At Saascharge, we believe that collaboration and knowledge sharing are the keys to thriving in the fast-paced EV charging industry. Staying informed is critical with new protocols (e.g., OCPP 2.0, ISO 15118, AI energy load prediction…), market entrants, and increasingly complex billing concepts. When new market players start or migrate to a new platform—whether their own or the Saascharge platform—the industry landscape can be overwhelming. This makes continuous access to best practices and use cases essential for success.

As a specialized and independent EV charging SaaS platform, Saascharge has developed a collaborative approach with our partners. By sharing insights and strategies, we help them remain competitive in their respective segments, whether targeting the hospitality sector (e.g., hotels, restaurants), the retail industry (e.g., shopping malls, stores), real estate, or fleet management. Now, we’re taking this a step further with the launch of the Saascharge Access Portal, designed to share: a centralized platform that simplifies access to key resources and supports scalability like no other in the EV charging industry.

• Product Updates
• Latest Market News
• Training Documentation
• Sales Materials (e.g., EV charging presentations for EMPs and CPOs)
• Direct Support Access
• And more…

How Do We Support Your EV Charging Network Objectives?

The EV charging market thrives on scalability and resource optimization. Maximizing transactions per charging point is essential. To achieve this, chargers need to be highly visible, easily locatable, and competitively priced for users searching for charging facilities. Once users arrive, delivering a seamless charging experience—accessible to both registered and non-registered EV drivers—is crucial.

Achieving these objectives involves many processes. At Saascharge, we are committed to sharing these processes openly with our active customers and partners through the Access Portal.

For instance, consider a company electrifying its fleet. The process begins with defining the required capacity and understanding the charging patterns: When does charging need to occur? Next, decisions must be made about the type of charging hardware—whether AC or DC—and the necessary power load. Additionally, the organization must consider:

• Multi-purpose usage: Can the chargers also serve employees or guests?
• Pricing structures: What pricing conditions should apply to each consumer group?
• Home charging: How can home chargers for company cars be managed effectively?
• International eRoaming: Should eRoaming be enabled for cross-border transactions?
• Access methods: What types of access are most suitable—RFID and Plug & Charge for the fleet, a smartphone app for employees, or QR code-based web access for guests?

These are just a few of the detailed, step-by-step analyses we support as part of our consultative approach.

“Sharing is winning. We believe that using platform functions alone isn’t enough. Setting up the right charging solution with the most competitive pricing tailored to your company’s needs can be a game changer—especially when applied with a strategic approach. That’s what we aim to support through our sessions and guides.”
– Richard Albrecht, Saascharge CEO

Let’s work together to make EV charging in 2025 the best experience possible. Contact us today to learn more or access the portal!

All customers providing commercial EV charging services utilize a platform known as the back office. This platform serves as the central hub for operating charging stations, handling tasks such as support, authorization, billing, and energy management. The majority of market players opt for one of three approaches: developing a proprietary platform in-house, purchasing an existing platform from the market, or utilizing a Software as a Service (SAAS) platform. Each of these approaches comes with its own set of strengths and weaknesses but what is the best approach?

EV charging backend growing market requirements

The era of relying on an OCPP driver providing CDRs (charging data records), basic pricing plans with an operational console along with an app for initiating transactions, has passed. Today, a competitive EV charging backend is required to provide complex pricing mechanisms, accommodate various tiers of customers (Charging station operator, Site owner, locations…), and manage billing processes involving the integration of diverse payment gateways (e.g. Stripe, Payter, TRX, among others). Next to that, we have to integrate energy management protocols such as OSCP or OpenADR, assimilate different eRoaming protocols (such as OICP, OCPI) and hubs (e.g. Hubject, Gireve), and ultimately merge all of this seamlessly into a company’s operational environment (e.g. ERP integration). This requires knowledge and a state-of-the-art EV platform.

