Switch’s Android for EV chargers: supercharge recurring revenue

Marc Mültin
Marc Mültin
Published
November 22, 2022
• Updated
7
min read
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Switch’s Android for EV chargers: supercharge recurring revenue
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What’s the correlation between Android phones and future EV chargers, or more broadly, between telecoms and the EV charging industry?

Both the telecoms and EV charging industries have experienced rapid and continuous innovation and technological change, moving from the niche to the masses.

In 2004, the launch of the Android standardised operating system for mobile phones triggered a massive market consolidation sparking the infamous NOKIA moment. Apple launched its iOS after NOKIA’s refusal to switch to Android. Those who miss the early warning signs or are slow to respond will lose out to fast-moving and more focused competitors.

Take your business to the next level with a unified operating system

Josev, our unified operating system for EV chargers, allows EV charger manufacturers to leverage the advanced capabilities that ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 bring to market. This means a superior customer proposition because EV chargers are future-proofed and Plug and Charge enabled, offering a seamless charging experience with secure and authenticated billing. More importantly, it is the gateway to bi-directional charging technology, which is coming to market in 2023.Thanks to Switch’s partnership with Nuvve, it allows their vehicle-to-grid (V2G) GIVeTM platform to be integrated with Switch’s EV charging management platform - an unmatched solution to EV charging networks. This unlocks next-generation smart energy services to monetise EV battery capacities for grid-friendly EV charging, on a commercial scale.

Josev Community: open-source for all

At Switch, we want the EV charging industry to leapfrog to the next generation of EV charging services. But the climate clock is ticking. To decarbonise transport is a global problem and therefore will need an industry wide joint effort to beat the clock. That’s why we decided to make an essential part of our EV operating system – Josev – open-source. We call it Josev Community.

Josev Community is a free-to-all implementation of ISO 15118 for EV charger manufacturers. It underpins future EV charging ecosystem capabilities and is core to our full-scale embedded OS for all AC and DC chargers, Josev Professional.

Why we made Josev Community free

Just like this LinkedIn post by ex-Siemens Venture Capital CEO Bjoern Christensen suggests, we want the e-mobility community to start with the same building blocks when creating a solid foundation for better EV charger software. 

By ensuring everyone has access to Josev Community, we can build EV chargers with advanced features, such as:

  • User-convenient Plug and Charge, enabling banking-grade data security to protect against manipulated charging sessions and energy bills (as opposed to Autocharge)
  • Turning EVs into a power banks on wheels for energy self-sufficiency at home (Vehicle-to-Home, V2H)
  • Monetising your EV’s battery for smart energy services to the grid (V2G) in various settings (i.e. workplace, fleets, residential homes)

The key ingredient to avoiding patchwork solutions that lead to interoperability failures is to continually perform interop tests. Since 2014, Switch has attended every interop test event and CharIN Testival to ensure Josev Professional is the most reliable and well-tested software stack for EV chargers.

We have co-authored ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 from the start and are therefore experts in these standards. This includes all kinds of corner cases you can possibly run into when testing with EVs globally. 

Josev Community is open-source for all. This enables EV manufacturers to test their implementation of ISO 15118 against a peer-reviewed gold standard, minimising interop issues with charger manufacturers and EV manufacturers – yielding happy EV drivers who can charge their vehicles seamlessly.

You can even see, use and test the Josev Community code for yourself, here 👉 https://github.com/SwitchEV/josev

Josev OS: fast-track to the next generation of charging services

At the Intercharge Network Conference (ICNC22), we showcased Plug and Charge with AC chargers from Alfen and Zaptec, charging a Porsche Taycan and VW ID.5.


We successfully integrated Josev Professional on the next-generation of AC chargers by Alfen and Zaptec which is coming to market in early 2023. Each month, the list of Josev-enabled charger makes and models continues to grow. 

With Switch, you can focus on what sets you apart from your competition: the business logic and value-added services that sit on top of a future-proof OS.




Josev Professional: the next level

Josev Community lays the building blocks to the next level. And with Switch, that next level is Josev Professional, an embedded OS based on ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1. At Switch, we understand that a vertically integrated turn-key solution is key to an EV charging ecosystem that runs like clockwork. Therefore we have built the most advanced embedded OS for EV chargers and Charging Station Management System (CSMS) that enables smart energy services like V2H and V2G. With OCPP 2.0.1, developed by both Josev Professional and our cloud-based Switch platform teams, we have unlocked next-generation EV charging network capabilities.

