Electric Vehicle

How IoT supports Electric Vehicle Charging and Keeps EVs Running

How IoT supports Electric Vehicle Charging and Keeps EVs Running

The evolution in the vehicle industry is remarkable. The increasing vehicle demand is not just consuming natural crude oil but also giving pollution as its by-product. The increasing temperature of the earth is significantly impacting the lives of humans as well as animals. This menace is not just limited to living organisms but also disturbs the climate and ecology. 

With the emerging need to control the increasing pollution and make a drive more comfortable and safe, the addition of electronic vehicles is applaudable. Today, Electronic vehicles that are EVs have taken an ambitious place in many car manufacturing companies, proudly joined by Tesla, which is launching all-electric models. Electronic Vehicles are the need of the hour. 

With this remarkable evolution and acceptance by the crowd, there is an inevitable demand to have a solution to keep these cars charged outside of a home. 

Besides supplying the electricity to charge an electronic vehicle, electric vehicle charging stations provide a wealth of information to owners, operators, and drivers. The credit for these things goes to the Internet of Things and cellular connectivity.

Electric cars parking and charging lot.
Electric cars parking and charging lot

The futuristic IoT Charging Stations: Charging EVs

An Electronic Vehicle charging station is connected to IoT and offers numerous benefits to the operator and consumer. If we take up the consumer’s perspective, there is a lot of information and knowledge one needs to acquire, like the location of the charging stations installed on the way. How much time will it take to get the EV charged fully? How much will it cost? These are sets of questions that EV charging stations can answer. And often, these stations have facilities to pay directly from a mobile app because of IoT, making things convenient for EV owners. 

And if we take the operator’s side, IoT enables operators to achieve critical information about each EV charging station without physically visiting the station. It informs the operator about how often it is being used to alert for the upcoming maintenance required or failure of the machine. All of this information can improve efficiency, which, ultimately, helps in improving ROI. It helps in scheduling preventative maintenance or decreasing on-site time with the devices.

However, we are still living in the initial days of EVs, and we anticipate improvement in adoption and innovation with the government’s recent push to spend on climate change initiatives. 

Inflation Reduction Act: Funding in Climate Change

The Inflation Reduction Act has become a topic for discussion this summer. This broad proposition was created to encounter inflation, bargain prescription drug prices, and extend the developed Affordable Care Act program for three years. It invests in manufacturing, domestic energy production, and lowering carbon emissions.

The Energy Security and Climate Change Investments in the Inflation Reduction Act aimed to control energy usage, and positioned the U.S. on the route to minimize carbon emissions approx 40 percent by the end of 2030. This bill targeting the reduction in carbon emissions holds many vital aspects, including reducing energy costs for citizens, increasing energy security, attracting more investment for decarbonizing all sectors of the economy, funding disadvantaged or remote communities, and supporting resilient rural communities.

Inflation Reduction Act: Helping EV Growth

Compared to vehicles that run on natural gas or diesel/petrol, Electronic vehicle causes less environmental impact. It has been proven to be a better option that not just solves the traveling issue but also helps in saving the environment.

Everyone in the industry, either its manufacturers who build EVs or the consumers who enjoy the drive, can leverage the benefit. The benefit offered by Electronic Vehicle also includes:

  • Up to$10 a billion investment tax credit to develop clean technology manufacturing facilities, including those companies that manufacture electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels.
  • Almost $2 billion in assistance to retool existing auto manufacturing structures to manufacture clean vehicles.
  • Up to $20 billion in loans to construct new clean vehicle manufacturing buildings across the country.
  • Govt is providing tax credits and assistance for clean fuels and commercial vehicles to decrease emissions from all parts of the transportation sector.
  • Almost $1 billion for promoting clean heavy-duty vehicles.

The Inevitable Demand for Connectivity

The development of IoT and its endless potential has changed the outlook of the entire world. From smart towns to smart streets, smart hospitals to smart homes, smart tv to smart bottles, IoT has leveled up the world and improved efficiency. The addition of IoT in almost all sectors, including electronic vehicles, has changed the working process while improving user experience.

The collaboration of IoT with Electronic Vehicles also marks that IoT holds the potential to save the environment and ecology; we just need to work more on this technology and exploit it to its full potential. In the coming year, we can expect more innovative solutions that will improve the service quality and also promise to stay environmentally friendly.

However, the introduction of electronic vehicles and the addition of IoT will indeed require more investment and evolvement. There are some challenges that need to be addressed. The extensive spending on clean vehicles will also drive the need for more connected charging stations across the country to support consumers, operators, and commercial vehicles. Electric vehicle charging stations driven by IoT will shortly become essential and significant support for all EVs.

Nevertheless, EVs will be the lifeline of the future transportation system, and IoT, along with other technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Cloud, will become its spinal cord. 

Role of IoT in Electric Vehicle Monitoring & Management

Today we are witnessing the temperature rise, and one of the major reasons behind this is air pollution. The emission of global house gases is worsening the situation, and its continuity might leave the earth unfit for humans in the coming years.

Vehicles are one of the major contributors to air pollution; therefore, it has become a major issue to look after. Today, people and the government are looking for ways to handle this issue. One of the best ways to control air pollution is by replacing fuel-based vehicles with electronic vehicles. Electric vehicles (EVs) are a new and environment-friendly innovation in this direction.