EV charging backend market models

1. House-made development: This entails the necessity of recruiting or establishing a comprehensive IT and product team to fabricate a competitively viable platform.
2. Purchasing an existing market solution: These pre-constructed solutions are retailed by companies specializing in commercial EV Charging backends, often offering room for certain customizations.
3. SAAS solution: This involves acquiring a fully prepared and hosted market-ready backend and application through a licensed arrangement, typically based on charging points with system integrations facilitated by APIs.

Make, buy, or lease an EV charging software? Let’s compare!

Here is a short estimated comparison for 1’000 to 10’000 charging points with development costs that includes all charges for a complete charging service setup: (Analysis, Development, testing, White labeling, configuration…). The yearly management costs include hosting (server), service support, and market adaptations (new functionalities).

The optimal approach depends on your company’s structure, strategy, and timeline for achieving your objectives. Based on this analysis, it appears that the most suitable model would be to begin by utilizing a competitive SAAS solution until you have reached a certain number of charging stations (e.g., 10,000). At that point, it could become financially viable to develop your own platform. However, this decision goes beyond a mere ‘make or buy’ cost analysis. Establishing your own platform would necessitate assembling a comprehensive team of market experts, analysts, and developers, solely to create a standard version. This expertise is readily available with a SAAS solution, and additionally, you gain the flexibility to customize your platform by integrating key systems (e.g. ERP for invoicing, ticketing system, CRM…) with APIs.

What if you could customize and adapt your model progressively?

It’s evident that every emerging EV charging business undergoes a learning curve. By commencing with a SAAS solution, you can create an attractive product, pricing, and distribution model, and subsequently refine the approach on a step-by-step basis by integrating key applications. This is possible through a modular and evolutive platform such as Saascharge with its API catalog.

At Saascharge, we have noticed that around 30% of customers (including CPOs or EMPs) tend to start by gradually integrating essential business applications. Then, they explore the possibility of developing more significant Smartphone Apps or other user-facing applications.

The benefit to invest and develop in what truly matters

The foundation of a great EV charging solution lies in delivering reliable and cost-attractive charging services. There are core service elements that you can hardly differentiate from other EV charging software. It’s all about specifics! For example, integrating with an external Energy Management System (EMS) for load management or linking with an ERP to automate invoicing for fleets, rather than relying on standard ‘credit cards’ payments. This holds greater significance than attempting to replicate existing features. You can also build specialized business applications for hotels, Fleets, Real estate management or Retailers…

Start Your EV Charging Journey with a Competitive SAAS Model and Evolve through Selective API System Integration

Despite weighing the pros and cons of various models, a backend inherently offers a range of shared functionalities. Initiating your journey today using a competitive SAAS model with API integration is a pragmatic approach to adapt your model as you grow (e.g. more EV Drivers, charging points…). This is an opportunity to create a unique EV charging product built upon your proprietary applications! Make or buy an EV charging platform? Don’t compromise, let’s get the best of both!

The electrification of medium-duty transport fleets or let’s say Delivery Vans is growing fast! Driving range, efficiency and costs of these EVs are ideal for retailers. Amazon recently ordered 100,000 from Rivian and Walmart 4,500 from Canoo but how does it work for any company to start electrifying their fleet?

How is it to own and run a fleet of electric delivery vehicles?

This episode of the SNGLR Group podcast with smart mobility experts discusses the benefits and challenges of medium-duty transport fleets electrifications:
–      How is it to own and run a fleet of electric delivery vehicles?
–      What do you need to charge these EVs?
–      How secure are these charging infrastructures?

What are the EV Charging challenges of electric delivery vans?

Medium-duty transport vehicles have batteries that go from 100kWh to 300kWh. Charging these vehicles is not a matter of  2-5 minutes but rather 30 minutes to 6-7 hours depending on the type of vehicle, type of chargers and the available capacity.

Capacity: How much do you need?

All suddenly your parking becomes a gas station! How much infrastructure and energy do you need to supply to charge your fleet? Do you have sufficient capacity to provide 100 to 200 kWh per EV, do you need to get them charged at any time? Professional EV charging service providers can measure and discuss your EV charging pattern to define the needed capacity.

Scheduling: When and how much energy?

