https://transportevolved.com/2015/04/01/opinion-why-electric-car-charging-networks-need-impartial-third-party-regulation-or-face-collapse/
Opinion: Why Electric Car Charging Networks Need Impartial, Third-Party
Regulation Or Face Collapse
April 1, 2015 By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield
[images
https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Leaf-Charging-at-the-York-Park-and-Ride-580x435.jpg?dc6b84
Charging stations are great, but how do we improve the reliability of
them?
https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_2591-580x435.jpg?dc6b84
Regulation would help ensure that uptime and reliability were pushed
up.
https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Back-of-the-UGO-ABB-DC-charging-startion-e1404583773279-435x580.jpg?dc6b84
If your charging station fails, who is responsible? And who pays for
the
inconvenience?
https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/kia-soul-ev-charging-580x386.jpg?dc6b84
Paying for charging isn’t always popular, but it does at least make it
easier to complain when things aren’t right.
https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/2011-nissan-leaf_100435344_l-580x435.jpg?dc6b84
Knowing how much you’re going to pay to charge can help you plan your
journeys more effectively.
https://d290b3p3ki7y5s.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Plugging-in-the-CHAdeMO-connector-580x435.jpg?dc6b84
Regulation could make charging in public far more pleasant for all
involved.
]
All over the world, governmental bodies, agencies, and charities are
jumping
on the electric vehicle bandwagon. They’re embracing the dawn of the
age of
the zero emission vehicle with enthusiasm and gusto, helping to install
charging point after charging point for the benefit of electric and
plug-in
hybrid drivers.
Thanks to generous grants and financial support from automakers like
Nissan,
BMW and Volkswagen, we’ve even seen an explosion in rapid charging
stations,
offering customers with suitably-equipped cars the ability to recharge
their
cars from empty to 80 percent full in as little as 30 minutes. With the
exception of Tesla Motors [NASDAQ:TSLA] — whose Supercharger network is
owned and operated by Tesla exclusively for its own customers — the
remaining non-Tesla charging stations are owned and operated by a
dizzying
array of different organisations, companies and municipalities.
But while more electric car charging stations is a great thing for
encouraging more people behind the wheel of a plug-in car, there’s a
global
endemic threatening the operation of charging stations and the very
future
of plug-in cars through poor reliability, a lack of accountability and
inconsistent access.
We think all three comes from a lack of regulation and accountability
among
the charging station providers, which is why we think car charging
networks
need impartial, third party regulation in order to survive. What’s
more, we
think that regulation needs to happen quickly, or the charging industry
faces major collapse.
With that in mind, here are three things we think plug-in networks need
—
and why they can only be regulated by a third party in the interests of
true
accountability. There’s a possible exception for sites with low-powered
110-volt charging and so-called ‘dumb sockets,’ but we’ll come to that
presently.
Reliability, Accountability
Here’s the biggie. Reliability among electric car charging networks
isn’t
good enough. And while different networks and even different sites will
have
wildly different reliability and uptime to neighboring stations a few
miles
down the road, the lack of reliability is proving a challenge to many
users.
Here in the UK, we recently visited a location with four different type
2
(level 2) charging stations installed. Of those four, only one was in
operation, and the one we tried using inadvertently locked on to our
charging cable but failed to provide any power. The emergency
out-of-hours
helpline — staffed by volunteers from the company in question — tried
to be
as helpful as they could but couldn’t help us retrieve the stuck cable
until
the following day. Luckily, some persuasion enabled us to retrieve it.
But we’re not alone. Look at any online charging database form the Open
Charge Map through to PlugShare, and you’ll see tales of woe from
electric
vehicle owners around the globe who have found a broken charging
station,
unresponsive card reader, or simply haven’t been able to get their cars
to
communicate with the station.
It doesn’t matter if you’re in Boston, Lincolnshire or Boston,
Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon or Portland, Devon, charging station
reliability is a major issue. It’s the same no matter the network too —
with
perhaps the exception of Tesla’s privately-owned and privately-operated
Supercharger network — there are just too many faults across every
charging
network we’ve looked at, although we note some are worse than others.
Worse still, many charging providers with units that are offline or
broken
often blame someone else, like the sites themselves or the hardware
manufacturers, for the problems.
And after four years in the field — more in some cases — we’re starting
to
get fed up with the same-old argument that plug-in cars are a cutting
edge
technology that will surely have ‘teething problems’. Yes, problems are
inevitable, but we need an agreed way to deal with them.
