Electric vehicles (EV) are new heroes of the Automotive Industry. It brings cost savings, minimal emissions, comfort, and many more advantages to the customers. However, EVs also require telematics for improving the driver experience and ease of ride. Some of the benefits of EV telematics are- continuous charging updates, sending notifications to charging stations, V2G (vehicle to grid communication), etc. Why EV is important, how telematics enhances the portfolio of Electric vehicle?
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“In the era of connected technology,” every technology-driven business is talking about various use cases and new trends of IoT and connected applications within different industry paradigms. Considering the automotive sector- it has been an industry-altering technology advancement in this era, which is gathering the attention of researchers, tech-savvy personals, and many start-ups who are seeking rapid digital transformation.
Current Trends
There has been technological advancement in this paradigm when companies started working with integration of sensors and connectivity protocols and then it headed towards current trends like Autosar, ADAS, Advanced Telematics, Infotainment systems, Autonomous Vehicles, and Electric Vehicles (EV). Some of these technologies have become an important part of most of the vehicles in the automotive world, now. The current growing segment in the automotive segment is the Autonomous and Electric Vehicles. Both areas have different levels of success where the electric vehicle segment is growing rapidly. In 2019, the market size for EV was USD 413.1 million and it is projected to reach 1095.4 million by 2027 with a growth rate of 20.3% (Fortune Business Insight, 2020).
The basic advantages of EV vehicles are the low cost of ownership- the electricity to run an EV for one-kilometer costs one third of running a petrol vehicle for the same distance, low cost of maintenance- EV has fewer moving parts than a conventional fuel vehicle, and EVs are better for the environment- emission reduction (Ergon, 2020).
An electric vehicle owner needs to understand when and where they can charge the vehicle on run. Most hybrid vehicle owners end up using gasoline more due to the unavailability of information on a battery charge, which does not fulfill the basic advantage of EV vehicles. Ergo, many countries are developing nationwide charging station infrastructure so EV users can get the ease of battery charge. This will also provide communication between the power grid and Vehicle (V2G), so users have access to the peak load hours, and they can utilize the grid power according to the peak charges schedule to reduce charging cost. “For better deployment EVs and charge services, telematics technology is essential, as it provides useful information.
Fig 1: Electric Vehicle Architecture (Kim, T. et al., 2011)
the exchange between a car on the move and the service of interest via the wireless network” (Kim, T. et al., 2011, pp. 177) In addition to that EV telematics enables many services such as traffic information, pathfinder, online booking for charging spots, remote diagnostics, battery life, battery charging status, and notification for the time remaining for next charge.
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End-to-end Product Engineering for a Telematics Device
One of the basic applications for EV telematics is the live map updates. It provides details on the real-time location of EV vehicle on a digital map. This navigation system works on GPS, which helps in tracking the location of the vehicle and sends data via connectivity protocols like Wi-Fi, 4G, LTE, and CDMA, etc. for remote access. This map helps in getting the real-time traffic situation on the road so the user can set the best route to the destination to save average energy consumption with a reduction in total distance traveled. Pathfinding system of telematics calculates the distance a vehicle will travel and provides analysis on the required charging for batteries while recommending a travel route that has a charging station available for re-charge.
2. Charging Methods
Many organizations and researchers are working towards the advancement of EV in terms of reducing the charging time, cost, battery size, and weight. Charging an EV might take more time if the energy requirement is high for a particular vehicle (Depending on battery size) so the availability of a charging station is essential for EV. Therefore, EV telematics runs algorithms like Dijkstra to find out the optimal place for charging the vehicle while accounting for the current battery charge status and the distance a vehicle can travel. The Telematics system automatically sends the charging spot request to the nearest station to check if they can fulfill the requirement on top of the previously scheduled charging spots. Also, the system displays the vehicle’s state of charge (SOC) so the user can plan trips accordingly.
3. Driving Analysis
EV telematics gathers the data from DTG (Digital Tachometer Graph) and GPS to depict the state of the vehicle in terms of distance traveled, time taken, over speeding during the journey, malfunctioning, records the exceptional events, and warnings. As per the above discussion, telematics provides the best route for travel and by comparing the driving analysis data it refines the result for better route optimization, provides warnings on exceeding the driving speed limit, and vehicle services status.
Conclusion
Telematics plays an important part in many levels for an electric vehicle. eInfochips an Arrow company is helping OEMs in developing charging station infrastructure and best in industry telematics solutions by covering all the aspects of end-to-end development from hardware, firmware, software, and cloud applications. eInfochips has expertise in providing the best in industry AI-based Driver Behavior System, Video Analytics, Fleet Tracking, Remote Diagnostics, Predictive Maintenance, and Navigation System Integration for Electric Vehicles. To know more about Electric Vehicle Telematics, please connect with our experts today
References:
• Kim, T. et al., 2011. Advanced Communication and Networking : International Conference, ACN 2011, Brno, Czech Republic, August 15-17, 2011, Proceedings 1st ed. 2011. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg : Imprint: Springer. Pp. 177, available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-23312-8_21
Mohit works as Assistant Product Marketing Manager at eInfochips, focusing on marketing to Automotive, Industrial Automation, and Security Surveillance domains. Mohit has 5+ years of experience in Marketing strategy, communications, digital marketing, and presales. He holds Electronics Engineering degree from Pune University along with the Master’s in Marketing form Nottingham Trent University.