Telematics for Electric Vehicles

Governments have introduced regulations and incentives to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles. Europe spearheaded this development, where EV adoption reached 8 percent due to policy mandates such as stricter emissions targets for OEMs and generous subsidies for consumers. Consumer attitude and increase awareness has led to a greater adoption of Electric Vehicles.

A Deloitte report suggests that the global EV markets is to grow with a CAGR of 29 per cent achieved over the next ten years: Total EV sales growing from 2.5 million in 2020 to 11.2 million in 2025, then reaching 31.1 million by 2030.

Benefits of Telematics for Electric Vehicles

1)      Driving Experience: In Electric Vehicles, it is very important for the driver to know the range of the vehicle, know his next charging station and plan his trip accordingly. The Telematics unit can determine the location of the vehicle, and through mapping and information on the range and available chagrining infrastructure, can help pre book the charging spot at a location to save time.

2)      Charging Analytics and EV Energy Usage: Telematics can help monitoring the charge level, battery health and provide valuable data required to improve the vehicle algorithms. Continuous updates and advancements on charging time, battery size and weight are being taken up by EV manufacturers. The real time data provides the manufacturers with a rich data source for their development and analytics. Such analytics can also help notify on the battery status of your vehicle.

3)      Fleet Management and route mapping: A lot of last mile delivery trucks are now powered through batteries. Field service managers can work through an effective route management, benchmark vehicle utilization, monitor charge reporting, and measure whether their plans are effective in reducing costs and emissions.

4)      Alerts and Notifications: The telematics units can determine the state of charge of the battery and alert the driver through an SMS on the need to find a chagrining spot immediately. Alerts such as an issue with the battery can be provided on real time to the driver to avoid troublesome situations on the road.  

5)      Firmware Update: With continuous advancements on the charging algorithms and software of an electric vehicle, the telematics unit can also act as a bridge for firmware update of the ECU and electronics within an electric vehicle. The telematics unit with LTE connectivity can be connected to a server for updates and an OTA update mechanism.  

Successful EV Management with Telematics

•  Receive notifications when batteries reach critical status and is time to charge
• Cost Reduction by planning of charging cycles based on the peak electricity rate times
• Performance reporting and finding out impact and return on investment through electrification
• Recharging priorities based on state of charge and operational schedules

Telematics Hardware for Electric Vehicles

To connect to the electric vehicles, you can utilise a Telematics Control Unit or a gateway. Integrated with 3 CAN Ports and wireless technologies such as 4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a powerful telematics control unit is what can enable intelligence on an electric vehicle.

The provision for 3 CAN Ports makes the telematics control unit an ideal fit for electric vehicles. Different CAN ports can be connected to the different terminals within the EV Backbone to tap different data points on different CAN buses. 

Unlike conventional vehicles, EVs do not follow mandatory telematics data standards, making data access a challenge. Hence, the LINUX powered telematics control unit provides the software flexibility and transparency to be compatible with different makes and models of electric vehicles.

The wireless technologies provide the capability to power different uses cases such as SMS alerts and notifications to the drivers and fleet owners. Wi-Fi can help in firmware update of the ECU and vehicle electronics when connected to your home networks and lay the foundation for the ever-evolving use cases.

EVs have unique metrics that need to be monitored to optimize their performance, range and return on investment, making telematics a must for electric vehicles.