Significance of Telematics for EV Adoption

Guest Post : Ajay Maurya from ​EternalGreen Innovations

Indian metropolises faced with the challenges posed by rapid immigration and pollution.  There is an urgent need to take care of micro-challenges being faced by early adopters of EV. The first wave of EV adoption will happen at B2B/commercial level by fleet operators and corporates for urban transportation. We can say with high certainty that successful EV's adoption will significantly depend upon how effectively a fleet operator can monitor and manage these EVs.

With our last 2 years’ experience at Eternal Green (urban EV mobility service provider in Hyderabad), we can say with high certainty that successful EVs adoption will significantly depend upon how effectively a fleet operator can monitor and manage these EVs.  We have experimented with multiple EV fleet operational models and found that most effective is the one which utilizes EV telematics/connected car features. If one can achieve higher utilization rate of EV's with the help of telematics, it will ensure lower TCO and higher saving of tailpipe emissions. To achieve higher utilization, EV mobility providers need to ensure that they are:

• monitoring battery discharge and energy regeneration while EV is running
• optimizing charging rate & time
• monitoring driving behavior such as acceleration, braking, idling, etc. & taking
• corrective measures if required
• aware of location of car, current SOC & nearest charging station
• keeping tab on battery health for lesser breakdown
• scheduling preventative maintenance

Unlike ICE vehicles, EV's have capability to generate & monitor a lot more vehicle data points which if utilized, can solve above mentioned operational challenges.

With EV specific telematics solution (consisting of above data points) accessible to them, EV fleet operators can ensure fewer breakdowns and higher utilization of green vehicles. It will also help them in managing vehicle routes, planning charging schedules, identifying vehicle issues in advance and improving driving behaviors. An effective EV telematics solution should provide real-time data on battery consumption and overall performance. Now let’s see in detail, how above data points can help solve mentioned operational challenges.

• SCO decrease over a trip duration can be cross checked with distance covered (odometer reading) and DTE to ascertain whether EV is giving promised mileage.
• SCO decrease over multiple trips can be cross-checked with Driving Efficiency, Driving Mode and Vehicle speed variations to evaluate their effect on battery discharge. This will help identify bad driving behaviors & guide them to follow right behaviors.
• If SOC is less than a threshold limit set by fleet operator, GPS data will help to find nearest charging station.
• Real-time tracking of battery temperature/health will help to identify reasons of high battery temperature and take corrective measures.
• EV charging rate depends upon charging rate/time and battery temperature, thus keeping track of these data points will help to optimize charging time.
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Apart from substantial benefits to EV operators, there are other stakeholders also who will benefit greatly with telematics solutions. For example, all the generated telematics data will go a long way to help EV OEMs refine their products and also assist policymakers in understanding requirement of charging infrastructure.
A robust product development for EV specific telematics solution and utilization by fleet operators, will thus be a small step by the stakeholders but a giant leap for entire EV ecosystem in India.