TWINCHARGE_CITY_PLANNER 

TWINCHARGE addresses a growing European problem: as electric vehicle adoption accelerates, charging infrastructure is being built unevenly. Private operators build where it is most profitable, in urban hubs and shopping centres, while residential streets and rural areas are left behind. In France and Italy, over a third of homes have no private parking space to install a charger, creating “charging deserts” that risk excluding lower-income households and rural residents from electric mobility. 

The project was inspired by direct engagement with city and regional mobility planners in France and Italy, who face a slow, largely manual process to manage the charging infrastructure in their territories. 

TWINCHARGE changes the paradigm of charging planning: for the first time, the public authority, not fragmented private operators, controls how its territory is electrified. Its AI-powered digital twin, a virtual model of the city combining traffic, population, parking and grid-capacity data, forecasts charging demand street by street, selects optimal sites and simulates deployment scenarios balancing demand, grid feasibility, territorial equity and operator return. The authority grants controlled access to the operators it awards concessions to, coordinating public and private investment on one shared plan, while a built-in AI assistant drafts the legally binding planning and tender documents (SDIRVE in France, PIR in Italy) needed to unlock public funding, cutting drafting time by around 75%. 

The 24-month project is led by Fondazione Piemonte Innova on behalf of the City of Turin, with Voltaage, a French deep-tech company, as technical lead and owner of the solution. The consortium also includes the French public energy authorities Modulo Energy and SIEGE27, the academic partner Exploria (Politecnico di Bari) and Boosting Innovation in Poliba, supporting outreach in Southern Italy.