Swiss global financial services company UBS has collaborated with German energy company innogy and automobile manufacturing company ZF, in order to offer blockchain-backed Car eWallet, as reported by IBTimes.

The technology is designed keeping in mind the charging of electric cars and will be showcased at CES in Las Vegas. The Car eWallet has been developed for charging electric cars, micropayments, and car-sharing. It will also handle other mobility-related payments including highway tolls, parking fees, and car-sharing. With the Car eWallet, users can also explore energy provisioning to the power system or delivery services, UBS statement read, according to IBT.

"Technology-driven innovation in the mobility and transport system will be a key driver for the fourth industrial revolution. In our project, the pillars of a decentralized mobility platform have been prototyped and built upon convergence of the communication internet including the blockchain, energy internet, and mobility/logistics internet to create a new transaction layer.  Innogy is now starting to work with other European utilities to bring an electric vehicle charging network onto this platform as a next applied prototyping step,” Dr. Carsten Stöcker, of Machine Economy Lighthouse innogy SE, stated.

The infrastructure of charging is registered on the blockchain and there are no separate registration or login processes required to make use of electric charging stations, where charging fees will be automatically paid by the Car eWallet. The system will transfer money online from a PC or a dedicated mobile app into the Car eWallet that can then authorize payments to a certain limit. For example, it allows the car to automatically pay a toll and later notify the driver who receives updates online of every payment transaction made by the Car eWallet.

Car eWallet also accepts payments and authorize third-party access, ideally making use of idle vehicles. The system can also allow third-parties that are not drivers’ to access the vehicle. The system can also be integrated into intelligent power supply systems in the future, noted Dr. Stöcker.

“Intelligent power supply systems could use the blockchain technology in the car to control the charging process depending on the renewable energy available in the system. In particular, the car could also provision energy back to the power supply system if authorized by the user to fulfill such demand,” he added.