By Andrew Hart, SBD Senior ITS and Telematics Specialist
Although there is still uncertainty about how quickly the market for Electric Vehicles (EV) will grow, there is little doubt that telematics will play a vital role in addressing many of the concerns that consumers and vehicle manufacturers have towards EV technologies.
A new report from SBD analyses the two main approaches to EV telematics and the opportunities and challenges that are currently being investigated by vehicle manufacturers.
Over-the-air telematics
Over-the-air telematics replicates existing telematics services that use a cellular connection (either using an embedded phone module or via a Bluetooth connection to the user’s mobile phone) to send data to and from the car. Although many vehicle manufacturers already have experience of offering over-the-air telematics, EV-specific services may pose a number of new and unique challenges, such as managing communication links with the rapidly growing number of charging station operators in different countries.
Plug-in telematics
Plug-in telematics takes advantage of the requirement that vehicles will need to be regularly plugged in for charging (and that these charging points may be physically linked to a communication network to send data to and from the car). However, plug-in EV telematics is likely to be held back by the slow deployment of “smart infrastructure” in charging stations that is capable communicating with cars.
Despite the widely-accepted benefits of EV telematics, the automotive industry still faces significant strategic, business and technical challenges in successfully deploying EV-related services. The most critical of these is the need to work closely with a multitude of charging station operators and utility companies in order to ensure that their infrastructure are necessary for supporting telematics services.
Although a number of vehicle manufacturers are already working closely with some utility companies and charging station operators to test EV telematics services, there is a risk that these independent initiatives will lead to a patch-work of localised, proprietary and non-future proof solutions that only satisfy short-term needs. SBD, therefore, believes that an industry wide and global collaboration is required to address the need for a long-term vision of EV telematics. This report analyses the key areas in which closer collaboration is needed, and the key players who are in a strong position to lead this collaboration.
For more information on "Understanding the opportunities and challenges for EV telematics", please contact Juanita Appleby on jappleby@sbd.co.uk
