Electric vehicles (EVs) are vital to a greener world. Progress has been made in this field, with most notably Tesla and Lexus being among the first to market, followed by other key automobile brands who are creating the most environmentally friendly versions of their famous cars. On the surface, the concept of mass usage of electric vehicles appears groundbreaking with the race to net zero by 2050.
So, why has there been a declining appeal towards EVs in recent months? Some may point to cost, but we are seeing steadily declining prices. No, the reason for the growing animosity toward EVs is the lack of suitable charging infrastructure. If not addressed, this has the potential to undermine all the hard work completed so far to create a greener planet.
Lack of Available Charging Points
The first problem is there are currently not enough charging stations. Drivers are arriving at service stations to charge their vehicles, yet often they’ll be met with a full car park or a number of broken chargers. The Department for Transport has said that it wants 300,000 public chargers in operation by the time its ban on new petrol and diesel cars comes into force in 2030.
Yet in 2022 it managed to install fewer than 9,000, taking the UK total to around 37,000, which means at current rates it will be another 25 years at least before it reaches the government’s original goal. This is leading to a lack of trust for those contemplating buying an EV. Why would they want to commit to driving a vehicle that has the potential to break down halfway through a journey, with no reliable charging point in sight?
Charging App Problems
Another issue deterring people from the EV option is the lack of reliable information coming from EV charging apps. These apps identify where the next charging points are and whether they are free. The problems occur because the apps don’t always provide updates quickly enough to the driver, inevitably causing the wrong messages and updates to be communicated to them. For example, the app will say that the charger is available, when in fact, the driver arrives and it is either in use or broken. The result of this leads to, more often than not, a build-up of vehicles queuing for access to a charging station.
In comparison to a traditional petrol station, which is designed to form queues, EV users are left without knowing where they are in that queue, who got there first and how long they’ll need to wait before a charger is made available to them. This uncertainty can lead to unnecessary wait times and longer journeys. Drivers are having to park in lanes where traffic should be flowing through, causing cars to act as obstructions, blocking the view of the charging points and missing their turn, causing inescapable chaos. It is also possible that drivers will have to continue driving to the next service station without any reassurance that the next one will actually have a free, working charging point available for them.
Real-time data: the key to a streamlined EV charging system
What is vital to the success of EVs is the ability to access this charging point status information as soon as possible, with live updating of charging point availability. Thankfully, the technological capabilities do exist for this today. Real-time data movement is critical in resolving these pitfalls crippling the system.
EV manufacturers need to understand that the success of broad EV usage hinges on an infrastructure which has real-time data capabilities built in. ‘Range anxiety’, the worry of how many miles an EV can go before recharging, has now become ‘charge anxiety’, the worry that drivers won’t be able to complete their full journeys due to lack of chargers. For drivers to have trust in EVs as a long-term investment, they must have reliable location information, updated instantly, to plan their next charge.
Charging points are the main ‘event’
The movement of real-time data can be enabled through an event-driven architecture (EDA). Defined as a software design pattern, an EDA is an enterprise IT system that allows the natural flow of applications, microservices, and connected devices in a real-time manner as events occur throughout a process. An ‘event’ and ‘event streaming’ are ways of thinking about real-time data movement.
A virtual queuing system can be created using EDA to gather real-time location information on where the cars are, the status of the charging points and who has arrived and is leaving. By using real-time instrumentation to gather the status of cars, charging points and back-end systems, the EV charging process can be successfully orchestrated. This technology could allow one to be automatically registered in a virtual queue based upon identifying when you arrive at the charging point and then estimating a wait time. It allows drivers the opportunity to park out of the way of traffic and be notified once their charging station is free.
By implementing as-it-happens information on available charging points, governments and EV manufacturers can put the decision-making and trust back into the hands of drivers. This will not only aid in increasing demand for EVs long-term, but will ensure the driving experience for all involved is better streamlined. This will create a more efficient service when charging on the go. The results? A more enjoyable journey, without any EV anxiety.