As EV adoption accelerates, the key challenge for Charge Point Operators is where to locate charging stations to ensure utilization and profitability.
Electric Vehicles have been around for a long time. The first commercial EV, the Lohner-Porsche Mixte, was released in 1901. However, it wasn’t until the recent wave of commercial successes – Tesla, Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf, et al – that EV owners started to worry about where to charge their new car. The best place to “fuel-up” the battery has been at home given that over 90% of trips are well within their car’s range.
The owners of these new EVs define the term early adopter. They are willing to put up with all kinds of inconveniences to have a vehicle that matches their values, image or lifestyle. They enjoy the experimentation of overcoming certain obstacles, like how far can I go without recharging? What kind of charger works with my EV? Can I take long trips? Can I circumvent North America in an EV, like Paul Reisberg’s tale in his post, “Do You Have Range Anxiety?”
Overcoming the ‘where can I charge?’ obstacle is the key to moving the EV market from the early adopter to early majority phase. The specter of needing to hunt down a working charging station while the battery is draining is a legitimate fear for most car customers. We have become accustomed to the sense that there is a gas station on a corner somewhere along our journey. Renters, as well, do not worry about whether their landlord will put in EV chargers, if they know where to get gas.
The flip side is the challenge for Charge Point Operators (CPOs) – the companies that install and manage charging stations. If a CPO is going to invest a big chunk of money into the infrastructure required to offer EV charging, where are they most likely to find the locations where EV drivers will need to recharge? Where can drivers spend time getting a coffee or shopping if the charge takes more than 10 minutes? Can the charging station competitively offer other services at that location?
This is where Charge Point Analytics (CPA) comes in. It is a software solution that helps CPOs wade through mountains of data on many factors to pinpoint locations that can be well utilized and profitable. This mountain of data includes:
- Traffic patterns
- Housing clusters
- Power grid connections
- Regulatory restrictions
- Nearby retail services
- and more
Fortunately, many innovative companies are meeting this challenge, from start-ups to vendors with some cleantech experience beyond transportation and mobility. Their offerings feature a few foundational sets of capabilities.
Predictive Modeling – Using Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning, these solutions turn location siting from the highly labor intensive, sometimes manual (e.g., going to check out sites in person) process into one that analysts can conduct in a reasonable time to make business decisions. AI/ML gives the vendor that ability to wade through mountains of data while weighing all the considerations for a good location.
Aggregated Regional Datasets – Accurate projection of charge point opportunities requires the aggregation of very localized information. Most of the vendors have a regional focus, i.e., they can go deep on the United Kingdom or California, but haven’t the depth to evaluate Portugal. If they are expanding globally, they will expand region by region as they acquire and aggregate new data sets.
Financial Projections – CPA software can weigh the financial viability of the opportunities to find the optimum investment, and forecast their projected customer demand, operating costs, and profitability.
Visual Location Display – The CPO wants to see potential locations mapped out to be able to pinpoint the exact location and visually sees what is in the proximity. It helps provide confirmation that predictive modeling has placed the opportunity in a real site.
Since this is a new market, the capabilities of each vendor vary widely. For some, this may be one aspect of their portfolio of solutions. The decision for CPOs looking to partner with a CPA vendor is to match both the vendor’s capabilities and regional depth to their needs.
In future posts, I will cover the Charge Point Analytics vendors with a high-level view of their capabilities and how they fit into the broader EV charging ecosystem.
