ICNC22 Keynote: What are the Best Practices for eMobility Business Expansion

Summary

In a recent presentation, Dawn Frankel, CEO of Drives, discussed the company's role in the electric vehicle (EV) revolution and the importance of scaling up digital services to support the growing demand for EV charging infrastructure. Drives serves as an operating system for EV charging operators, offering an end-to-end, modular platform that allows customers to select and integrate various models to their solutions. The platform currently manages tens of thousands of charges, supports over 600 charge types across 27 countries, and has recently been chosen by Shell for its back-office operations in multiple countries. Frankel highlighted the challenges of scaling up, including the increasing number of drivers, the impact on the grid, and the need for seamless integration and roaming solutions. She emphasized the critical role of artificial intelligence in predicting energy consumption and managing charging infrastructure maintenance. Drives is committed to supporting the energy revolution by reducing CO2 emissions and creating a sustainable future.

Takeaways

• 🚗 **EV Scalability**: The electric vehicle (EV) market is growing rapidly, with a focus on scaling up infrastructure to accommodate increasing numbers of EVs.
• 🌐 **Digital Services Platform**: Drives platform acts as an operating system for EV charging operators, offering end-to-end, modular solutions that can be customized and integrated with strong API capabilities.
• 📈 **Market Expansion**: Drives is managing a significant scale of operations with hundreds of millions of events and is active in over 27 countries, supporting a diverse customer base including utilities, automakers, and service providers.
• 🤝 **Partnerships**: Drives has been selected by Shell as a back-office solution for EV charging in multiple countries, marking an exciting expansion and collaboration.
• 🔋 **Energy Revolution**: The EV revolution is seen as a key component in supporting the energy revolution, aiming to reduce CO2 emissions and create a better environment for future generations.
• 📊 **Challenges of Scaling**: As the number of EV drivers increases, so do the challenges related to charging infrastructure, grid impact, and the need for seamless integration and roaming solutions.
• 🛠️ **Technology and Functionality**: A scalable IT solution with AI capabilities is crucial for predicting energy demand, managing charging infrastructure maintenance, and ensuring operational excellence.
• 🔧 **Maintenance and Predictive Analytics**: Drives uses machine learning and predictive analytics to maintain charging infrastructure, with the goal of automatically fixing 80% of issues remotely.
• ⚙️ **Modularity and Microservices**: Drives' platform is based on microservices, allowing for modular expansion and the ability to add or allocate resources as needed.
• 🌟 **Customer Empowerment**: Drives enables customers to delegate services, allowing for local operation and management of charging needs, which is particularly important as the market scales.
• ⏱️ **Time to Market**: There is an emphasis on the importance of time to market and achieving economies of scale in IT platform development due to the high costs associated with it.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of Drives' platform in the context of the EV revolution?

Drives' platform serves as an operating system for EV charging operators, providing an end-to-end, modular system that allows customers to choose and develop their own solutions based on strong API capabilities. It aims to support the energy revolution by reducing CO2 emissions and creating a better world for future generations.

How does Drives manage the scalability of its platform to accommodate the growing number of EV drivers and charging stations?

Drives manages scalability through a modular system based on microservices, allowing for the expansion of services as needed. It also invests in automation and enables customers to delegate services, ensuring the platform can handle growth from thousands to millions of users and charges.

What role does artificial intelligence play in Drives' platform?

Artificial intelligence is critical for predictive analytics and maintenance of the charging infrastructure. It helps in predicting energy consumption and production, managing commitments for balancing parties, and automating the resolution of charging station issues through self-healing algorithms.

How does Drives support the integration and roaming of charging networks across different countries?

Drives supports integration and roaming by providing white label solutions, managing interconnects, and working with roaming protocols like OCPI. It also offers internal roaming between different countries and has developed additional roaming connections to facilitate seamless charging across networks.

What are the key challenges that Drives addresses for companies looking to expand their EV charging services?

The key challenges include ensuring the IT solution can scale to market demands, providing timely solutions with the right functionality, integrating acquired companies into a unified platform, managing the impact on the grid, and ensuring a fast time to market with an economy of scale.

How does Drives assist customers with energy management and demand response?

Drives assists with energy management by providing tools to monitor and manage energy constraints at the site level, campus level, and smart city level. It also connects to demand response programs, enabling better energy utilization and cost-effective charging solutions.

What is the significance of smart charging in Drives' business model?

Smart charging is critical for managing energy consumption, especially in commercial and industrial settings where power supply may be limited. It helps in balancing energy demands, ensuring the sustainability of the business, and supporting the growth of EV charging infrastructure.

How does Drives ensure operational excellence in the maintenance of charging infrastructure?

Drives ensures operational excellence through the development of self-healing algorithms that can resolve most charging station issues remotely. It also provides tools for real-time monitoring of charger issues and has a history of data since 2014 to continuously improve its predictive maintenance capabilities.

What are the benefits of Drives' modular and microservices-based platform architecture?

The modular and microservices-based architecture allows for greater flexibility and scalability. It enables Drives to expand specific services as needed, add resources to manage increased loads, and adapt to various business models and customer requirements.

How does Drives support the different needs of its customers, such as utilities, automakers, and standalone service providers?

Drives supports its customers by offering a customizable platform that can be configured to meet specific needs. It provides APIs for customers to develop their own applications, supports various business use cases, and offers solutions for fleet management, energy management, and billing across different regions.

What is the importance of standardization and interoperability in Drives' approach to EV charging solutions?

Standardization and interoperability are key to ensuring that Drives' platform can connect with various charging networks, devices, and services. Working with standards like OCPP and ISO 15118 helps in creating a seamless charging experience for drivers and facilitates the integration of different charging solutions.