This is the planning part of the charging. How do you organize the fleets to get them constantly ready to be on the road and deliver? This requires some organizations to get the right vehicle with enough battery to go ahead. Reaching 80% is fast, getting to the last 20% can take double the time but do you need to? An efficient charging scheduling can be achieved with a Smart load management system with scheduling capabilities such as the Saascharge EV charging platform.

Travelling: Where can I charge and how?

How can you travel further away than the necessary range of the battery? Can we just charge anywhere? Good news, it’s electricity! Now some networks exist, for example, fast networks such as Electrify America in US  and IONITY in Europe. Also, the capacity to charge at the customers’ site while you are unloading is a possibility.

How to plan your EV charging needs for your electric vehicle fleet?

1. Plan the first installation

This is the most challenging as you have no data and requires an engineering company to realise these actions:

1. Understand usage profile: Some analysis about the mileage of your vehicles and planning. When and how much charging is needed?
2. Charging infrastructure sizing: Depending on the analysis you may need fast chargers to get your fleet back on the road immediately or night charging with Level 2 chargers could be sufficient for your daily use.
3. Site survey planning: This is the ground analysis to define the necessary capacity requirements for the cabling and prepare the necessary permit to get your installation running.

2. Install charging station

These can be performed by the same company that does the design or not.

1. Project management to coordinate all different jobs and permit requirements
2. Construction work with tranching and cabling
3. Charging station installation

Credit

Jim Castelaz, CTO & Founder of Motiv Power Systems

Prasad Ramakrishnan, COO at Motiv Power Systems & mobility Partner at SNGLR Group

Richard Albrecht CEO & Founder of Saascharge.

This podcast was produced by SNGLR Group with the moderation of Luca Sambucci

Saascharge is part of 10 Selected startups that are employing subscription or recurring revenue models to fight climate change

Washington, D.C., (August 2, 2022) – Village Capital, with support and grant funding from leading cloud-based subscription management platform provider Zuora®, announced that 10 startups were selected to take part in Sustainability Subscribed, an accelerator program for startups creating solutions to fight climate change and preserve the world through subscription models.

The open call had a focus on startups employing recurring revenue models, such as subscriptions and moving the needle towards greater sustainability and net zero emissions.

More than 50 entrepreneurs from 16 states applied to be a part of the accelerator. The final cohort is composed of the top 10 companies, 40% of the cohort is headquartered outside of US tech hubs (NY, CA, MA), 40% have a BIPOC member of the founding team or C-Suite and 70% have a female member of the founding team or C-Suite. These companies are creating solutions around greenhouse gas emissions, access to clean energy, resilience, and sustainability of food and water systems, circular economy and sustainability, and climate change.

Here are the 10 startups working to employ subscription or recurring revenue models to fight climate change in the US:

• Akeptus (Mars, PA) is making smart technology more accessible by making a low-cost solution that helps homeowners of all income levels cut their energy use.
• Ampliphi (Atlanta, GA) is a data-driven sustainability-as-a-service platform that helps brands and retailers amplify a circular economy.
• Benchmark Labs (San Diego, CA) offers asset-specific environmental forecasts to high-value asset managers to increase opportunity costs and operating margins.
• FloVision Solutions (South Bend, IN) reduces food waste in cafeterias, fast food, and quick service restaurants through computer vision and machine learning.
• Haystack Ag (Boston, MA) provides cost-effective and high-accuracy soil carbon verification solutions for landowners and carbon markets.
• IncentiFind (Houston, TX) is the nation’s go-to database of green building incentives,  they are transforming US real estate to become sustainable through $70 billion in incentives.
• Saascharge (New York, NY) enables anyone to enter the electric vehicle charging market thanks to an open, scalable, and interconnected platform.
• Scope Zero (San Francisco, CA) is building a platform to facilitate a new employee benefit called a carbon savings account, which reduces employees’ CO2 footprints and boosts corporate sustainability goals.
• Sortile (New York, NY) provides AI-driven solutions that make textile waste valuable by enabling fiber-to-fiber recycling.
• Voltpost (New York, NY) is retrofitting lamp posts into smart electric vehicle charging stations to decarbonize mobility and democratize charging access.

