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.

Outlines

00:00

🎉 Welcoming the CEO of Drives and Discussing EV Scalability

The speaker expresses excitement about the CEO of Drives, Don Frankel, being present after last year's absence due to pandemic travel restrictions. The focus is on scaling up the electric vehicle (EV) industry, which has transitioned from a question of viability to one of growth. The Drives platform, likened to an operating system for EV charging operators, is modular and API-driven, allowing for customization and integration with customer solutions. The platform's capabilities are highlighted, including managing tens of thousands of charges, handling millions of events, and supporting a vast array of charging types across multiple countries. Partnerships with companies like evigo and ESB are mentioned, along with the recent announcement of Shell selecting Drives as a back-office provider. The challenges of scaling up are discussed, including the increasing number of drivers, charges, and the impact on the energy grid, emphasizing the importance of integration and roaming solutions.

05:02

🚀 Scaling Up and the Role of Digital Services Platforms

The paragraph delves into the operational challenges of scaling up in the EV space, emphasizing the need for current IT solutions to expand with the market. It discusses the importance of timely delivery of solutions, especially during mergers and acquisitions, and the integration of newly acquired companies into a unified platform. The role of digital services platforms is explored through examples, such as MOL, a central European oil company expanding into EV charging with the DRIVES platform, and the Mayer Group's acquisition-driven entry into the EV market. The DRIVES platform's comprehensive solution set, including operational excellence, billing, energy management, and support for different country-specific apps, is highlighted. The paragraph also touches on the complexity of internal roaming between countries and the development of additional roaming connections.

10:03

🔌 Addressing the Multifaceted EV Charging Ecosystem

This section outlines the various layers of the EV charging ecosystem, including the need for white-label solutions for drivers, support for charge point operators, and energy management. The importance of self-healing algorithms for remote issue resolution and the development of tools to monitor and resolve charger issues in real-time are emphasized. The DRIVES platform's extensive billing capabilities across different countries and regulatory environments are highlighted. The paragraph also discusses the platform's ability to connect with fleets, facility managers, and the broader energy ecosystem, including demand response and smart charging algorithms. The challenges of managing energy at the site level, incorporating renewables and vehicle-to-grid solutions, and the impact on the grid are also covered.

15:04

🌟 Key Takeaways for Successful EV Market Expansion

The speaker summarizes the key points from the presentation, emphasizing the importance of technology, functionality, and methodology. A scalable solution with robust APIs is deemed necessary, as is smart energy management and AI for operational excellence. The central role of the driver in providing user-friendly solutions is highlighted, along with the need to support various charging scenarios and smart energy management. The importance of a methodology that ensures proper implementation and service level agreements is discussed. The paragraph concludes with a vision of leveraging EVs as mobile battery storage to support the energy revolution and significantly reduce CO2 emissions, creating a better world for future generations.

20:04

🤖 The Integration of Artificial Intelligence in DRIVES Platform

The discussion shifts to the incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) within the DRIVES platform. AI's role in predicting energy generation and consumption is underscored, particularly for balancing parties that need to commit to power usage and production. The complexity of making these commitments without accurate predictions is highlighted, and AI's utility in managing large numbers and intervals is emphasized. The platform's alert management system and self-healing capabilities, which are based on AI and statistical analysis, are also discussed. The use of historical data and predictive analytics for maintenance of charging infrastructure is explored, along with the challenges of reacting to predicted issues and the platform's ability to automatically resolve a growing percentage of cases.

25:06

🔄 Scalability and Roaming Services in the DRIVES Ecosystem

The final paragraph addresses the scalability of the DRIVES platform, which is attributed to its modularity and microservices architecture, allowing for the expansion of services as needed. The extensive billing system's ability to support various business models and the platform's proven track record in large environments are highlighted. The DRIVES platform's approach to roaming is also discussed, with the use of OCPI connections and the option for customers to choose their roaming partners. The importance of smart charging for managing energy in commercial and industrial settings is emphasized, as traditional charging infrastructure may not be able to support the growing number of EVs. The speaker invites further questions and engagement at their innovation booth.