Electronic vehicles are hi-tech machines that collect an immense amount of data to deliver optimum performance. The performance parameters incorporate monitoring speed, mileage, acceleration, battery management, fault alert, charging, and predictive maintenance systems. Therefore IoT plays a crucial role in the monitoring of electric vehicles.

What is the role of IoT in Electric Vehicle Management?

Let’s know each aspect of an IoT integrated Electric vehicle management system and how they help obtain the optimal performance of electric vehicles.

Battery Management System:

The primary function of the Battery Management System is to watch and control the battery’s functioning. This implies monitoring the charging and discharging cycle to ensure battery health and minimize the risk of battery damage by assuring that optimized energy is provided to run the vehicle.

The monitoring circuit in Battery Management System (BMS) monitors the key parameters of the battery, that is, current, voltage, and temperature during charging and discharging conditions. It assesses parameters like power, State of Health (SoH), and State of Charge (SoC) and assures good health based on the calculation. Internet of Things exhibits a vital role in monitoring and controlling as it allows remote data logging facility for battery parameters, conditions, etc. Most EV manufacturers use high-quality Li-ion battery packs as they have a longer life and exceptionally high energy density.

However, there are some drawbacks as well. In situations when battery malfunction happens, the onboard sensor data acquired using IoT can aid in managing the issues. Then, these can operate through AI-based models for performance estimation. Tests can be executed on some Li-ions to evaluate the patterns of partial and full charging and discharging. Models are marked using the data gathered from each step and are integrated with Artificial Intelligence before deploying on a server. The EV sends important sensor data to the server, delivering insights on the next course of action and performance. We can conclude that the server checks the condition of the Electronic Vehicle.

Safety and Smart Driving:

The adoption of Iot also allows real-time monitoring of the vehicles and their parts. It helps in preventive maintenance provided by the technology, which is found to be more reliable by the users. IoT devices attached to EVs can offer the following features to the users.

  • It can measure the exact parameters of the driver like speed, acceleration, and many other things to offer real-time tips to ensure optimal performance.
  • It can prevent theft by real-time tracking, geo-fencing, and immobilization. This ensures better safety and security to diminish the dependence on insurance.
  • It also checks the performance data of the vehicle, based on which EV and battery OEMs can enhance thee products. Here parameters are the range of each charge, use of a vehicle, performance difference based on geography, age, weather conditions, and adjustment in range for each charge over a certain period.

Fault Alert and Preventive Maintenance System:

Electronic vehicles also face technical glitches as other machines do. IoT-enabled fault alert systems can help alert vehicle drivers about the EV faults, providing them time to act and address them before it’s too late. Though EVs are well designed to prohibit errors, sometimes parts might fail or stop.

To anticipate this, AI algorithms and remote IoT data play a vital role. They help alert the EV users and provide them time to resolve the issues before they actually happen. This enhances customer experience as they can rely on it for optimal performance. In addition, it is necessary to know the overall temperature and moisture conditions in various geographies, and keeping a check on remote performance is essential. These factors will help resolve the issue promptly and promises comfort and security to the user.

Telematics Data:

By using  IoT-based telematics technology, data is gathered when linked to the vehicle sensors, shown through widgets, instant notifications, and produce automatic reports.

Let’s look at the useful factors of employing telematics for monitoring distant electric vehicles.

  • Battery Usage Data: Electric vehicles with telematics allow users to track real-time battery usage data. It lets users check important parameters like current, voltage, and temperature to skip battery breakdowns. Battery usage of EVs can be recorded and shared to a remote server that empowers to customize the battery configuration and enhance the best charging practices.
  • Charging Report: The addition of telematics in electric vehicles allows to yield reports on the vehicles’ entire charging sessions, i.e., the entire lifespan. The charging report shows the time duration, location of the charger station, and percentage of charge received by the vehicles.
  • Nearby Charging Stations Alert: Electric vehicle users encounter challenges like knowing state-of-charge(SOC) to schedule when and where to charge. Electric vehicles keep a tap on solutions with telematics and alert the user concerning the vehicles’ low battery level and the informs about the available nearby charging station.
  • Driver Behavior Data: Electric vehicle remote monitoring system with telematics ensures safety by monitoring and analyzing the electric vehicle performance data and also checks the behavioral data of the driver. Telematic provides quick feedback on driver’s behavior changes to fleet managers/owners through IoT enabled smartphone app. This ensures safety and improvement for better output.

Challenges of IoT in Electric Vehicle Management

Let us know some possible challenges of IoT for monitoring electric vehicles.

Cybersecurity:

The generation of the high amount of data and its transit over a network makes this data vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data leakage. Therefore, it is essential to strengthening the IoT networks used in the EV system to ensure no data leakage.

High Cost:

IoT systems in EVs are expensive. They are highly advanced and have high installation and operating costs. Thus, this technology requires more R&D, and the future might provide better and more cost-friendly IoT solutions.

Weighing the Benefits & Challenges:

We can conclude that IoT plays a crucial role in monitoring electric vehicles. The performance parameters enclose monitoring speed, mileage, acceleration, battery management, fault alert, charging, and predictive maintenance systems.

Overall, IoT holds an important place in the success of electric vehicles. However, challenges like cybersecurity should be considered seriously. EVs are innovative steps toward the environment, and their success will promise a better and green future.