Driven by climate change concerns, governmental restrictions (to prohibit selling diesel cars in the near future), subsidies (compensating a fraction of electric vehicles' price), and automobile manufacturers' direct interest in the field, the electric vehicles market constantly grows.
The overall number of EVs in the field (in millions), source: Global electric car stock, 2010-2022 – Charts – Data & Statistics - IEA
Market conditions differ broadly from country to country, powered mostly by different governmental and organizational activities and initiatives.
For example, Europe is known for its strict regulations regarding environmental protection. The Fit for 55 package (basically, a translation of the principles from the European Green Deal into law) includes multiple initiatives that, for one, basically ban selling cars with internal combustion engines. In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act and California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule adopted by multiple states should lead to the situation when more than 50% of cars on the roads will be EVs by 2030.
Currently, China is the world leader in the size of the EV fleet: more than 60% of cars are sold in China and other emerging markets. It already exceeded its target set for 2025. Europe and the United States follow the leader, having more than 20% and 8% of electric cars share, respectively. In 2022, sales also grew outside of major markets: India, Thailand and Indonesia.
The market itself is also changing. New carmakers come out from China and some other countries. By 2022, there already were more than 500 models available. And it’s already more than double what was available in 2018, clearly displaying the rate change.
This growth directly affects the software market, driven by new needs and demand. The needs are pretty versatile, from simulators to help potential customers feel the difference between driving different automobiles to complex management tools for charging stations or fleet owners.
McKinsey report displays some of the prospects for the industry for the next decade. In 2019, the whole automotive software market was $31 billion. In 10 years, it’s expected to more than double to around $83 billion. 50% of the market will be for ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) and HAD (highly autonomous driving), leaving 22% for infotainment, connectivity, security, and connected services and the rest for powertrain and chassis, body and energy, operating system and middleware.
Key challenges in the EV software sector
No matter how perfectly society, industry, and specific companies are suited to the trend of electric vehicles, they still have to overcome some challenges for the sector to thrive.
Here are some of those:
- A system architecture design. Besides the fact that an EV is a complex system that requires complex software to manage all of its components, there are also standards that manufacturers and developers are required to adhere to.
- It’s hard to imagine an isolated system nowadays. Thus, there are always ways to interact with it: USB, Wi-Fi, etc. At the same time, it opens doors for vulnerabilities developers must take care of in advance. Firewalls, TLS, and other tools can help with that.
- Standards. One of the global goals of the EV industry is to make drivers’ experience as pleasant as possible by providing them a way to charge their automobiles regardless of the manufacturer, network operator, and other factors. Freeing drivers imposes different requirements on manufacturers, which is a challenge.
Some challenges cannot be beaten by building “better software” but also cannot be left aside:
- Range anxiety. People are still afraid of being stuck somewhere on a highway without being able to charge their cars.
- Charge speed. Most of the charges in the field are Level-2, which still require hours to charge one’s car fully. It’s a crucial factor for people traveling far and quickly.
- Electricity demand. At some point, networks will have to adapt to an increasing demand. There are some solutions, like smart charging, but only time will tell if that’s enough.
Why is EV software more important than the hardware?
One of the main elements of the EV industry that is common for new companies but something existing manufacturers have to get used to is that software is as important as hardware. And sometimes, it can even play a more crucial role.
Electric vehicles are slightly simpler and more standardized than automobiles with combusting engines. It means that software is more responsible for setting different models apart. Whereas the key components, a number of moving parts, etc., will be similar from car to car, software alone can make a difference. And that is mainly regarding the drivers’ experience. This one becomes better, leading to overall industry popularization and creating additional demand for adjacent needs in the automotive industry market.
For successful greentech software development, it's crucial to consider several key factors. These include crafting user-friendly interfaces tailored to the specific audience, ensuring seamless integration with charging infrastructure, and prioritizing scalability and adaptability to accommodate future trends and demands.
Target audience
Usually, complex software targets multiple audiences. For example, a creative website may provide tools to improve creators’ experience and, at the same time, be a perfect place for visitors to consume it. Still, it’s the same website. With electric vehicle software, that’s slightly different because different audiences require different sets of tools. Before discussing them, it’s important to highlight them first.
- Drivers: users who need a system to find a charger, make a payment, perform remote charging, monitor the charging process, analyze statistics, etc.
- Charge point operators (CPOs): parties responsible for managing charging stations. Usually, they are not responsible for offering services directly to drivers. Instead, they do it via eMSPs
- eMobility service providers (eMSPs): parties responsible for communication between CPOs and drivers. They use CPO services by utilizing their stations but are responsible for drivers’ convenience while using those
- Fleet managers: parties who manage a fleet of EVs
- Property managers: building and other property owners who manage access to charging stations via eMSPs or independently (becoming small eMSPs themselves)
Protocols
EV-related software relies on a lot of protocols, which helps different parties communicate with each other more freely. For example, OCPP, definitely a global standard, still is not so widespread in the USA because, for some time, manufacturers were moving forward with their in-house solutions.
However, these are some of the protocols car manufacturers and EV software companies use to make drivers’ lives easier:
- OCPP stands for the open charge point protocol. It’s an application protocol for communication between EVs and the management system. A set of charging stations compatible with the protocol on one side and software supporting it makes this communication possible and easy. Moreover, it provides standardization, which helps both sides. CPOs are sure their charging stations will be compatible with different applications as long as they comply with the protocol. And software maintainers are free to attract any OCPP-compliant company.