Keywords

💡Scaling Up

Scaling Up refers to the process of increasing the capacity, scope, or size of a business, service, or system. In the context of the video, it relates to the expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) industry and the infrastructure needed to support it. The speaker discusses the challenges and strategies involved in scaling up the EV charging network to accommodate a growing number of EVs and the impact on the energy grid.

💡Digital Services Platform

A Digital Services Platform is a system that provides a set of digital services to users, often enabling them to interact with or through the platform. In the video, the platform is described as a mediator between the mobility and energy revolutions, facilitating the operation of EV charging systems. It is modular and API-driven, allowing customers to select and develop solutions based on their needs.

💡EV Revolution

The EV Revolution refers to the significant shift towards electric vehicles (EVs) and away from traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. This transition is driven by a need for more sustainable and environmentally friendly transportation solutions. The video emphasizes the role of the digital services platform in supporting this revolution by providing the necessary infrastructure and services for EV charging.

💡Energy Management

Energy Management involves the monitoring, control, and conservation of energy in order to reduce costs and improve efficiency. In the context of the video, it relates to managing the energy required for charging electric vehicles and ensuring it aligns with the broader energy ecosystem. This includes smart charging solutions that optimize energy usage based on factors like availability, cost, and demand.

💡Roaming

Roaming, in the context of the video, refers to the ability of electric vehicle drivers to charge their vehicles at different charging points across various networks, regardless of the country or service provider. This requires seamless connectivity and interoperability between different charging networks and service providers, often facilitated by a digital services platform.

💡APIs

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are sets of protocols and tools that allow different software applications to communicate with each other. In the video, APIs are crucial for the modular and customizable nature of the digital services platform, enabling customers to integrate the platform with their own solutions and develop applications based on the platform's capabilities.

💡Self-Healing

Self-healing refers to the ability of a system to automatically detect and correct issues without human intervention. In the context of the video, self-healing algorithms are developed to address issues with charging points remotely, ensuring minimal downtime and efficient operation of the charging infrastructure.

💡Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) involve the consolidation of companies through various legal methods, such as purchasing another company or combining with it. In the video, M&A is discussed in the context of the EV industry, where companies may acquire or merge with others to expand their services or enter new markets.

💡Fleet Management

Fleet Management refers to the administrative and operational management of a company's vehicle fleet. This includes tasks like vehicle maintenance, tracking, and scheduling. In the context of the video, fleet management solutions are part of the digital services platform's offering, aimed at supporting fleet operators with EV charging and logistics.

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the development of computer systems that can perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. In the video, AI is highlighted as a critical technology for operational excellence and energy management within the EV charging ecosystem, enabling predictive analytics and automated responses to issues.

💡Smart Charging

Smart Charging is a technology that optimizes the charging of electric vehicles based on factors like energy availability, cost, and demand. It aims to maximize the efficiency of energy usage and minimize the impact on the power grid. In the video, smart charging is essential for managing the growing energy demands of EVs, especially in commercial and industrial settings where power supply may be limited.

Highlights

Drives platform serves as an operating system for EV charging operators, offering an end-to-end but modular solution.

The platform currently manages tens of thousands of charges and supports over 600 different types of chargers.

Drives has expanded its services to over 27 countries, catering to a variety of customers including utilities, OEM automakers, and service providers.

Shell has selected Drives as the back-office solution for EV charging in multiple countries, marking a significant partnership.

The number of EV drivers is increasing rapidly, moving from thousands to millions, which poses scalability challenges for the industry.

Drives uses AI and machine learning for predictive analytics and maintenance of the charging infrastructure.

The platform supports smart charging solutions which are critical for managing energy constraints in commercial and industrial settings.

Drives provides white label solutions for drivers, operational support for charge point operators, and billing services across different regions.

