Over the weekend, ABB flew me out to Portland, Oregon, for the 2023 Southwire Portland E-Prix race. It was nice to once more be again on the monitor (albeit this yr in a brand new location), surrounded by cheering followers and witnessing the brand new Gen 3 all-electric race automotive at speeds of 170-plus mph. Formulation E is meant to be a testing floor of innovation, providing an opportunity to look into the way forward for road-vehicle electrification. Right here is a recap of the race should you’re .

ABB is the title sponsor and official charging supplier of Formulation E, and it’s one of many largest EV charging {hardware} producers to announce plans to undertake Tesla’s North American Charging Customary (NACS). By means of this prism, I needed to reply the query: Will NACS repair public EV charging reliability and uptime points? Personally, I feel the reply is a combination — it relies upon and no, not by itself. (In the event you haven’t been maintaining with all the pieces occurring with EV charging within the U.S., try these two GreenBiz items right here and right here.)

The issue is larger than NACS vs. CCS1 

Let’s get it out of the way in which: GM, Ford, Rivian and another automaker’s soon-to-be announcement with Tesla is large for non-Tesla drivers. The largest profit will probably be entry to Tesla’s Supercharger Community by means of an adapter after which straight by way of the car in 2025. In its present kind, out there to solely Tesla automobiles other than some places the place Tesla has opened its community with what they’re calling Magic Dock, the Supercharger Community is some of the dependable fast-charging networks.

In my conversations with some EV trade stakeholders and studying ideas shared on-line, I’ve sensed that some are enthusiastic about this shift of standardizing NACS throughout the general public EV networks, suggesting this transfer to NACS will magically repair many driver complaints. However I don’t assume it’ll, until different elements of the general public EV charging expertise additionally change with it.

“I feel this [automakers partnering with Tesla on NACS] is a very optimistic step so far as automakers understanding the necessity for customers to be nicely supported of their charging expertise …” mentioned Alexia Melendez Martineau, coverage supervisor at Plug In America. “Nevertheless it doesn’t essentially remedy all our issues… we nonetheless have a public charging community that by and enormous, doesn’t carry out in addition to it actually may very well be.”

Some within the trade have mentioned the NACS is just a extra environment friendly “customary” in contrast with the Mixed Charging System 1 (CCS1). To a point, having a extra environment friendly “customary” might result in improved charging station reliability and uptime, however the checklist of the reason why Tesla’s Supercharger Community is taken into account the gold customary is just not restricted to NACS. With that mentioned, giving drivers an choice to decide on between Tesla Superchargers and public charging stations may be the monetary incentive wanted for public community operators to choose up their recreation.

The answer: NACS or CCS1 plus all the pieces else  

ABB has revealed key charger reliability and uptime benchmarks mandatory to supply dependable EV charging uptime. They embrace: 

1. Round the clock connectivity

2. Preventive upkeep and corrective service

3. OEM-trained technicians

4. Availability of spare elements

Bob Stojanovic, ABB’s senior vice chairman of E-mobility North America, confused simply how necessary all the pieces past the port is to make sure sturdy reliability. “Like within the information middle enterprise, if [EV charging is] going to be a 24/7 and 365 operation, you want a philosophy that helps that,” Stojanovic mentioned. “You don’t put in precisely the variety of property and look forward to it to interrupt; you want redundancy, no matter that’s, and a proactive plan on rotating operations and doing preventive upkeep to maintain a sustainable operation operating.”

Public charging stations have a complete host of reliability and uptime challenges comparable to damaged charging cables, stations not offering the marketed energy throughout charging classes, software program glitches that cease charging and errors in the course of the cost course of.

The cherry on prime is that when navigating to a public charging station, even when the station could also be inoperable, it exhibits up in a person’s app or automotive navigation as functioning, giving false indicators to the motive force that they’ll really cost, when actually they’ll’t — one thing Tesla has addressed with their Journey Planner.

One firm, Chargetrip, a spread prediction and EV routing platform based mostly in Amsterdam, seems to have a answer for automobiles aside from Tesla. The cool issue about Chargetrip is that it’s a business-to-business agency and sells its expertise on to fleets and automotive producers for his or her in-car infotainment methods and EV charging routing. Promoting on to automotive firms stands out to me as an answer to assist deal with a giant a part of the reliability and uptime drawback — arriving at inoperable stations.

Optimized EV routing is required

In talking with Pieter Waller, co-founder and chief business officer of Chargetrip, two issues jumped out: 

1. The software program runs on a consumption mannequin that predicts, based mostly on what car you might be driving, together with quite a few different variables, how a lot power the automotive will devour after which from there, it optimizes a visit based mostly on the suitable charging stations wanted. “Different options calculate the standard quickest route between A and B with out contemplating charging after which look again and add charging stops alongside the route,” Waller mentioned.

2. The routing software program then provides further weight based mostly on what the client — on this case, the automotive firm — values in regard to recommending sure charging stations over others. Extra weight might be positioned on issues comparable to whether or not the charging location incorporates redundancy (a.okay.a. quite a few charging stations if one is damaged) or the final time the charging station accomplished a profitable cost.

Whereas I’ve but to actively take a look at Chargetrip’s routing software program within the wild, ought to the software program carry out as described, it could assist enhance EV charging reliability considerations within the U.S., routing drivers to solely extra dependable stations. It additionally would assist remedy a problem that conventional automakers cope with in the present day — horrible software program. 

Ford’s CEO Jim Farley just lately mentioned this concern and the way sometimes the software program of a car is constructed by quite a few suppliers and distributors, contributing to its poor efficiency.  

Nonetheless, not like in the UK or Europe the place Chargetrip has entry to real-time dynamic information from charging firms, U.S. charging firms aren’t as open to sharing. 

“Having access to dependable dynamic availability information [from charging stations] was additionally an issue early on within the Scandinavian markets and the U.Ok. as much as two years in the past,” Waller mentioned. “So it’s additionally a sign of a little bit of an immature market the place gamers are principally combating over the crumbs as an alternative of attempting to make the cake greater.”

The U.S. is shifting in the appropriate path as its EV market matures. The transfer with NACS and CCS1 is an instance of how the market is figuring out what issues probably the most — the motive force.