New electric car from Sweden comes with 5 years of free charging

Editor's Note: This post was originally published on December 6, 2017, and has been updated with the most recent information.

The competition for electric carmakers is starting to heat up—so much so that Swedish car company Uniti is trying a new tactic to get ahead of the pack: offering free green charging.

Uniti teamed up with local energy company E.ON to offer five years of free electricity to Sweden-based buyers of the company’s compact “smartphone car,” which just debuted with a starting price of €14,900 (around $17,500). The Uniti One can cover 186 miles with its 22 kWh battery and charge up to a range of 124 miles in 30 minutes, Inhabitat reports. The complimentary home charging setup would source energy from solar cells.

Uniti

Sustainability is a driving force for the company, which designed its vehicle to have a recyclable carbon fiber body and an organic composite interior. Awareness of the vehicle’s energy needs led to the partnership with E.ON to supply sustainably sourced power.

“This is also a new approach,” said Uniti’s Innovation Manager Tobias Ekman in a statement. “We know that most of the charging, especially for these types of cars, will take place at home. These kinds of solution are therefore particularly sustainable.”

There are already nearly 1,000 preorders of the car, which is now available to reserve online with a $175 deposit. Expected delivery in 2019.

Via: Inhabitat