The platform offers self-healing algorithms that can resolve most charging station issues remotely, reducing the need for on-site visits.

Drives enables customers to integrate with loyalty plans and provides solutions for companies undergoing mergers and acquisitions.

The platform is designed to be scalable, with a focus on modularity, extensive billing capabilities, and automation.

Drives is investing in automation and artificial intelligence to improve operational excellence and energy management.

The platform facilitates roaming services for customers, either through direct management or integration with roaming providers like Hubject.

Drives is committed to supporting the energy revolution by reducing CO2 emissions through the integration of EVs into the energy ecosystem.

The platform's scalability is proven through its use in large environments by various customers, including utilities and large automakers.

Drives is working with standards like OCPP and ISO 15118 to ensure compatibility and interoperability in the EV charging market.

The platform provides a comprehensive solution that includes energy management, demand response, and support for a variety of players in the EV market.

Transcripts

it is really my pleasure because last

year also due to travel restrictions

because of the pandemic he couldn't be

here last year so we're especially

thrilled to finally get to hear from the

CEO of drives Don Frankel welcome Dawn

it's so great you can make it

[Music]

so much

[Music]

hello everyone

thank you for coming earlier from lunch

and thank you for being here it's really

exciting to uh be here and also to see

the expansion of the immobility and how

we are moving ahead so the topics of

today will be about scaling up

and when we look at scaling up when

we've started drives about a decade ago

there was a big question mark about the

EVS there is no question mark about the

EVS now it's about when it will scale up

even more and we see the scalability all

over so we're going to discuss today the

challenges around

um about scaling up the industry about

the role of a digital Services platform

and also about some of the key takeaways

that we have from the market

rice platform cells is a the mediator or

it says between the mobility Revolution

and the energy Revolution and if we look

at that we truly believe that if we look

at the EV Revolution and we look at um

the EVS as by the way on wheels then we

will be able to assist the energy

Revolution

reduce the amount of CO2 emissions and

create a better world for our kids

so how do we do that the drives platform

serves as the operating system for EV

charging operators the system is end to

end but it's modular so our customers

can pick and choose the models that they

are using and they also can develop

their own stuff based on really strong

apis capabilities so they can configure

the system and then can integrate to

that to their own Solutions

we are currently managing tens of

thousands of charges directly we have

hundreds of millions of events in the

system we are connected to uh hundreds

of thousands of charges in roaming we

support over 600 different types of

charges

with over 1 million drivers and we are

doing that in over 27 countries we have

customers like evigo the largest fast

charging Network in the US we are

working with them since 2016 where we

developed the core platform and they are

developing based on the platform

additional Solutions we have customers

like ESB that are supposed to be here as

well which are our partners since 2015

working with them in Ireland Northern

Ireland and in the UK

so our customers are either utilities

gas and oil companies OEM automakers

fleets or Standalone service providers

today is a really exciting day because

about an hour ago we released a PR that

shell selected drives as the back office

in a variety of countries and we are

really excited thank you thank you

really excited to work with the amazing

team of uh of shell and that's just the

beginning of a mutual Journey

so expansion and scale up introduces a

lot of challenges what we see is that

the number of drivers are increasingly

so we started with thousands and tens of

thousands hundreds of thousands now it's

in the millions but we are going to have

a lot more it's like the Telco industry

we are going to have

tens of millions and more it will impact

also the amount of charges so if we look

at charges from tens of thousands we are

moving to hundreds of thousands and

we'll move to the Millions it means that

from events and transactions it's about

Terra transactions and the impact on the

grid is amazing because

think about all this impact when you're

charging at home public segment public

actually everywhere so you impact the

entire energy value chain

it's not only that it's about

integration it's about roaming it's

about companies that move from one

country to multiple countries it's about

solutions for companies that decide to

buy and acquire additional companies

mergers Acquisitions how do you support

that and there are a lot of interfaces

that you need to integrate in order to

create this ecosystem

so what are the challenges that a

company or service provider that wants

to be in there in the EV space needs

first of all they need to look at the

solution and whether the I.T solution

