Electric vehicles (EVs) have been around for some time now and many scientists, engineers and policymakers argue that EVs are a promising, maybe even indispensable option to achieve ambitious decarbonization goals, if powered by electricity from renewable energy sources. At the moment, the EVs market is gaining a lot of momentum and we may be near the point of no return for a sustained mass market deployment of electric vehicles.

There are massive expectations around e-mobility. By 2025, 70 million total electric vehicles are expected across the globe. That is more than ten times the total number of EVs worldwide today. Only in Europe, the estimated number of EVs by 2030 is around 29 million, representing approximately 31% of total vehicle sales. So far this year, the market share has already increased to 17% in Europe.

While the number of EVs on US roads is expected to reach 18.7 million in 2030. Despite supply chain issues, US EV sales have been record-breaking so far this year. Cumulatively since 2011, the EV sales in the US have been over 2 million. More than 50% of auto sales worldwide are expected to be electric by 2033.

Delivering on the EV expectations require massive efforts by everyone in the e-mobility landscape, with customers playing an active and central part in this revolution.

• Facilitating easy and simple ways for hundreds of millions to adopt and manage EVs.
• Promoting clean energy usage and accelerating net zero at scale
• Driving customer self-service and delivering end-to-end capabilities.

All this makes the customer experience one of the topmost priorities.

The stage is set for the E-mobility Revolution. And there is a long to-do list when it comes to accelerating the EV transformation. But before jumping into this list, it is crucial to understand all the major players driving this revolution, aka the EV ecosystem.

Understanding the EV ecosystem is fundamental to examining the pain points and devise possible solutions to increase e-mobility adoption.

Let’s decipher the various components of this ecosystem:

The EV ecosystem has active players in form of utilities, customers and the concepts of mobility and sustainability. Add charging station providers, energy retailers, businesses, automakers, and even cities and governments to this mix. All of these players need to work in partnership with each other to provide a top-notch experience.

For instance, it is not enough for car manufacturers to provide an excellent customer experience pre and during the purchase of an EV unless this is supplemented with after-purchase solutions for customers by utilities or energy retailers.

Similarly, the attractiveness of having a vehicle is in the benefits of mobility and freedom to travel. EV ownership loses its appeal if there are limited charging options in case of long journeys. Hence, cities, energy providers, and charging stations need to work together to increase the availability of public charging facilities.

Digital Innovations and Intelligence are integral components to bind this ecosystem together and accelerate the e-mobility future.

And in the end, helping billions of people adopt electric mobility and manage it effectively with seamless, adaptive and integrated customer experience. Here we focus on what energy providers can do to push the EV revolution to its tipping point.

Perfecting the EV Experience for Customers

Creating an excellent EV customer experience requires the ecosystem to collaborate in devising solutions across the customer journey. EV ownership entails more than just buying an EV. It comes with challenges around understanding how the EV works, the complex charging situation, the autonomy of each EV, the prevailing government incentives, and the maintenance required to name a few. For superior CX, customers should be provided with a smooth experience regarding information gathering, buying guidance, charging options, tracking energy usage, cost savings, and promoting environmental stewardship enabled by technologies such as AI, ML, analytics, CRM engine, etc.

And the key is to simplify all these activities involving evaluation, purchase, installation, delivery, and management into a single experience.

How?

With Omnichannel Communication. Personalization. Loyalty Programs. Intelligent Offerings.

This can be delivered by energy providers via integrated cloud-based platforms and digital collaborations to provide smart-grid-customer engagement solutions to empower customer EV ownership and management.

It is also essential to reach ALL citizens with a seamless and equitable e-mobility experience.

Micro-emobility goals should be set and accomplished by breaking down the adoption barriers and improving accessibility of the new technology. There is clearly an opportunity to paint a new picture of what access should be like, while simultaneously exposing micromobility systems to underserved communities as cheap and viable transportation options.

Strengthening the Electric Grid

Decarbonization and Decentralization – two major factors driving the electrification of transportation.

Due to decarbonization, many energy providers are increasing their renewable energy fleet and moving away from hydrocarbon-fueled power plants. With decentralization, both consumers and utilities are generating more electricity via distributed energy resources (DERs). The advent of new technologies is helping to optimize the energy supply and demand on the grid.

The customers have an active role to play in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and grid-to-vehicle (G2V) technologies. EVs and fleets can become DERs and provide controllable electricity demand to the grid as well as act as storage and electricity supply when smartly connected to the grid.

Energy providers can prepare for an increase in electricity demand and load by managing and controlling EV load through smart grid technologies. Leveraging data and AI/ML analytics, they can analyze consumer charging behaviors, introduce demand response programs, provide customer retail electricity net-metering plans, and incentivized rate plans for EV charging, to better manage the new decentralized energy system.

Advancing Sustainability

With many carbon policies set in place across the globe to make net-zero targets a reality and the transportation sector being one of the major contributors to carbon emissions, electrification of mobility offers an excellent opportunity for global carbon footprint reduction. Energy communities are gaining popularity with consumers now becoming energy producers, a new age of energy customers – who require a new generation of energy services. In addition to the benefits of reducing carbon emissions and air pollution, green mobility also creates significant efficiency gains and acts as an essential source of renewable electricity storage. EVs can also contribute substantially to achieve sustainable energy in smart cities. As cities get smarter, integrating e-mobility with data and digital technology can help make better decisions and improve the quality of life.

Energy providers can piggy-bank off this growth to reinvent their business, introduce new services to customers and create a sustainable way of life. The future end-state will be good news for all: progress toward tackling the global climate change crisis, seamless customer EV experience, access and affordability for all, and enhanced grid resiliency.

Smart E-Mobility Platform provides a single integrated digital platform to help billions better manage and control their electric vehicles. With a mission to build an intelligent ecosystem for the energy, water, and mobility providers and consumers, the platform helps accelerate EV adoption, build CX excellence, and achieve global sustainability goals.

If you are interested to know how our Smart E-mobility platform can help you, feel free to get in contact with us here: https://www.smartemobility.ai/contact.html