EV charge point software, essential or not?

The Electric Vehicle market is growing

The Electric Vehicle market is growing, and with it the EV charging market. Internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles are reaching the end of the road, with the ban on new sales coming into force in 2030.

It is highly likely that every business installing EV charging stations today will need to add more charge points in coming years - and the rate will only start accelerating. This is true for any organisation that offers workplace charging, destination charging or fleet charging.

The EV charging challenges organisations face

Getting an electrical installer to fit EV charging infrastructure is half the battle - there are other considerations to a long-term solution to support EV adoption, that’s true for a business or organisation of any size:

1. Choosing the correct hardware
   
   A solution installed today may not be available in the future as the variety of charge points change, as does the functionality. Businesses need to think about managing their charge points in five years’ time.
   
   
2. Lead time of EV chargers
   
   As demand for EV charging stations continues to grow rapidly, there will be short term supply issues for businesses. This will result in several brands of EV chargers that will be installed at one business. Hence the need for a single software platform that will manage a client’s entire charge point estate.
   
   
3. Basic back-office software
   
   The existing “out-of-the-box” back-office software on many EV chargers today is relatively basic and lacking key functionality - or doesn’t even exist at all. This means the only option is for the business to build a manual, admin heavy work-around. Does your business really want to employ someone who has to manually:
     - Keep a record of each individual charging session
     - Capture the charging data from each login
     - Consolidate the data manually into one place
     - Track and manage employees for the electricity consumed
   
   
4. No payment capability at point-of-use
   
   As standard, there is no payment portal available on most EV charging stations. To collect the cost of charging is a laborious role (as pointed out above). Or it could be using a mobile app that simply isn’t up to the job, that doesn’t focus on user experience or is unintuitive to use.
   

The importance of EV charging back-office software

Based on the latest projections, there will be nearly eight million registered EV’s on the road by 2030 - and ultimately more charging stations to support the industry growth.

The need to manage your charging stations remotely will only increase. Specialist Charge Point Software will help this transition by:

• Being hardware agnostic, allowing charge point owners to select any OCPP compliant hardware to build their network
• Not being “locked-in” to a specific vendor if supply shortages should occur
• Giving charge point owners the tools to track and monitor every charging station - and session across their network
• Allowing end-users the ability to pay with an easy-to-use mobile app, with a tariff set by the charge point owner

It is therefore essential that businesses look to use a specialist back-office to manage, monitor and maintain their charging stations. This will encourage EV adoption and allow organisations to meet their sustainability commitments - with charging infrastructure that is simple, fair and accessible to all.