Improving EV charging experience to speed up electric mobility revolution. New eCharge4Drivers project will enhance EV user experience at electric vehicle charging stations by offering improved services evway by Route220 17th June 2020.
The project will deliver enhanced user experience at electric vehicle charging stations by offering new, improved services, helping to increase the attractiveness and convenience of EVs.
Working with 32 partners across 11 European countries, eCharge4Drivers will bring together key stakeholders help to offer an enhanced EV charging experience and speed up the transition to electric vehicles across Europe.
Sales of electric vehicles (EVs) are increasing rapidly across Europe. However, drivers still often encounter problems in finding appropriate charging options, limiting the ease of use of EVs and potentially posing a barrier to increase the uptake of EVs.
eCharge4Drivers aims to substantially improve the EV charging experience within cities and for long trips. By capturing users’ perceptions and expectations on the various charging options and their mobility and parking habits, eCharge4Drivers will develop and demonstrate pilot projects in 10 areas across Europe, including metropolitan areas and Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) corridors.
Charging stations in these areas will offer user-friendly and convenient functionalities for EV drivers of passenger vehicles, motorcycles and light vehicles, such as direct payment methods and bigger, user-friendly displays.
Dr. Angelos Amditis, eCharge4Drivers Project Coordinator and Research Director of ICCS, said: “The eCharge4Drivers project brings together 32 of the most important European electromobility actors with the aim to develop appropriate solutions to significantly improve the overall user experience when charging electric vehicles, and thus promoting the wide adoption of electromobility, following the ambitions of the European Green Deal towards a zeroemission transport system.
Through eCharge4Drivers, we are in fact improving the autonomy of the electric vehicles, a factor that plays a decisive role in EVs wider and more efficient deployment, while also facilitating the design and development of smart charging infrastructure and enhanced interoperable services, offering additional incentives for choosing to purchase an electric car.”
eCharge4Drivers will offer an enhanced experience for EV drivers by providing more sophisticated services to users before, during and after the charging process, including services for smart charging. The project will demonstrate additional convenient charging options within cities, a mobile charging service, charge points at lamp posts and networks of battery-swapping stations for LEVs.
Using the knowledge generated, the project will propose an EV Charging Location Planning Tool to determine the optimum mix of charging options to cover all user needs, as well as recommendations for legal and regulatory harmonisation, and guidelines for investors and authorities for the sustainability of charging infrastructure and services.
eCharge4Drivers was launched during an online Kick-Off Meeting, over two days from 16-17 June 2020. The consortium brings together 32 partners from 11 European countries.
“This project is the natural evolution of the technological leadership path of the digital platform, that provides charging network management services (CPO) and the best travel experience through the evway App. The element of excellence of our work will be represented by the integration of our navigator – evway is the only App in the world that integrates this functionality – with the new plug & charge services.” Says Franco Barbieri, Founder of evway by Route220
About the project
eCharge4Drivers is a 4-year project of 14 million euros co-financed by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 Programme. It demonstrates additional convenient charging options for Electric Vehicles (EVs) within cities, a mobile charging service, charge points at lamp posts, networks of battery swapping stations for light EVs and a transportable charging station service to cover temporary needs in 11 areas across Europe, including metropolitan areas and TransEuropean (TEN-T) corridors.
The project partners are: ICCS, ABB, ABEE, BMW, BFS, ROBERT BOSCH (RB), BARCELONA DE SERVEIS MUNICIPALS SA, CEA, CHARGERY, CRF, ELECTROMAPS, ERTICO, GAM, GREENPACK, HUBJECT, ICOOR, IDIADA, MOSAIC, NEXXTLAB, SCUTUM, POLIS, POLIBA, POWERDALE, ROUTE220, OTS, SMATRICS, UNIPI, UoS, VERBUND, VCC, VUB and ZES.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 875131 (Innovation Action)
About Route220
Route220 was founded in 2014 as innovative start up with the aim of providing a revolutionary and complete service for the ev-drivers, improving the time of the charging, promoting the business and touristic facilities and the territories that believe in sustainable mobility.
