The archive · Marketing & Growth · Product decision · 2022–2024
Renault's Plug Inn turns private home chargers into a national EV network
An Airbnb for charging: Renault's app lets home-charger owners rent their plug to passing EV drivers, creating up to 475,000 points without building any.
Renault Group · Publicis Conseil
What it had to solve
By 2022 France had more than a million electric cars but only about 80,000 public charging points, and remote regions had almost none. Rather than wait years for public infrastructure, Renault wanted a way to expand coverage through its own community.
How it works
In 2022 France had more than a million electric cars on the road but only about 80,000 public charging points, and remote areas had close to zero. 'Fear of charging' and range anxiety were pushing drivers back to combustion engines, yet building a national public network would take years of construction and red tape.
Renault's answer was Plug Inn, launched on 12 May 2022: a peer-to-peer app where home-charger owners could list their plug and rent it to other EV drivers, who could search, book and pay through the same service — an Airbnb for charging spots. Renault's launch materials pointed to up to 475,000 residential charging points in France as the pool the community could activate, and the film asked drivers to think of a road trip to Finistère that suddenly had a charger at every stop.
The results came quickly: within two weeks the app counted 16,000 users, 107 million impressions and more than €500,000 in earned media. Plug Inn won the Creative Strategy Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2023, plus Golds in Creative Business Transformation and mobile-led commerce and a Silver, and took three Grands Prix at Eurobest 2023. Renault's newsroom reported eight Lions across four campaigns that year, making the brand the most-awarded automotive advertiser at Cannes.
Why it lands
- It inverted the problem: instead of waiting for a charging network, every private plug owner becomes supply, so the network is the community itself.
- The product was the campaign — a working app removed the real barrier (range anxiety), so the utility carried the message.
- Both sides were incentivised: drivers get access in dead zones and owners earn money from their plug, making participation self-spreading.
- It was an infrastructure claim a car brand could actually own — no construction, no bureaucracy, just Renault's community at European scale.
What it did
Within two weeks the app had 16,000 users, 107 million impressions and more than €500,000 in earned media. Plug Inn then won the Creative Strategy Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2023 plus two Golds and a Silver, and three Grands Prix at Eurobest 2023 — Creative Business Transformation, Creative Commerce and Creative Strategy — helping Renault become the most-awarded automotive brand at Cannes 2023.
What you can take
When the infrastructure won't come, don't build it — turn the gap into a marketplace: scattered private plugs become the network, and the obstacle becomes the product.
Since then
Renault pushed the model from individuals to businesses: Plug Inn for Business let small shops install and monetise chargers and attract EV customers, a step that took a Silver at LIA 2024. The campaign case study said the service was financed by Renault and expected to be profitable by the end of 2023, with ambitions to expand to other European countries in 2024–2025. Plug Inn grew out of Renault's 2020 'Village Electrique' experiment in Appy and became a flagship of the brand's creativity-led Renaulution strategy.
Sources
- Cannes Lions 2023 : rafale de prix pour Renault
- Eurobest announces its Grands Prix, Special Awards and Young Creatives Competition winners for 2023
- Renault Turns French Villages into Electric Villages with Plug Inn App
- Renault Wins Creative Strategy Grand Prix at Cannes for Rural EV Charging App
- Renault: Plug Inn (case study)
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