The UK EV charging infrastructure market has entered its “second wave”; a data-driven era where operational insight is as, if not more, key than merely getting EV chargepoints on the ground.
That’s the word from Brad Sandys, head of business development at chargepoint management systems provider Techniche, who was joined by CEO of EV charger software firm Fuuse, Michael Gibson, for a webinar hosted by Current± today (12 June). The two discussed the ways in which software providers and chargepoint operators (CPOs) can provide a strong service that keeps drivers happy and returning time after time.
The two companies recently entered into a strategic technical partnership in order to best leverage the complementary nature of the products each company provides, with the overall aim of helping CPOs achieve maximum efficiency and mimimise downtime in order to ensure a great experience for EV drivers.
Early on in the session, a poll asked the watching representatives of CPOs what they currently saw as the biggest challenge for their business. While views were split, many saw securing a consistent return on investment owing to utilisation and maintenance costs, alongside driver knowledge and behaviours. Citing Techniche’s own research, Sandys highlighted charging speed not being as advertised and broken or dysfunctional chargepoints as being some of the most frustrating issues for EV drivers when looking for a public chargepoint.
Both Sandys and Gibson agree that these are issues which can be solved with increased, and more detailed information directly from chargepoint units themselves, or as Sandys put it: “data, data, and more data is key”. The strategic partnership between the two firms is allowing chargepoint operators to see in much more detail exact data on charging session times, power and speeds, as well as providing immediate and detailed information as soon as faults occur, something which can be leveraged in order to prevent future faults from occurring.
Gibson noted that EV chargepoints are a uniquely challenging technology to manage as multiple failure points interact in different ways, including physical cables, payment systems, online connectivity, displays, and, of course, each customer’s vehicle. Any single one of these areas having a fault can lead to an unsuccessful or negative charging experience for the user – as Sandys added: “CPOs have a tough time of it”. Gibson also noted that, with 80% of driver issues being solved without technical intervention and instead by providing instruction or guidance, despite the fact that early EV adopters are more likely to be more tech savvy than those who will come later to the EV revolution, the need for easily accessible driver support and a both quantitative and qualitive analysis of customer queries will be increasingly important as the EV rollout expands.
So what is the overall best approach to delivering a strong chargepoint experience for drivers? Alongside choosing quality software platforms and working alongside firms with industry expertise, both Techniche and Fuuse recommend that CPOs use strong data analysis to drive continuous improvement, focus on fixing the root causes of issues at chargepoints rather than just addressing immediate problems when they occur, and set and track key KPIs and benchmarks to meet the needs of EV drivers.
