We’re excited to announce that Smartcar’s EV charging solution for energy and electric utility providers is now widely available. Utilities in the United States can use our technology to digitally monitor and manage EV charging and best balance electric grid load.
Smartcar is the leading developer platform for mobility businesses. Companies of all kinds use our software and APIs to manage EV charging, track vehicle locations, verify mileage, and issue digital car keys. With our new EV charging solution, electric utility providers can easily connect to their customers’ electric vehicles and integrate EV charging into their existing load balancing, dynamic pricing, demand response, and electricity usage products.
The challenges of increased EV usage
The increasing share of EVs on the road is causing nationwide electricity usage to surge by 38% by 2050. Utilities are rushing to increase electricity production, but their success will depend on when EV owners charge their vehicles. If utility providers don’t start monitoring EV charging-induced spikes in electricity demand, overloaded grids and significant power outages will follow during peak hours.
Undoubtedly, utilities need to start including EV charging management in their offerings to keep balancing electric grid load. But until now, there has been no easy way to monitor and control EV charging in the electric grid.
Integrate EV charging into the electric grid
Smartcar is the first platform to let utility providers quickly and easily integrate EV charging into the electric grid. With a single integration effort, utilities can connect directly to most major electric vehicle brands.
Early partners like Rolling Energy Resources and Krafthem are already using our technology in their electric utility programs. Here are some ways in which our customers have been using the Smartcar platform:
First, residential electricity customers opt in to connect their EV directly from the utility provider’s web or mobile app. The utility then monitors and charges the customer’s vehicle, no matter whether they are using a regular 120-volt outlet, a residential charger, or a public charging station. With simple API requests, the utility provider can:
- 🔋 Retrieve the vehicle’s state of charge and remaining range
- 🔌 Know whether it is currently plugged in and charging
- ⚡ Remotely start and stop charging the vehicle
By integrating EV charging into the electric grid, our customers have been able to better balance the load on their networks, while electric vehicle owners have benefitted from convenient EV monitoring and management offerings:
- ⚖️ Load balancing: Start and stop charging your customer’s EV to best balance the load on your network.
- 💰 Dynamic pricing: Monitor your customers’ charging patterns to predict peak hours and set dynamic pricing rates.
- 🙋 Demand response programs: Reward customers for opting in to automatically start and stop charging their vehicle at optimal times to help balance electric grid load.
- 📆 Smart charging schedules: Allow your customers to manage their EV charging schedule directly from their electric utility account. Let them choose to automatically start charging when electricity prices are lowest.
- 📊 Electricity usage dashboards: Provide an entirely digital interface for your customers to monitor and manage their EV usage as part of their overall energy consumption.
To request a product demo or to learn more about Smartcar’s features and pricing, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.
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