EV drivers expect a seamless and well-planned charging experience. Unfortunately, various factors are undermining this crucial part of the electric mobility ecosystem. As EVs evolve from local runabouts to cross-country road-trippers, drivers increasingly rely on public charging stations. However, many of these plugs need to be fixed or reliable.
Infrastructure Management
Governments need a plan to develop the country-specific EV charging ecosystem from its inception to ramp-up, maturity, and supervision. The plan should cover every step, from defining the target network to the interoperability approach and the ecosystem governance, setting clear implementation milestones, creating regulatory certainty, addressing financing gaps, and supporting the industry. The first challenge governments will face is ensuring the CP network has enough public chargers to meet drivers’ demands. EV owners have complained about unreliable grocery stores, gas stations, or home chargers. They share stories of broken connectors, unresponsive touchscreens, and failed payment systems. These issues can be overcome with the right EV charging station solutions.
Private EV chargers are also a problem, particularly in multifamily homes where landlords and homeowner associations often refuse to permit their residents to install them, or they worry about how to bill them, or they fear that EV drivers will draw too much power at once and overload the electric grid. Governments should help solve these problems with targeted incentives and policies, allowing flexibility and agility in planning and interventions. They should publish continuous updates on the progress of the EV charging network and spending, with transparent mechanisms to intervene when needed. They should also encourage load management solutions that can relieve the strain EV charging puts on the grid by replacing rates with demand charge alternatives.
Data Management
Managing data is an integral part of any business that relies on it. However, it can be challenging, mainly when the company uses a mix of applications, IoT devices, and other internal and external sources. Businesses need a system that makes it easier to collect, organize, and access the information they use for decision-making. Such systems reduce the time it takes to review and understand critical data, limit data silos within the organization, and ensure that the data being used is consistent and reliable. Faulty data will lead to faulty decisions, and those decisions could harm the company’s bottom line. In addition, companies must also consider how they are protecting the sensitive data they hold, as well as complying with various regulations.
While more DC fast chargers solve the queuing problem, the key is installing them where people want to charge their vehicles—for example, EV owners like to charge at restaurants, shopping centers, movie theaters, and parks. Providing Level 2 chargers at those locations would allow people to enjoy these activities while their car charges. That is a more appealing and convenient way to charge on the go than simply pulling into a gas station and parking next to a charging port.
Analytics
EV owners and drivers need access to convenient, affordable charging. It means everything from changing zoning laws to enabling workplace fast-charging to making it easy for EV owners in multifamily homes to install chargers without unreasonable restrictions from landlords, homeowners associations, or property managers. Building a successful and scalable EV charging network is possible despite the challenges. But it requires a plan that includes the right analytics tools. To start, a provider must understand how many EVs will likely use each CP in the network and when. This data can reveal where to put new EV chargers for optimal usage or where existing EV charging stations should be improved.
In addition, a suitable EV charging network must be reliable and well-maintained. EV owners leave highway chargers empty 20 percent of the time because they are either too busy or out of service. And that’s a big problem for EV adoption because even a broken charger can discourage drivers. Using analytics, providers can determine how to manage the infrastructure best and keep it running at peak efficiency. For example, they can predict when EVs will charge during peak hours and encourage domestic charging during off-peak rates to reduce EV owners’ costs and decrease the energy grid load.
Automation
Many people avoid buying an electric vehicle (EV) due to fears of being stranded while gas-powered vehicles sail by on the highway. Charging stations still need to be farther and farther between, a problem that can only be solved by continued innovation in EV battery technology to allow drivers to get sufficient range in less time and expand the network of EV chargers. One solution is automation. It involves using intelligent technologies to replace manual, repetitive work and improve efficiency and reliability. It can be applied in various ways, from basic to sophisticated, and across various industries such as manufacturing, logistics, defense, facilities management, and IT. The first level of automation is called essential or task automation, which involves using a common platform to streamline, centralize, and digitize simple tasks. It reduces errors, speeds up transactional work, and frees workers to do more value-added activities. Examples of this include:
- Using a shared messaging system rather than having information in disconnected silos.
- Enabling faster communication.
- Providing real-time visibility to data.
Another approach is to simplify the user experience, especially for those driving a non-Tesla EV. For example, a common complaint among EV owners is that they must sign up for multiple networks and download and manage different apps to charge their cars. A single, centralized app or payment method can solve this issue and give EV drivers a seamless charging experience.