So how would regulation work? In the world of regulated utility
companies,
poor service and brownouts results in fines for the offending
companies. In
some situations, payouts or compensation can be claimed by paying
customers.
Regulating public charging stations (and levying fines against
providers who
didn’t meet acceptable uptime or provision levels) would, we think,
dramatically improve service and eliminate the blame culture.
But in order for true accountability, that level of service would need
to
extend from the charging networks through to the manufacturers of the
equipment and the sites which host the charging. In order for true
accountability and reliability, each needs to be regulated or at least
held
accountable when things go wrong that lie outside of the bounds of an
‘act
of God.’
Fair Pricing
Which brings us to charging for charging. At the moment, many charging
networks provide their customers with free electricity, making it hard
— and
we think a little disingenuous — for customers to complain when things
go
wrong.
By setting out a fair pricing structure through a third-party
regulator,
charging providers are not only provided with a predictable income but
customers are also given a right to complain when things aren’t as they
should be.
Paying a fair price for the electricity consumed at a charging station
—
plus a fair overhead charge to cover maintenance and administration —
also
provides charging providers with an income stream that they can use to
ensure the continued functionality of the network. Moreover, charging
for
charging also means that there’s more funds to allow charging providers
to
offer at least rudimentary 24/7 support, even if that equates to
training up
a member of staff at each charging location to understand how to safely
perform a hardware hard reset if something goes awry with a unit. (In
many
cases, we understand, that can be enough to clear whatever the error
was and
enable further operation.)
Regulating the pricing of charging electric cars through a third party,
just
like utility companies are regulated, also means that both customers
and
providers have a clear path that they can take if they disagree with
rulings
on fees.
There’s more. By charging for providing a service, charging providers
also
eliminate the increasing problem of ‘freeloaders:’ electric vehicle
drivers
who live near a rapid charging station who will stop and charge there
for
free rather than charge at home. It also eliminates the problem of
‘charging
station hogs:’ people who camp out at a charging station to get every
last
drop of power from a rapid charge, no matter how long it takes.
In both of those cases, someone who is paying a set fee per
kilowatt-hour or
per minute will be less likely to take advantage of the charging
station,
leaving it for other users whose need is more pressing.
Roaming
Finally, we come to roaming agreements or payment processes. Regulating
charging provision in a way similar to utility companies or telecoms
companies should make it easier to mandate a set roaming agreement
between
different providers, including setting any allowable overage charges or
extras tacked on to a customer’s account for roaming.
Most importantly however, mandating a roaming component through
regulatory
processes would make it easier and more transparent for a customer to
cross
between different charging networks as they travel. Moreover, in some
situations — as we have here in the UK — it would allow customers of
one
network to drive a few miles down the road to a functioning charging
station
operated by a different network and get a charge without being stranded
without the correct access card.
Of course, one of the ways around this particular conundrum would be to
mandate contactless payment or smartphone connectivity for each
charging
station. But in some cases that could be costly and cause a negative
impact
for the industry.
But ask yourself this: when was the last time you tried to use a gas
station
and was turned away because you didn’t have the correct bank card or
money?
We’re guessing it’s only happened if you accidentally tried to use a
‘member
only’ gas station like the ones operated by Costco.
Regulation: an unnecessary evil?
We get it. Regulation isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. And
sometimes,
regulation can cause more problems than it solves. But just as utility
companies, road regulations and the telecoms industry — just like many
other
public services — charging providers are responsible for providing a
public
service to an increasing number of plug-in and electric car drivers.
Just as gas stations are regulated, so too do we think it’s time to
embrace
at least some fundamental regulation among the charging providers of
the
world. But as we’ve learned from bad experiences across a multitude of
different industries in the past — the oil and gas industry most
noticeably
— regulation needs to come from an outside body, not from within.
As far as we’re concerned, charging regulation is a necessary evil,
with
perhaps an exception for companies and sites who offer basic 110-volt
or
240-volt outlets. In our experience, they rarely fail and are the most
reliable of charging provision available.
Initially, it will be a tough task, and we may very well see the number
of
public charging stations drop, perhaps even dramatically, while the
industry
has time to adjust to the new reality. But as we’re sure you’ll agree,
it’s
far better to have a fifty thousand reliable charging stations around
the
world that are reliable and their owners accountable than it is to have
one
hundred thousand unreliable, unpredictable, and untrustworthy ones.
[© 2015 Transport Evolved]
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