From August to November 2022, selected startups will participate in three online workshops and one in-person workshop on improving investment-readiness. Each company will have the opportunity to work closely with industry experts, investors, and ecosystem partners to develop the networks they need to scale their impact. The top two peer-selected companies will receive USD $50,000 each in grant funding.

All startups in the program will be invited to join Abaca, Village Capital’s global online network that helps entrepreneurs analyze and structure their businesses for investment. The network also matches them with the right investors and resources.

For more information, reach out to Sofía Cándano at Village Capital (sofia.candano@vilcap.com)

About Village Capital

Village Capital helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Our vision is a future where business creates equity and long-term prosperity. Since 2009, we have supported more than 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs through our investment readiness programs. Our affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, has invested in more than 110 program graduates.

About Zuora, Inc.

Zuora provides the leading cloud-based subscription management platform that functions as a system of record for subscription businesses across all industries. Powering the Subscription Economy®, the Zuora platform was architected specifically for dynamic, recurring subscription business models, and acts as an intelligent subscription management hub that automates and orchestrates the entire quote to cash and revenue recognition process. Zuora serves more than 1,000 companies around the world, including Box, Ford, Penske Media Corporation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, Xplornet, and Zoom. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Zuora also operates offices around the world in the U.S., EMEA and APAC. To learn more about the Zuora platform, please visit www.zuora.com.

355 parking spaces to be equipped with electric vehicle chargers at nine Queens, NYC Hilltop Village properties

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. and BELLE MEAD, N.J., Oct. 05, 2021 – Atom Power, manufacturer of the world’s first and only UL listed solid-state digital circuit breaker, has been selected by ESD Global, a technology solutions integrator, to provide electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) to the largest single contract electric vehicle charging project for multi-family buildings in NYC. The project will help New York meet its goal of cutting carbon emissions and phasing out fossil fuel cars and trucks in 2034 by increasing access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

“With EV adoption happening at an exponential pace, EV charging infrastructure needs to be scaled up and enhanced in parallel,” said Vrindavanam Murali, President, ESD Global. “According to ESD Global’s evaluation, Atom Power’s EVSE is the only product that can meet today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their requirements. This product, along with ESD-Connect integrated software, maximizes efficiency, minimizes utility expenses and enhances long term sustainability.”

Atom Power commercialized the world’s first and only UL listed solid-state digital circuit breaker in 2019. Since then, Atom Power has leveraged and adapted its technology to charge electric vehicles directly from their digital circuit breakers, enabling easy-to-use, 100 percent digital control with flexible installation solutions, while simultaneously delivering power and capacity optimization to the building owner and the grid.

“Electrification of everything in our everyday lives is a key step in the global transition to clean energy,” said Ryan Rizor, Vice President of Sales, Atom Power. “Our fully digital circuit breaker can seamlessly manage the variability that comes with renewable resources and increased EV charging without disrupting our quality of life. Simply put, our technology enables the electrification of everything.”

As corporations and governments move to reduce carbon emissions and electrify transportation, Atom Power’s digital circuit breaker technology provides a scalable, intelligent power management platform solution that will deliver up to 50 percent cost savings by centralizing the power management system, eliminating costly maintenance, and reducing equipment costs.

This solution reduces the risk of costly damage to EV charging pedestals and wall boxes as the smart technology that charges the vehicle resides inside the building (the electrical panel and digital circuit breaker). The charging pedestal or wall box does not contain high-tech electronics; they are simply metal tubes and enclosures with charging plugs and cables.

This project, which ESD Global & Atom Power are embarking on together, includes nine multi-family residential buildings situated in the community of Jamaica in Queens, New York City. It is expected that the community will benefit from increased access to charging (refueling) their vehicles and that increased access will aid in dispelling myths about the affordability of electric vehicles. A Harvard Kennedy School Study found at $200 per kWh, the EV is cheaper to purchase, own and operate than the internal combustion vehicle in every scenario by up to $4,300. ESD Global will also help the Hilltop residents obtain incentives that the federal and state governments offer for owning an electric vehicle.