Our team of Switch experts extensively test and perfect every aspect of our products before it goes to market with as little friction as possible. This means Josev Professional is available for a fraction of the investment under a single, lifetime licence.

The Switch platform gives charger manufacturers an unprecedented competitive advantage as Josev Professional elevates the EV drivers’ experience and Charge Point Operators (CPOs) ability to manage their EV charging network like never seen before:

  • Advanced uptime diagnostics: predict failures and make decisions before they become customer-facing issues – helping networks maximise charger uptime close to 100%, cut maintenance costs and retain a growing customer base.
  • Plug and Charge for DC and AC: Switch is the first to bring card-free and app-free authentication and billing from high-power charging networks to the workplace, fleet and residential space.

  • Monetising EV batteries: for smart energy services like V2H and V2G by harnessing the storage capacity in EVs and behind-the-metre (BTM) energy storage systems (ESS).
  • API-first design: any data you see on the Switch platform is ready to be integrated into your own CRM, fleet management or ticketing tool. The sky's the limit.

By combining Josev Professional with the Switch Platform, network operators can roll out charging infrastructure at speed and operate with unmatched efficiency on a commercial scale.

Summary

The EV charging industry is currently at an inflection point. In order to leapfrog to the next generation of EV charging services and enable new revenue streams for CPOs, we need to use the right toolbox. This means the right communication protocols are built specifically with such use cases in mind.

With Switch, we’ve got you. Our advanced next-generation features such as Plug and Charge, V2G and advanced uptime diagnostics allows access to vital capabilities such as increasing charger uptime, bi-directional charging, secure and automated authentication, reducing operational costs and much, much, more! 

Find out more, book a demo for the future-proof Switch platform today 👉 https://lnkd.in/dH-hHFfM


Insights
Marc Mültin
Marc, the Founder and CEO of Switch, has over 13 years of experience in the e-mobility space and holds a PhD in Computer Science. He is the leading global expert and co-author of international EV communication standards (ISO 15118 & OCPP 2.0.1) that underpin the Switch platform.
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An e-book for beginners and experts alike. Reduces the steep learning curve of ISO 15118 by providing a comprehensive and easy-to-understand access to the Vehicle-to-Grid communication protocol. Written by our founder, one of the few co-authors of ISO 15118, this e-book has fast become standard literature in the industry.

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Since we have published our ISO 15118 Manual it has been purchased by the biggest names in our industry and has become standard literature.

as well as Daimler, Porsche, Shell, Tritium, and many more...

As we were intensively implementing and testing
ISO 15118, we noticed there was a lack of overview of Plug & Charge and the whole supply chain amongst
our stakeholders.

Our training with Marc helped us achieve a much better understanding of the whole ecosystem. It led to constructive discussions on the requirements and concept of ISO 15118 in general.

Angelika Neuleitner,

charging system Specialist at Ionity

Working with recognized standards is the right way forward for the integration of electric vehicles into the grid, and we value Switch’s strong experience with the ISO 15118 standard.

We were able to leverage Marc’s insights to corner some of the keys issues pertinent to V2G in the published standard that needed to be addressed.

Hamza Lemsaddek,

Director embedded solutions at Nuvve Corporation

Attending Switch’s intensive two day training with the team gave us a deep dive into ISO 15118 and the different use cases.

We were able to validate our design with regards to the ecosystem and beyond. We now have a head start for the development of our next generation chargers and are able to support our customers for the deployment of the equipment all over Europe.

Johan Devos,

business development Manager at ENOvates

Certificate handling in ISO 15118 is a quite complex issue. Marc’s well prepared one-day course on this topic and his deep knowledge helped us to train our team and speed up the development of the ISO 15118 Plug & Charge
charging controller.

Johannes Bergmann,

eMobility Charging Systems DEVELOPER at SIEMENS AG

When I was working with students on ISO 15118 projects, Marc's courses tremendously helped in getting students to understand the standard quickly and dive into coding without hesitation. Marc's crystal-clear explanations with eye-catching graphics will make you an EV charging expert in one week.

Minho Shin,

Professor at Myongji University

In two exciting training days, Marc quickly and effectively explained ISO15118 communication to our experienced development team. In addition to the in-depth technical knowledge, the information about the communication standards that are still being established is very valuable. The training will definitely help us to make the implementation more effective.

Reinhard Starzinger,

Project Manager Electric Mobility AT Keba AG

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