How Energy Companies Can Support EV Popularization
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Despite its relative novelty, the electric vehicle (“EV”) industry has made tremendous strides towards cleaning up our roads. Transportation accounts for approximately 28.2% of greenhouse gases worldwide, and several governments are planning on phasing out internal combustion engine vehicles in favor of electric vehicles over the next decade or two to address this. Not only do EVs run on clean, renewable energy, they also produce zero emissions at the tailpipe, making them the perfect vehicle for a net-zero economy.
However, we are still a long way from widespread EV adoption. Most consumers are put off by the sometimes very high prices as well as spotty and insufficient charging infrastructure. Installing a home charger makes the initial investment even higher. EV drivers who rely on street chargers often report too few chargers or too many that require multiple subscription-based memberships, apps and cards, resulting in a frustrating and time-consuming charging experience.
Energy companies are in perhaps the most unique position they’ve been in in a long time, seeing as electric vehicles, which are poised to take over the roads over the next decade, are powered entirely by rechargeable batteries. One thing energy suppliers could do to boost EV adoption would be to leverage existing energy infrastructure to aggregate consumption and pass that consumption through to consumers in one bill. This would eliminate the need for multiple subscriptions, apps and cards.
Thanks to the nationwide installation of SMETS2 (Smart Meeting Equipment Technical Specifications) smart meters, energy suppliers have a whole lot of data on their hands. These meters send meter readings automatically to energy suppliers, allowing them to obtain a better idea of their customers’ energy needs and charging habits. This data could be used to create a variety of propositions to boost EV adoption, such as time of use (“ToU”), that allow energy suppliers to decrease individual carbon emissions by helping customers identify how much carbon they use at certain times.
Additionally, energy suppliers could also partner with automakers and offer customer management and specifically designed tariffs for the EV’s life cycle of ownership. This support could also be in the form of discounted charging, innovative upgrades, and the ability to use multiple charging companies through one membership system. EV makers could also decide to go into the energy supply business themselves, leveraging the data they collect from EV drivers to create better-aligned propositions.
In the long term, such data could be used to develop smart charging algorithms, solve energy efficiency issues, develop policies for charging stations, and evaluate the capacity of power distributions systems to handle extra charging loads.
Net Element (NASDAQ: NETE) is one interesting company you should watch in the electric vehicle space. The global financial solutions provider is merging with Mullen Technologies Inc., a lightweight commercial EV maker.
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