About ESD Global
ESD Global was formed by veterans who worked on energy & sustainability for several years. With the advent of digital technology in the 21st century, it was inevitable to have an integrated approach to energy, sustainability, and reduction of greenhouse gases. As transportation electrification has become a global priority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ESD Global partnered with Atom Power to provide EVSE hardware with advanced API and energy management capabilities, Saascharge software, and the acclaimed veteran-owned New York contractor DVM Industries for installation. ESD Global focuses on serving the community with the best solutions that can enhance lives and have a delightful experience when we move into the newly developed world. For more info please visit www.esd-global.com or email: esd@esd-global.com

About Atom Power
Atom Power invented the world’s first and only UL listed commercial solid-state digital circuit breaker. Designed and manufactured in North Carolina, the Atom Power suite of smart electrical products includes a digital circuit breaker, a customizable distribution panel and a personalized software solution that enables complete control and customization of electrical infrastructure for commercial and industrial, electric vehicle and residential applications. By transitioning the traditional circuit breaker from mechanical to digital, Atom Power has introduced the safest and fastest circuit breaker on the market and enables infrastructure components for smart power distribution and more sustainable energy delivery. For more information, please visit https://www.atompower.com/ or contact: info@atompower.com

2019 was probably the most promising year for the electric vehicle sector with EV sales growth of more than 50% and many exciting announcements for 2020. Especially from established car-makers such as Ford with the usage of the iconic Mustang brand and VW with the ID3. EVs are starting to get a major role. Electric vehicle charging stations are also growing massively with national roll-out plans, but the reality is that we aren’t there yet! Not enough electric vehicle charging points and low interconnection of EV charging networks makes travelling for EV drivers challenging!

As a market actor, it is our duty to bring solutions to the industry. So, what should we wish for 2020?

1. More market players

There are many sectors which have the interest to offer EV charging services. Utilities which distribute electricity and OEM’s which produce and sell electric cars. Finally, all retail companies with parking spaces since it takes a while to charge EVs:

• Restaurant chains to attract travellers to enjoy refreshments while charging
• Retailers to keep drivers busy while charging
• Gaz stations at rest areas offering fast chargers to cope with the surge of EVs

The good news is that the EV charging sector will also become more dynamic thanks to “Plug & charge”. This standard manages EV charging authorization and billing by simply plugging EVs to chargers. This will obviously improve the charging experience for EV drivers. Unfortunately, offering charging services isn’t financially viable yet. This is due to low charging frequencies but especially to expensive service models for site owners. We believe that the market shouldn’t be managed by a handful of market players and that everyone should be able to propose charging services without intermediaries. Thankfully this is possible with an EV platform approach.

2. Mass electrification of parking

Every Parking shall be equipped with 5% to 10% of EV charging equipments. The 1 or 2 chargers per parking era is gone! You must think big with a proper electrification strategy. Especially, considering the latest EV forecast of Loren/McDonald’s with 3% sales in 2020 and 17% in 2028. It is also still the right time to be considered as a first mover. Let’s remember how it was in the 2000’s with WiFi in coffee shops. We all knew that Starbucks had a reliable internet connection. Wouldn’t you like to be recognized as THE place to charge an electric car?

3. Interconnection of American EV charging networks

Any EV driver should be able to charge anywhere with one subscription service! What is normal with a debit card on any ATMs in the world shall be possible with EV chargers too. eRoaming solutions along with open interoperability protocols such as OCPI to interconnect multiple charging networks do exist. Nevertheless, despite multiple announcements of major networks, it is still not possible to drive across the US with one subscription. Interconnecting networks is not only about technical protocols but also about pricing and invoicing agreements across service providers. Thankfully these services do exist.

How can we support the EV Charging market

We believe that any companies shall be able to develop their own EV Charging service, manage their revenues and benefit from this market opportunity. That’s why we have developed a set of Whitelabel applications to create, operate and commercialize an EV charging network. Partners have simply to select a charging station, mandate an electrician for the installation and offer services for EV drivers. No investments in system development required the licence platform approach allows partners to grow without risks. The solution ensures to be fully inter-operable with eRoaming, enabling any drivers to charge anywhere.

