How is IoT Performing in the EV Charging and Smart Grid Market?

The EV charging and smart grid market is powering ahead and performing exceptionally well. Consumer behaviour is shifting and there’s a marked, growing inclination towards the adoption of EVs. This coupled with strict government mandates aimed at reducing carbon emissions and encouraging energy efficiency should result in a significant surge in the coming years for EV charging installations.

In fact, according to Deloitte’s 2020 outlook report EV sales are set to rocket from 2 million units in 2018 to 12 million in 2025 before growing to 21 million in 2030.

Eseye recently conducted independent research with Opinion Matters to assess the 2021 State of IoT Adoption across key vertical markets including: EV Charging and Smart Grid, Smart Vending, Healthcare and Medical Devices, Supply Chain and Logistics and Manufacturing.

500 UK and US senior decision-makers and implementers of IoT were surveyed, 100 of which work in the EV Charging and Smart Grid sector and have worked on at least one IoT project in the last year.

Intrigued to see what the current state of IoT in the EV charging market looks like? Read this article to learn key discoveries and get your free copy of the State of IoT Adoption: EV Charging & Smart Grid report for the full findings.

Getting charged up – what’s the typical size of an EV Charging estate?

The overwhelming majority (93%) of EV Charging and Smart Grid respondents have deployed less than 10,000 devices.

37% had deployed between 1001-5,000 devices. Whilst 6% deployed between 10,000 and 100,000 devices in the field and only 1% had deployed more than 100,000 devices.

This was marginally lower than other sectors such as Smart Vending, and Supply Chain.

Challenges facing the EV Charging and Smart Grid market

• Demand for better public charging infrastructure to facilitate EV uptake – consumers need accessible, easy-to-use, conveniently located, and affordable EV charging stations.
• At the same time there also needs to be better consumer education around lifestyle changes required for EV, especially in this transitional phase.
• Connectivity is a critical foundation to the EV charge point operation and how successful it is.
• Off-the-shelf connectivity products are not designed with EV charge points in mind and only deliver a basic solution.
• As demand for EV increases, providers are faced with real-time data management challenges.
• Effective monitoring and management of the charging point to optimise energy consumption.
• Society is accustomed to instant gratification and delays lead to growing discontent, with every minute of downtime meaning lost business.

Roadblocks affecting the success of EV Charging and Smart Grid IoT projects

When looking at the challenges faced with IoT, 39% said a major issue was device deployment and roll out, which was higher than all the other sectors. Likewise, 39% cited security of device and environment, while 36% stated cellular connectivity across countries, regions, and locations.

Successful EV projects are dependent on multi-region roll outs, crossing borders and having to confront all the issues that have historically been associated with establishing connections that deliver reliable uptime.  However permanent roaming – a typical solution to deliver multi-region projects – remains fraught with problems.  Clearly there is a need for flexible, reliable connectivity regardless of location for good customer experience, brand reputation, and delivering high quality services.

Powering ahead with the EV revolution – what’s next?

Out of the five industries surveyed, the EV Charging and Smart Grid market is planning for the biggest budget increases. A resounding 99% of respondents said they had plans to increase the budget in the next two years, and a staggering 60% revealed they expect to increase budgets by between 51 and 100%.

This comes as no surprise as Governments around the globe are accelerating the EV revolution by banning the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. EV charging respondents expect IoT to give them significant value, and budgets are being increased in anticipation of the skyrocketing EV market.