that they currently has have can expand

can scale up to where the market is

moving so scaling up is one thing

you also need as an operator to see if

your current vendor provides you the

right

solutions that watch functionality and

if whether they provide it on time so

it's another challenge whether you are

developing it as part of a Hong Kong

solution or using an external provider

when you get into mergers and

Acquisitions you need to make sure that

each company that you buy will and be

embedded within your platform so how do

you integrate how do you do that

and beyond all of that it's about time

to Market so how do you make sure that

you have the right time to Market and

with the market that we are in today how

can you make sure that you have the

economy of scale because developing I.T

platforms is really really expensive

what is the role of Digital Services

platform in the market let's look at

some examples the first one is about a

company called mall is one of the

largest guys and oil companies in

Central Europe

and they decided to get into the EV

space with a brand called plague

and what they were looking for is a

solution that will enable them to expand

to those different markets while

providing solutions for both their gas

stations

convenience stores they need to

integrate with loyalty plans

and on top of that they want to expand

to Fleet support

and to um to fuel cards

so we are providing them the entire

Solutions both from operational

excellence billing Energy Management all

the suite and if we look at the

different countries each country has its

own app its white label solution it has

its own up with it with its own language

we are doing internal roaming between

the different countries so each

each customer of one country can charge

in the plugin Network in the other

country but more than that we also uh

developed additional connections roaming

connections through object so it means

that in this case each country has

beyond the connection of the other

countries connection through object

so it's about six seven Connections in

each country and connection between the

different players really complex and

thank you for the object team for

supporting us in doing that

another example is Mir mere group is a

subsidiary of Starcraft Starcraft is the

largest renewable company in Europe and

mayor decided to get into the EV field

by acquisitions so they acquired two

companies in the UK two companies in

Germany a company in Sweden Sweden

accompanying Norway each company needs

to work as a standalone company with

their own interfaces and some

developments in their field

and all of that needs to be with one

platform so they selected drives and

we've migrated those Solutions into the

device platform providing the back

Office Solution by still with enable

mayor to integrate with their current

Solutions into different countries

so it is a complex environment but think

about mergers and Acquisitions you need

to change a previous solution of the

company that crew acquired in order to

have one interface that will feel that

we fit it all and think about the amount

of roaming through object through

specific peer-to-peer connection like

ocpi so it's huge amount of interfaces

if we look about on the platform what

does it mean Digital Services platform

so first of all we need to support the

drivers with white label Solutions it

can be a solution which is white label

by drives or provided by our customers

on the top level what you see is that we

need to support the operational side so

it's both the CPO the charge Point

operators the hardware side and when

you're talking about Hardware side we'll

we heard a lot about the issues with the

charges in the last panel and it's

really true you go to the charger as a

driver and the charger doesn't work so

what do you do we have developed tools

that first of all monitors the issues on

the charger so we know when there are

issues and we know to alert on that on

real time but we did the next we took it

to the next step we developed

self-healing algorithms so we know how

to solve most of the issues on the

charges remotely without even

you know before if the driver or The

Operators even know that there was an

issue only about two percent of the

cases you need to send someone to the

site beyond that self-healing is a key

and then we are doing also we are

providing also support to the installers

energy management and from the

immobility service providers we are

providing billing really extensive

billing across the us across Europe in

many countries with the different

regulations around that so we provide

both the roaming solution and the

customer facing solution and the billing

around that but it's not enough we have

another layer because the ecosystem now

expands so the layer is about uh

connecting to The Fleets for instance so

Fleet needs to have solutions for the

fleet managers solution for the fleet

managers meaning that the fleet manager

will see if the charges are up and

running ready for him but he is focused

on the vehicle on scheduling the thing

the the charging on the other hand we

have facility managers that cares about

the charging and how the charging

supports the entire fleet so it's about

solutions for fleets multi-dwelling