This approach works, we have started to commercialize our EV charging platform end of last year and we are proud to roll out our first clients now.

More to come this year with demand response and dynamic pricing solution. Let’s develop the market together! I wish you all a successful and electrified year 2020.

Richard

Would you use your car battery to store electricity for your home or for your energy provider? This simple question summarises the perception of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for EV drivers. This concept is, of course, more complicated than it seems and raises a lot of questions; How does it work? Is it practical? What do I get out of it? Does it degrade the life of my battery? The purpose of this article is to answer these questions and to analyse the challenges and success factors.

What is the purpose of V2G?

To understand the purpose of vehicle-to-grid, we have to understand the challenges that the energy market is currently facing with growing production of intermittent type of energies such as photovoltaic and wind turbines. As these renewable energies do have an unforeseeable production of energy due to unpredictable weather conditions (wind, sun, temperature), utilities have to stabilise the lake or surplus of electricity on the market. The idea is to store the excess of energy and use the capacity of these batteries to stabilise the grid (electricity network). Electric vehicles or let say “batteries on wheels” with 20 to 100 kWh storage capacity could potentially become an interesting alternative to accommodate the electricity grid. Especially, if we consider that EV’s are stationary for more than 90% of the time.

How does it work?

Vehicle2grid is a solution in which an electric vehicle is connected to an energy grid and share electricity depending on market demand. The charging Station has the role to manage bi-directional electricity flows. All these systems are interconnected and included in a smart grid solution.

2 terms are frequently used to describe the structure of V2G:

• Smart Grid: This is a generic term to explain the intelligence components to manage the production and demand of electricity over multiple devices (e.g. Smart Meters).
• Load Balancing: This term describes the distribution of electricity workloads across the car battery and the grid.

Basically, when the production of solar or wind energy will be at its peak and the demand at its lowest, the smart grid would feed the car battery and use this energy when needed.

What are the consumer benefits?

At a first glance, the whole concept seems to benefit more energy companies than EV drivers. However, some costs and security advantages have to be mentioned. Especially, if it is used at home in combination with a photovoltaic installation.

• Financial benefits with the possibility to reduce electricity costs by storing electricity obtained at lower prices (off-peak times), for a later usage when the demand and cost are higher (Peak times).
• Lower kWh price on public Charging Networks when used on important parking facilities as we can see in this Nissan Italian experiment.
• Security in a home usage (vehicle-to-home) context, the car battery could be used as redundancy or to avoid availability losses on the grid.

What are the V2G challenges?

Vehicle-to-Grid is a complex solution which has to face multiple service and market challenges.

1. Practicability “Ease of use”:

Such a service could require the management of multiple parameters. What is the battery level that you would be ready to share? When do you need the full capacity of your battery back? An easy way to solve this challenge would be to set limits and get never lower than 70 or 80% of your battery levels. In other words, the driver shall be able to park and get away with sufficient energy without constant configuration. I would recommend a minimum setup with the battery threshold that you are ready to allocate. Any further configuration based on timing or amount of authorised cycles would be too complex to manage. The objective is to use your car without further worries.

2. Battery deterioration (EV value loss):

Frequent charging cycles (charge and discharge) can harm your car batteries. It does mean that your EV would lose capacity. However, if the battery is used in certain conditions (e.g. with a threshold) it could even increase the life of the battery according to study from the University of Warwick. Nevertheless, any user of a smartphone or laptop would seriously doubt such a study. We should rather care about the amount of charging/discharging cycles per session. Car batteries are also aimed to resist fare more cycles than needed.

3. Compliant electric vehicle for V2G:

EV’s has to be compatible for multi-directional charging in a V2G environment. It means that these cars have to be equipped with a compatible inverter which isn’t the case for all car models. Cars such as the Nissan Leaf or other Asian brands (Mitsubishi, Kia, …) ) with CHAdeMO connection do already fulfil these conditions. Secondly, an EV has to be furnished with a substantial battery size to support a loss of capacity after a V2G charging session. For example, a loss of 20 to 30% capacity when you have a maximum driving range of 150 km could be critical.

