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

Public charging networks are growing all over the world but are they competitive? Of course, all marketing managers will surely promote the performance of charging station with great power output, coverage with number of charging points, great services with smartphone applications and 24/7 hotline. Despite all these parameters, Pricing is often underestimated as if EV drivers should be thankful to have access to public charging stations. This is often the case when new markets are opening but will quickly change when competition arise. Thankfully, this is already happening in multiple eMobility markets. The upcoming interconnection of charging station networks thanks to eRoaming solutions do offer access to thousands of public charging points all over Europe. When you get access to almost the same product, pricing become highly strategical! So, what should be the right price?

Let’s first try to understand the elements to determine a charging price:

1. Costs: Energy, service and infrastructure
2. Offer and Demand: Driver readiness to pay for charging
3. Strategy: Competition, tactics and goals

What are the cost of public charging?

The cost of public charging is depending of all elements needed for a driver to stop and charge a car. In a gasoline station we would calculate the brute price of oil, refinery costs and finally different taxes and a margin to cover all running costs (location, salaries, infrastructure and payment system…).

In the electricity world, we don’t have to refine the product, we just have to deliver it with the right power and that depends of the infrastructure and the way we can access it. The biggest difference with gazonline is that public EV charging networks are organised around a “Service provider” structure which makes them closer to Mobile operators than a gaz station model.

Here is a representation of the structure and all elements that you have to take into account to run a public charging network:

Next to these, you have to take into account all commercialisation costs to acquire and manage drivers and owners of charging stations and of course the electricity costs.

Offer and demand: Driver readiness to pay?

Despite a growing eMobility service provider competition with a variety of prices, the biggest benchmark remains the retail price of electricity. Basically, what drivers are paying at home to charge a car. This is rather unusual in comparison to the gasoline world and makes Drivers less dependent to public charging network. At least for a radius of 150 to 500 km where customer have to charge a car and may more interested about the location, ease of use (access, payment) and charging time (power output) rather than the price. It means that they are quality oriented but not ready to pay fantasy prices and would compare eMobility provider offers.

Strategy: How do you want to charge your customers?

The concept and way of billing is strategical. The objective is to gain, retain and finance Charging station investors. We can already see 2 major pricing concepts and various pricing types.

Pricing concepts:

1. Per station-based pricing

The benefit of this model is that owners of charging stations can define price schemes according to their needs. For example, a low pricing policy, to attract customers for other services (e.g. restaurant, coffee clients…) or a progressive pricing per minute to encourage drivers to free up charging stations for the next driver. The weakness is that it does generate a multitude of prices which can only be checked over a smart phone application. We can compare this pricing concept with the gas station model where prices can be openly set. There are however 3 massive differences:

• 1^st Gas station prices are clearly indicated on the facilities. You do not have to open a smartphone application to check prices
• 2^nd Way of billing per litre or gallon is always the same. There is no multiplicity of type of pricing such as minimum amount, setup or per minute billing.
• 3^rd price disparity is very low. eMobility drivers have to count with charging prices with differences of almost single to double in a radius of a few miles.

2. Network pricing

Country with Zones:

In summary, the difference of both prices is about the logic of pricing calculation from the Driver or from the Charging Station. I tend to prefer the pricing approach from the Driver which is the customer of these networks. 

Billing plan types:

Billing plan types are about the way drivers can be billed for charging transactions. There are a lot of possibilities depending on system capabilities, regulation and goals.

All these prices have a reason to exist. However, the best way could be a mix of all these pricing types. For examples, this charging plan that I have seen recently in the US:
– Setup to give access to the charger
– Per kW until the car is charged
– Per minute for all remaining time after completion of the charging process

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?

Image courtesy of Juice Technology AG.

Electric vehicle public charging Networks are more than just charging stations set randomly in an area. The prime objective is to support EV drivers with reliable, available and fast charging. In my last February blog post, I was referring to the concept of a public charging network, here we are talking about general characteristics. This post is based on my experience working for a public charging Network and frequent exchanges with market players. From technical aspects to the business model, the idea is to give an overview of what a public network shall be composed of.