units condominate minions and the entire

ecosystem it's not enough because on top

of that we need energy management and

energy management works both in the

local site so making sure that there is

enough energy to support the charging

but also connection to demand response

on top of all of that our customers can

buy everything out of the box

or they can choose their own models they

can configure the models they can

develop based on that so we have apis

our customers can develop their own apps

on top of the platform so that's part of

the scalability that is needed

the market is complex so we have the

mobility side that location side the

power side we have connection to

different networks and roaming and

operations and Legacy Solutions so how

do you connect all of that we need apps

for the drivers we need products for the

drivers we need to make sure that we

support the locations we need to make

sure that we are supporting the

ecosystem like with loyalty plans and

also we need to work with standards like

the ocpp is a de facto standard in many

cases today we brought it even to Japan

and beyond that ISO 15118 is critical so

working with standard is critical

working with local microgrid and also

working with the energy ecosystem we are

using open open ADR for that and from

roaming it's either working with ocpi as

a peer-to-peer collection or we are

working a lot with with objects and

sometimes giraffe and other providers

energy management is a key

so let's look at the challenges first

challenge is how do you support the

sites if you don't have enough energy

what does it mean you need to know how

much energy gets into the site and how

you manage the constraint of the site

itself

if you don't have enough power then you

need to add batteries Renewables you can

charge the batteries from the vehicle so

you can get up to a futuristic thing

which is vehicle to grid on top of that

you need to know when is the most

effective and cost effective time to

charge so it's about time of use

and the last thing is about connecting

to demand response so how does that work

we need to make sure that the charges

are managed properly in the charger

level what you see in the right hand

corner on the bottom is the outcome of

what we see after site survey we enter

the data about the site and then this

map is created but it's not only the map

what is being created is all the

algorithms smart charging algorithms to

support the site so we know how to

manage how to select which car we charge

now in order not to exceed the

boundaries of the site but it's not

enough to do that on the parking lot

level we need to do it on the campus

level and also on the Smart City level

so that's what you see on the left was

inside

now when you don't have enough power

what you see in the bottom the orange

one is about how we do we charge

batteries and discharge batteries in

order to support the site and on the

left side what you see is how we look at

each part of the network the orange line

is about how much energy we have the

purple line is about time of use when

it's more cost effective to charge the

light blue is about how much energy the

site consumes and the dial flow is how

much we provided to the vehicle so we

are playing between the vehicles and

it's important to do that across the

network and why is that important

because if you look at this case of the

Netherlands you see that now we have

challenged both with the high voltage

networks sometimes you have too much

energy sometimes you don't have enough

energy up to the level on the impact and

this is the Netherlands on the impact

the green one is the impact of the EV

charging on the grid so you see Major

Impact the only way to work it out is is

to make all of that happen and work

together so how do you do that it starts

with energy producers then it moves to

balancing parties TSO DSO the grid

metering parties after the consumers

then if you look at consumption average

consumption on a year it's about 3 600

kilowatts

one vehicle adds up 6500 kilowatts so

it's a lot of power how do you manage

that if each Transformer needs to

support 10 homes

you can so you need to walk out with

Renewables batteries and make sure that

you also add the vehicle into the

picture and the only way to do that is

with the system like that that you see

it on the local okay on the

chargepoint look part on the parking lot

level and on the campus level and Beyond

with those systems that we've shown you

before this is being done today

so key takeaways uh it's a lot to con to

put everything in a couple of minutes

but it's about the technology

second it's about the functionality and

then methodology

so from technology perspective you need

a scalable solution you need to make

sure that you have the right apis to

support expansion you need to have Smart

Energy Management but you need also to

have solution for app operational

excellence like self-healing on top of

that you need to make sure that you have

artificial as the AI artificial

intelligence because otherwise it's

really hard to support what we spoke

about for operational excellence

perspective knows when the charges are

expected to be broken and then replan or

from energy management perspective to

know how to commit to the plan that you

get from the different operators if you