4. Attractive and smart kWh pricing:

The potential deterioration of a car battery and the fact that you may not have a full charge at the reception of your EV must be compensated.

• The first principle is that the kWh delivered on top of your initial charging level must be significantly cheaper than a standard Public charging session.
• The second principle is the uncomplicated pricing structure. It should be logical to offer financial compensation (negative billing) when the level of your battery is lower than when you initially brought

5. Smart system costs for utilities:

Vehicle2grid solution with Smart grid components and applications for drivers is expensive. Return on invest could become challenging for utilities if the service is not widely used. We would, therefore, need millions of EV drivers to make it worth.

6. Competition with storage battery (EES):

The cost of Lithium batteries could decrease up to 50% in the next 5 years. We can, therefore, expect that important EES storage sites and homes could be equipped with batteries in the future. Consumers would then rather invest in home batteries than using EVs for storage. This is probably the direction that Tesla is taking with the Powerwall product.

7. Too low Market price of electricity:

Current kWh market price in central Europe is too low to motivate drivers to make an effort to optimise energy consumptions. The financial benefits of lending an EV battery for storage purposes is too weak against service constraints and potential early amortization of the vehicle.

How can we make it successful?

General success factors of V2G for consumers are in relation to market drivers of electrical energy storage (EES) which is described in this article of March 2017. Next to the challenges that this technology has to overcome, here are four main factors to make it successful:

1. Size of batteries: EV batteries have to become more consequent to absorb a temporary loss of capacity or slow degradation (e.g. above 80 kWh)
2. Ease of use: This service has to be straightforward and easy to use for drivers. It means no systematic configuration of multiple parameters to ensure a safe journey back home.
3. Attractive pricing: An attractive kWh shall be offered to compensate the unpleasantness of EV battery and reduce battery capacity.
4. Think Big: We need mighty numbers of EVs (30-40% EV market penetration) on the road to make the investment valuable with massive infrastructure and facilities.

As of today’s, question of V2G success, there are too many hurdles and market changes to expect! I am therefore not yet convinced with this concept but in 10 years with a tense energy market and growing numbers of EVs, I might change my mind. What about you?

WHAT IS A PUBLIC EV CHARGING NETWORK AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

With the growing number of Electric Vehicles (EV) on the road, it is important to understand the importance of public EV Charging Networks. Tesla has successfully advertised his exclusive US and European Charging Station Network. However, multiple other networks are starting to invest in this market with the expectation to get important future revenues.

Public EV networks have basically the same utility as traditional gas stations, the structure of a mobile phone network and a similar profile than financial payment cards.

First of all: Is a Public EV Charging Network really important?

This is a fair question, because, despite the gasoline cars, the electric vehicle can actually be charged at home.  Moreover, with today’s electric cars reaching already 500 km and soon 800 km, “Home charging” is definitely going to be the prime source of charging. However, Public EV Networks are essential for three groups of customers:

• Urban People:  Car Driver without assigned Parking lot. In some countries that could represent up to 40% of the population
• Occasional travellers: e.g. weekend & holiday trips
• Frequent travellers: e.g. Delivery Service, Sales Rep. Taxi…

What are the equipments of a Public EV Network?

A Public EV Charging Network is equipped with Smart Charging Stations connected to a central control unit called a backend to manage EV driver Charging requests. Smart Charging Stations communicate over a wireless network thanks to an M2M (Machine to Machine) card which is basically a Mobile SIM card for machines.

Drivers have to use an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) card or Smartphone application to identify and generate the charging process. The concerned Charging Station would then remotely manage the authorization request with the connected Backend.

How does a Public Charging Network work?

With the geographical complexity of Europe and the future EV market attractiveness, competition becomes obvious and wished. Indeed, a single public Charging Network covering every business roles from the Charging Station to the EV driver cannot be sustainable. It should be open and connected!