Hence the idea of evway: a complete service including the charging station, the digital platform and innovative services for e-mobility and the sustainable drivers.
The evway App, developed by Route220, provides a complete and interactive mapping of all charging stations in Europe, together with the mapping of the nearby points of interest and facilities. The map becomes a way to give visibility and to promote all facilities that offer the ev-drivers the charging service.
evway is the first Italian network that is interoperable with other European networks. In March 2019 evway also introduced eMX – the first navigator for EV-Drivers – focusing on the journey and on the value of the time. It is no longer necessary to schedule charging stops in advance or rely on external navigators or even to impose speed and routes from external systems: the EV-Driver takes control of his guide and of his travel experience.
evway has also developed a simple and efficient solution for managing electric company fleets.
eCharge4Drivers: evway by Route220 è tra le aziende protagoniste. In uno dei più importanti progetti di Horizon 2020 dedicati alla mobilità elettrica.
Il progetto, cofinanziato dall’Unione Europea, ha una durata di 48 mesi e coinvolge numerosi attori Europei: operatori di mobilità, produttori di hardware, Pubbliche Amministrazioni, associazioni, università e alcune importanti compagnie automotive quali BMW, Volvo e FCA (tramite CRF).
L’obiettivo è quello di migliore la user experience di coloro che guidano elettrico, rendendo il processo di ricarica più semplice, veloce e piacevole rispetto al rifornimento di un qualsiasi altro veicolo endotermico.
Il fulcro di eCharge4Drivers ruota intorno all’implementazione della ISO 15118.
La ISO 15118, nota anche come Plug&Charge, è il nuovo standard di ricarica che consente una comunicazione più stretta e diretta tra la stazione di ricarica e un veicolo elettrico conforme. Attraverso questo nuovo standard il Driver avrà la possibilità di collegare il proprio veicolo e autorizzare e pagare la sessione direttamente tramite la dashboard a bordo veicolo: in questo modo, consentendo un maggiore controllo del processo, si offrirà all’utente un’esperienza di ricarica più rapida e semplice. Le case automobilistiche coinvolte lavoreranno quindi, in parallelo ai fornitori di servizi di ricarica, sull’implementazione di questo standard di comunicazione a bordo dei loro veicoli.
Il progetto vedrà una prima fase di ricerca di mercato volta ad individuare la percezione degli EV-Driver in merito ai veicoli elettrici e all’infrastruttura e ad identificare soluzioni innovative che rispondano alle loro aspettative. La ricerca coinvolgerà gli EV-Driver di 11 differenti aree europee, incluse le città metropolitane e i corridoi TEN T – reti trans-europee di trasporto – a cui verranno somministrati dei questionari. In questa prima fase evway by Route220 sarà responsabile per quanto riguarda l’area del Nord Italia.
Successivamente, si procederà allo sviluppo e all’implementazione del Route-Planner – già presente all’interno dell’App evway – con l’obiettivo di migliorare l’esperienza utente, proponendo soluzioni di ricarica lungo il percorso e valorizzando i periodi di inattività. Questo sviluppo procederà di pari passo all’implementazione di tecnologie predittive a bordo dei veicoli volte a monitorare continuamente lo stato della batteria di trazione di un veicolo elettrico e a determinare il degrado della capacità della batteria e la massima potenza disponibile durante la carica/scarica. Un’elaborazione di questi dati, incrociati con le informazioni del Route-Planner e della disponibilità di stazioni di ricarica, permetterà di determinare il programma di ricarica ottimale. Questo programma prevedrà quindi una profonda collaborazione tra gli attori coinvolti nel processo.
Lo spazio di manovra per innovare è davvero ampio e l’App evway è pronta ad intraprendere questo nuovo interessante percorso in Europa.
