes. So the queues are expected to last very long. In the future, payment for a recharge is expected to be made by mobile phone (SMS), paybox and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips.
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