We can distinguish three main roles for public EV Network:

1. Charging Station Operator (CSO)
CSO do manage EV Charging Networks. It means that they manage Charging Stations which belongs to multiple owners. For example Restaurant, Public Parking, Shopping Mall…
Example: Utilities (e-on, Vattenfall, Groupe E, Alpiq,, EDF…) EV-point (Belgium), Smatric (Austria)…

2. E-Mobility Provider (EMP)
EMP do offer Charging Station Network access to EV Driver. This is a Service Provider for Retail customers with subscription or “Pay as you go” type of offers.
Example: OEM (VW, Renault, BMW…), Plugsurfing (Germany), The New Motion (Holland), Blue Corner (Belgium)…

3. Mobility Network
The E-Mobility Network have the role to link the EMP with the CSO. This is the so cold “Network” or “E-Roaming platform”.
Example: International Roaming Platforms (Gireve, Hubject, e-clearing.net…), Move (Switzerland), Ladenetz (Germany)…

It has to be noticed that some important Market players do currently manage every role (EMP, CSO, Mobility Network). Companies such as “The New Motion” in Holland or Charge point in USA.

Payment transfer: Who is paying for the charging?

These market actors (CSO, EMP, Mobility Provider) are linked together to manage the financial clearing (payment process) of Driver charging transactions.

Payment Process
a. EV Driver charge at a Public Charging Station (e.g. Restaurant Parking)
b. EV Driver pays for the charging to the EMP
c. EMP pays for the EV Driver charging to the CSO via the E-Mobility Network
d. CSO do compensate for the EV Driver Charging to the Charging Station Owner (Restaurant Charging Station)

Comparison with the Credit Card Market
We can compare this structure to the Payment Card Business Model. For example, a Public Charging Station can directly be compared to a Bank ATM compatible with different payment cards (Visa, American Express, Master Card…). The EMP is the Issuer, the Credit Card Network is the E-mobility Network and the CSO is the Acquirer. This payment card model, like the E-Mobility one, do supports different competitors.

Business Model: Who is offering what?

E-Mobility Provider (EMP)
EMP do provide Charging services for EV drivers. They offer the following type of services:

• EV Charging Network access: Yearly Subscription fees or “pay as you” type of offers
• Charging transactions: Price pro kWh or minutes

EMP offers can be compared with what we can find with mobile phone network provider with subscriptions and usage price models.

Charging Station Operator (CSO)
CSO do provide services for Charging Station Owner. They offer the following type of services:

• Charging Station Sales and Installations
• Charging Station Service Management
• Access fees to the Public Charging Network
• Billing Services (Compensation for EV Driver charge processes)

Mobility Network
The Mobility Network Business Case is very similar than the Payment card (credit card) Business Model as mentioned in the example above. Mobility Network makes money with the generated Charging transactions on their network. However, as this market is not yet mature, different other models are currently applied.

• Licence price per EV driver
• Fix setup cost per Charging

I want to buy a Charging Station and be part of this market. What should I do?

The best way to add a Charging Station to a Public EV network is to contact a Charging Station Operator (CSO). They are going to offer you the best options to connect your Charging Station to multiple Mobility Networks. So that you can be reachable from the biggest amount of EMP’s, basically from Drivers.

What are the Success triggers of a public EV Charging Network?

The main success of a public EV Charging Network will simply be measured with the amount of Charging transactions. In other words, more EV drivers charging equals more transactions! Let say, that any Public Network is linked with the success of electric vehicles.

Efficiency, quality and Charging Stations infrastructure compatibility is mandatory to ensure the maximum of EV drivers stopping by. More the Public EV Network is open for multiple EMP’s, with the connection to multiple Networks (E.g. Roaming Platform), more charging transactions are likely to happen! Of course, great locations are key to ensure that EV Drivers have something interesting to do while their cars are charging. Last but not least, pricing concepts have to be smart and affordable to ensure continuous success.

Market roles are set, charging stations and EV cars numbers are growing. Everything is progressing to become a mass-market product in the years to come!

Next Steps?

Creating a network is possible with Saascharge. Please contact us for more information