commit you make money you monetize it if

not you are being penalized so how to

balance that it's with AI from

functionality perspective it's really

important that the driver will be in the

center and provide an easy to use

solution for the drivers and operators

we need to support charging back both at

public semi-public homes immunity to

support all those business use cases and

beyond that it's it's about Smart Energy

Management as we mentioned before in

roaming methodology is not less

important because it's not only about

the technology it's how you implement

that so how do you have methodology

allergies to make proper implementations

how do you make sure that you have

proper

SLA support service level agreement

because otherwise it won't work you need

to do it when you're looking at a

scalable world you need to support that

and it means a lot of tools and a lot of

automation so it's Automation in all

aspects Qi automation up to operational

automations we replace all our

development all our operations in we

converted that into operational into

devops meaning automation of the

development processes but also

Automation and delegation of the

responsibility to the different parties

because if you put all the burden of

this on the support

then we have economical issues so what

we do we delegate so that the tenant or

the secretary of the tenant in a cni

building commercial industrial building

can schedule the charging can support

the charging locally if the tenant wants

if not they get the help from the

operator so scaling up it's not only

about the system the technology it's

also about scaling up the processes and

supporting the variety of players in the

market to ramp up their business in the

way they want

not less important is interfacing and

roaming and then also the implementation

side and the methodology is not less

important than the rest of the things

so if we'll get down to all of that we

truly believe that if we look at this

scalable Market as an opportunity and we

look at the EVS as battery storage on

wheels

we will be able to make another

Evolution and support the energy

revolution in a way that will reduce

the CO2 emissions dramatically because

think about it if you have Renewables

you know when you have that the

generation not necessarily that's when

you need a demand how can you balance

that you need batteries so if the

batteries are the vehicles and you're

using it as part of the ecosystem then

it's another story and then we reach we

can recharge the planet back and create

a better world for our kids

so thank you guys I left some time for

questions

thank you

and by the way we have a booth in the

Innovation side so we are welcome to

come and meet the other drives team over

there

so Daron thank you very much indeed you

see how quickly the auditorium has

filled up I know uh so now we need to

start from the beginning well we don't

have time for that but we definitely do

have time uh for people to grab your app

and you can still type in any question

that is on your heart or mind uh for

Daron about uh anything that he talked

about in his presentation

um Daron if you don't mind I I would

like to ask you a question because what

caught my attention uh on your list of

things under the category of technology

that are going to be very important is

artificial intelligence

and I'm just curious to hear first of

all how does drives already incorporate

artificial intelligence and where do you

see it moving in the future yes thank

you great question and great challenge

so what we uh what we see is think about

the energy ecosystem and now you need to

have some commitment or prediction of

the amount of power that can be

generated on a certain area and also the

consumption in a specific area

so the balancing parties those parties

needs to commit on the power that is

being used and produced how can you

commit on the part of the EVS if you

don't predict

Based on data and AI it's hard to

predict you need to look at the data and

you need to commit to how much energy

you are going to spend in the next 12

hours in uh like about 15 minutes

intervals

and if something goes wrong and you

don't cope with it you get penalties so

how can you work on that when you have

large numbers the only way to do

prediction is with AI

the other way to look at it is think

about the depot if you are coming to a

Depot and plan all the energy about how

much energy you have I'm on how much

energy you're going to use and then a

travel charger breaks or several charger

brakes you need to do replaning again so

you need to know when this is going to

happen again with AI and also the alert

management system that we have and the

self-healing must be based on some

statistics and and tools the only tools

that are there are AI but it's a complex

and complex issue for sure we do have a

couple of questions from our

participants can we pull those up

for us to have a look at there we go so

Daniel is asking if you can go into more

detail about how you use ml for

maintenance of the charging

infrastructure and how much Predictive

Analytics do you use

so when you're looking at the charger

it's uh it's different when you're

looking at different types of charging

so Fleet charging may be different than

home charging Etc and then when we are

