We are hearing mixed messages right now about the success – or otherwise – of electric vehicles (EVs). We know that EVs will happen one way or another, but on the one hand, we’re seeing headlines about falling sales and car makers slashing forecasts, while on the other, the news that sales have got off to a record start this year. The growth seeming to come from premium brands like BMW and Audi.

 We know it will come, but the transition to EVs is not without its challenges.

 I had the opportunity to address these challenges at the Powered On Live ‘Engineering a sustainable future’ event in April hosted by Electrical Review – on a panel with Paul Marshall, Co-founder and CCO at Eseye, and Richard Earl, R&D Director at EO Charging, talking about Electrifying Transportation: Accelerating the Transition to Electric Vehicles.

Here I share my key takeaways:

Electrification is a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ system change

As Richard from commercial EV charging solutions company EO Charging explained, we are moving from an infrastructure that’s been in place since the start of the last millennium to a new ecosystem, which is dependent on new power sources, new delivery models and new components. Everything in this new ecosystem must work – from the power generation, distribution, and connections to the sites, to the operations, communications with control systems and software, and availability and reliability of the vehicles.

A ‘huge job’ but we’re already a long way down the road

Despite the huge task ahead in terms of infrastructure changes, we are a long way through this process. But what’s happening now is that we’re uncovering scenarios that we didn’t expect. This includes a public backlash to EVs and how we address this, as well as issues like ensuring grid connections are done in a timely manner and there are enough semiconductors so EVs can be delivered to customers.

Customer expectations are paramount

There’s also the customer experience. Paul at IoT company, Eseye, explained that people are mainly focusing on whether they can charge their vehicles. With early adopters, it was all about the tech with owners interested in how their car talked to the charger. Now, customers, especially fleets and delivery operators, are not that interested in electrification, but in getting from A to B. Richard who works with large fleet customers stressed we need to convince them “they are good to go.”

Charging flexibility

The industry needs to meet charging requirements for customers. Ultimately, it comes down to whether you can charge your vehicle as cheaply and efficiently as possible. There will always be times when you need to charge immediately at whatever rate is available, but, as Richard pointed out, 90% of the time, drivers will want to charge when the tariff is cheap. Adding this kind of value to the customer will make charging solutions “sticky and valuable”.

The evolution of payment systems

As Paul explained, there are two types of charging – ‘destination charging’ at home with longer charging requirements, and ‘en route charging’ during a journey with drivers needing a quicker solution. Traditionally, we went into a petrol station to pay and be on our way, but with hundreds of chargers potentially at a services station, systems will need to scale up. Drivers will have to identify themselves first to pay for the electricity they use, so authentication followed by payment.

Sweating the infrastructure

The panel agreed that operators and customers need to sweat their assets when it comes to investment in charging infrastructure. Richard explained that fleet operators with large energy consumption often have much greater demand than they have current capabilities. His company has developed a suite of load management controls that allow customers to get more chargers on-site than the grid capacity allows. Available power can then be distributed effectively across all vehicles, ensuring they maximize the grid connection.

He gave a very interesting example of a customer that shares it’s 1MW connection with the local rugby ground. On Tuesday nights, the club needs extra power for floodlights, so the customer must front-load charging on Sunday and Monday nights, with as many vehicles as possible there to maximize available capacity.

We also touched on vehicle to grid (V2G) and all agreed that the opportunities are there. While it will be more challenging for fleet operators that don’t always have their vehicles available at a depot, domestic programs could work well in the context of the smart home.

Richard summed it up perfectly by saying that it’s an interesting time, but the next few years will be particularly interesting as we start to unlock the capabilities that we haven’t even thought about yet.

Listen to the full Electrifying Transportation: Accelerating the Transition to Electric Vehicles session here.