- OCPI (open charge point interface) acts as a mediator between charging point operators and mobility service providers. The main advantage is that it allows users to use charging stations without being locked behind its network operators. Moreover, they get information on charger location, local pricing, etc.
- OSCP provides communication between charge point management systems and electrical grid management software. Open Smart Charging Protocol is responsible for scheduling and arranging charging so the grid is not exhausted and charge points get the energy required.
- ISO 15118. Finally, this protocol provides a way of communication between a charge point and an electric vehicle. One of its most prominent features is plug & charge, which includes authorization by plugging and other features.
Types of EV applications
Charging stations management
Charging point operators don’t usually provide access to those for final users, leaving room for a mediator in this process. In some cases, a single party may represent both CPO and eMSP, but still, there is a distinction between the low-level charging station management and high-level services provided for EV drivers.
Still, they need a way to manage their hardware and communication between the mediators mentioned above. That is where charging station management software comes into the picture. Its purpose is to provide a high-level overview of the charging stations' status, fix issues if they occur, manage access, etc.
Charging and parking apps
Having a place where CPOs can manage their stations is crucial, but it doesn’t make much sense without those stations being useful to real users. And for that, there are EV charging and parking apps. They mostly fall in the same category because, in this context, only the EV-relevant parking software matters; those are not only allowed to reserve a spot but also to start/end charging and so on.
There are two sides to these types of applications. One is for drivers, who need end-user experience, and the second is for eMobility service providers, who provide that experience (it doesn’t matter if these are separate parties or CPOs who just “play” multiple roles).
On their side, eMSPs also manage accesses, set up prices and available timings, provide offers, etc.
Drivers look for charging stations on the app, book parking places, manage charging remotely, see the status of the ongoing charging, and analyze statistics.
Mobile applications for EV drivers
Mobile applications for EV drivers are of utmost importance because having them in the form of an app and not just a website improves interaction. For example, drivers can receive notifications when charging is complete.
EV navigation applications
At first glance, navigation applications shouldn’t be that different from usual ones (Google Maps being the obvious example). However, in reality, there are some scenarios where EV driver users would require additional capabilities, like building routes to increase the efficiency of utilizing the car’s battery, including charging stations along the way, showing the total number of those, etc. It is vital for territories with somewhat not fully developed infrastructure.
EV fleet management
EV management applications are no-brainers when talking about EV software because at least minimal remote control of the EV seems like the most obvious thing. But there is a way to move forward with fleet management. Such software is of big help to fleet owners, who can monitor the fleet's status in a centralized way. Here, the standardization element mentioned earlier shines again because it makes software OEM-agnostic, providing a way to monitor different types of cars from one place.
EV management
EV management applications are an example of software helping drivers to manage the “health” of their vehicles. Looking at the battery level and estimated available distance with the current status helps to plan how the car can be used remotely. Vehicle manufacturers usually create those, but market standardization makes it possible for generic solutions to emerge.
Future trends
EV software is still a relatively new field, so some concepts are only starting to be adopted. We have to see how they will be in the long-term perspective, but some already seem promising.
Smart charging
Smart charging is a concept of applying algorithms for managing the charging process, which benefits all the parties involved: EV drivers know the best time slot to plug the car to get the most favorable rate; network operators can provide enough energy for everyone without disrupting its work; governments just promote sustainable future and intelligent approaches to these matters.
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Communication
Against everyone’s efforts to mitigate the global climate change risks, creating a somewhat global grid with the increasing adoption of electric vehicles seems promising.
The basic idea is simple: an electric vehicle is not just a consumer of electricity from the grid but another cog in the system. Vehicle-to-grid communication ensures EVs can push energy back to the system based on different conditions. It’s a step forward from the idea of smart charging when it happens based on consumption, estimated distance traveled, etc. This way, EVs become a small but efficient energy storage that works towards the global system.
It’s also an important piece considering a constant shift towards reusable energy sources, which can be much more unstable than regular power stations.
There is also a V2X concept, where anything capable of exchanging energy can be put instead of X: business buildings, private houses, other vehicles, etc.
Autonomous driving
Although some may say it’s already present, we can be sure autonomous driving will become much more advanced. One of the most promising points is the idea of interconnected vehicles, which may drastically improve traffic situations and drivers’ experience. It’s also one of the most challenging points since it requires a lot of regularization and answers to ethical questions, but looking at the current progress, no doubt it’s inevitable.
Other AI applications
Besides the obvious use case for AI, namely autonomous driving or setting routes, there are countless other ways artificial intelligence may be used, for example, monitoring an EV’s battery health and status, managing the charging process on behalf of the vehicle, infotainment features, etc.
Digital twins
A digital twin is a concept of digital reproduction of a physical object. In the EV industry, it means creating a virtual replica of a real charging station for testing, monitoring, etc. It works from the stage of designing the car, where engineers have room and opportunity to save money by trying different options for placing elements, for example, to testing under various conditions without needing physical prototypes and monitoring for predictive maintenance.
Summary
The electric vehicle market is growing rapidly, which leads to increased demand for software: updating existing applications and coming up with new ones. Overall, the trend is to make communication between all the parties (EV drivers, CPOs, eMSPs, and others) smooth as possible, remove boundaries, and provide numerous ways to use that software.