looking at predictions about what issues

are going to happen we need to look at

the historical data and understand and

predict how much it is so some of it is

about statistics about what happened

before and some of it is about how do

you predict what happened and how do you

figure out what the next resolution will

be so sometimes it's uh and by the way

the challenging part here is also to see

how you act not only how you predict but

if you predicted something how will you

react to some cases and what we have we

see some cases of the charges of

specific vendors and we need to learn

what are the issues that are being

raised in a specific situation and then

how we are going to react to that

sometimes it can be some reset of some

components but in many cases it's

sending a set of commands after we learn

how this uh this issue is running out

through the system and again it gets

into a lot of data learning and we have

history since 2000 of data around EV

charging since 2014 and that's something

that is still evolving we are still

learning we reach a situation that we

get up to 80 of the cases that we can

fix automatically and the rest is being

done by The Operators and about two

percent you need to send someone to the

site but I would like to see it even

more it will take time until we reach

that

okay can we have a look at our next

question

this one was sent by Christian Han

himself so he asks how important is a

topic of smart charging for your

business uh it's critical because many

examples look about

um talk about commercial industrial

buildings in many cases there is not

enough power for the EVS anymore so what

do you do

you don't provide energy to the tenants

you must find ways to balance that

otherwise you can provide enough energy

so we have we have customers that are

using Depots like Volvo trucks we have

customers like big fleets that are using

Depots for charging how can we manage

that if you are not balancing the energy

in a proper way and we see that all over

so without Smart charging it's hard to

sustain the business anymore because the

amount of vehicles are growing and the

infrastructure can support that without

small charging

thank you very much for that answer we

have our next question let's pull it up

so this one comes from Melanie and she

asks are you doing or planning to do

drives manage roaming for your customers

so there are different aspects of

Roaming In some cases we are using ocpi

for instance we connected evigo our

customer in the US to charge point with

ocpi connection and then we are managing

the roaming for them and the

interconnect for them over there

we are not trying to compete with object

you have in those parties if there is a

need for roaming over ocpi we do provide

the services so it's about combination

our customers can pick and choose how

they work we have a very strong Billing

System which know how to manage

interconnect

but in many cases its connection to

object as it's easier for the customers

and faster and faster to implement

object Drive in those companies so we

are doing it when the customer wants us

to do that

okay I think we have time maybe for one

more question let's have a look

so this is from Claudio and he asks what

makes drives a scalable platform so it

uh thank you for the question by the way

so it's about first of all modularity

and the ability to uh Define Which

models we are managing and our platform

is based on microservices so we can

expand the amount of services in

specific situations like if you have

several if you ever need to expand the

station manager you can add additional

resources and expand that we're looking

at the situation now and we are

investing a lot of money not only for

what we are currently having which as

you saw it's uh hundreds of thousands of

charges we're looking at the millions

and tens of millions and we are

investing a lot of money in getting it

to the next stage second thing is about

billing the billing is really extensive

and it can support variety of uh of

different business models and it can

scale up the business when our customer

needs that the skill abilities both on a

camp on a country level but multiple

countries as well so scalability beyond

that it's about automation we are

investing a lot in automation so it's

about QA automation it's about

automating the operational side it's

about automation within the product

itself and on top of of all of that we

enable our customers to delegate

services to their other customers so for

instance operators can delegate things

to the fleet managers or to the

secretaries just to do whatever is

needed in order to walk in and operate

in a world which is really scaling up

fast so we invest a lot in scalability

and I think beyond that we we have

proven uh experience so if you will ask

our customers you'll see that they are

working in large environments and the

scalability of our platform is is kind

of proven and known in the market so

just we made it happen because we

believe that the market is scaling up

and we are investing a lot of money in

it

so Daron Franco I think we're going to

have to leave it there thank you so very

much indeed John Frankel CEO of drives

thank you I appreciate it thank you

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