1. Charging Efficiency: Time to get you going

The speed of charging is important but not always essential, it has to be adapted to the situation. For example, charging a car overnight would be acceptable if the charging point is in a hotel. On the other hand, if you are stopping at a highway service area, you would expect to get a fast-charging station able to get you going in 10 to 15 minutes. That’s why the industry has come up with the following segmentation:

1. Coffee and Charge: 15 to 20 minutes for a full charging process / Power around 50 to 150 kW
2. Shop and Charge: 1 to 2 hours for a full charging process / Power around 22 kW
3. Sleep and Charge: 6 to 8 hours for a full charging process / Power around 3.6 kW

It has to be noticed that the time of charging is indicative and depends on car type and battery size.

2. Charging Cable Plug compatibility

There are currently different charging standards which are being used in the EV market. DC (Direct current) charging for fast charging and AC (Alternative Current) with lower capabilities. These are the different available systems:

• CHAdeMO: DC
• CCS (Combined Charging System): DC
• Type 2: AC

European and North American car maker are investing more in type 2 and CCS cables rather than CHAdeMo which is currently used by the Asian competitors. We could expect an uniformisation but this is unlikely to happen in the next 5 years. That’s why charging stations shall be compatible with multiple socket formats.

3. Diverse Access solution

E-mobility Providers offering public charging Station access to Drivers, generally propose 2 types of identification systems for subscribers; RFID cards and/or QR code that can be used with a Smartphone Applications. Mobile SMS or NFC (Near Field Communication) are used by “pay as you go” consumers. As the market is not yet set, the idea is to be compatible with a broad type of access technologies.

4. Location, location, location

A great location is a key element of a public EV charging network. It is even more significant than with traditional Gaz stations because a fast charging process can take 15 to 120 minutes. It is, therefore, essential that these charging Points are based in areas with activities such as coffee shops, Restaurants, businesses or leisure facilities.

5. Network Interoperability: Open to access and be accessed

EV public charging networks shall be open for a maximum of drivers. The interconnection via Roaming Platforms such as Saascharge eRoaming or/and directly via a peer to peer roaming protocol with the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI) are crucial for the comfort of drivers. This will increase the amount of charging possibilities and improve the adoption of EVs. Profitability of charging stations will also benefit from this additional frequentation.

6. Charging Points numbers

Taking into account that a car could occupy a charging spot for a while and that this technology is still fragile, a multiplicity of charging points matters! This could, however, be improved with a booking of charging location but this is not a practical concept (not ideal when a driver is late due to traffic jam). it is, therefore, important to follow the utilisations of charging stations and plan the construction of additional points accordingly.

7. Smart pricing model

Affordable and smart pricing model could encourage drivers to use more often public charging facilities. Some E-mobility Providers (EMP) set prices per charging Stations while other define prices per networks.  A smart pricing has to be uncomplicated, attractive and transparent. That’s why I do prefer a network pricing approach rather than a “gaz station” type of model.

Examples of pricing:

• Flexible kWh or minute transaction billing with subscriptions or “pay as you go” type of pricing.
• Differentiated prices for local or national usage which is ideal for urban drivers using exclusively public EV charging infrastructure.

8. Customer Service

Customer service for drivers is essential considering that EVs and public charging Stations are still new technologies with high complexities. Cases such as blocked cable or system breakdown have to be solved as soon as possible. We are not in the Apple world where Software and Hardware are manufactured by the same company and work perfectly together. Cars, charging stations and system backends are all from different vendors. Even with the best market standards for charging plugs or communication protocols, this is still not stable yet and requires a competitive customer service.

9. Charging Station Design: It must be adapted to the landscape

The design of a charging station is especially important when it is located in an urban area. It has to be discreet and visually integrated into the landscape. Ultra-fast charging stations have generally the look of a giant box mixed with a bunch of cables which makes them look like a Christmas tree. These kinds of charging Stations are appropriate on a Motorway but definitely not at the Champs-Élysées in Paris! As you can see in the illustration picture, the Swiss charging station manufacturer, Juice Technology has understood that design is a major argument when it is located in a nice area.

10. Solid Business Model

Last but not least, a business model involving every market players from the drivers, network, and investors (charging station owner) is essential. This would ensure sustainability and growth. This does include partnerships with communities for support and access to prime locations. Commercial partnership with the automotive industry and fleet management companies are prime to grow a customer base (drivers).

In summary, as the market is not defined yet, it is important that public charging station networks are available, open and compatible with multiple standards, infrastructures, and network.

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