EV Smart Charging: What it is and its Benefits

What is Smart Charging?

Smart charging is an efficient way to charge your electric vehicle, through cloud-based technology, where charging stations can monitor the charging process, for best optimization.

Smart charging represents the efficiency of your vehicle being charged. Efficiency is the key element these days and that challenge is being tackled by smart charging possibility.

A smart charging system is one in which an electric vehicle and a charging device share a data link, and the charging device shares a data link with a charging operator.

Smart charging, as opposed to standard charging devices that aren't cloud-connected, enables the charging station's owner to remotely monitor, regulate, and restrict the use of their devices to preserve energy.

Batteries within electric vehicles and electric trucks are built for a couple of years, but the life cycle lowers with the age of the battery. Therefore, there is a possibility to prevent a battery failure and prolong the mileage of your vehicle.

AutoPi.io can help you with that problem/challenge as it can help you with the optimal scheduling of EV charging.

Even though advanced technologies are being integrated into the improvement and development of EVs, battery and charging solutions causing deep uncertainty for potential consumers and making the used Electric Vehicle market almost nonexistent.

The possibility of battery damage in case of overcharging or deep discharging profoundly influences the concerns.

To prevent the possibility of damage, EV batteries need a proper Battery Monitoring System (BMS), which provides precise State of Charge (SoC) data to owners and reduces the impact of uncontrolled charging. This could increase the battery lifespan, assure their reliability and protect the equipment they power.

How does Smart Charging work?

An intelligent back-end solution enables smart charging by providing the charging station owner with real-time data from associated charging devices and charging events.

Because the stations are cloud-connected, they may be managed based on a variety of indications such as irregular energy output, local power consumption, the number of other vehicles being charged, or the use of electrical equipment on an adjacent property.

To develop a more sustainable energy system based on renewable energy sources, EV charging must be smart.

AutoPi Battery Monitoring Feature

Optimal scheduling of EV charging is the essential key to extending the life cycle of the Battery Pack. If it is not done in advance, it will ultimately lead to battery failure.

That is why the prime goal of AutoPi is to send detailed information on battery performance locally or remotely like driving power, estimated state of charge, or flow of current (to determine if the battery is being charged) and help owners convert this gained information into practical routines that keeps the battery operating at the optimum level.

AutoPi Telematics Unit connects to the EV via the OBD-II port and with minor configuration can read out vital parameter measurements like cell voltage or battery current and estimates the present capacity of the battery so the EV can be safely charged/discharged at appropriate levels.

While monitoring usage profiles and events, EV owners can predict the time when the battery needs to be charged or can be discharged.

Further enhancement can be achieved, with a proper setup AutoPi can compute the battery capacity while charging/discharging and send warnings in case of possible malfunctioning occurs.

AutoPi BMS log history of all measured parameters can be also analyzed for future references on battery health about the improvement of reliability of used Electric Vehicles.

Innovation in battery functionality has been the key motivation for AutoPi to provide real-time accurate battery capacity determination for users that encourage smart charging. An easy implementation that might benefit not only private owners but also business or corporate investors in the sustainability of electric mobility.

Benefits of Smart Charging

Overall, smart charging is quite beneficial. And some of the major benefits of smart charging are as follows:

1. Increased comfort and adaptability.

2. Smart grid data has resulted in faster EV charging speeds.

3. An app allows you to manage your smart EV charger while you're on the go.

4. Better and more environmentally friendly energy utilization.

5. Reasonably affordable energy prices.

Future of Smart Charging

The future of smart charging of vehicles is very bright and we will see a lot of new technologies soon enough. We would still like to show you a couple of examples of what can be a future of smart charging.

1. Wireless charging - You could have already noticed lots of prototypes from designers and engineers that tried to showcase how wireless smart charging of vehicles could work. This could be implemented for private persons and their garages, as well as for public places, garages, and charging stations or parking lots.

2. Battery swapping - Another possibility of smart charging is battery swapping. Imagine simply changing your battery for a new fully charged battery in your vehicle and you do not have to wait for a battery to be charged. Simply genius!

3. Solar energy - Expert engineers also work on finding out a way how to combine solar energy with smart charging of electric vehicles. Imagine using solar energy as a 'fuel' for your vehicle. Solar energy could charge the battery on the way, while you drive and increase your driving distance.

4. Fast charging - Charging for electric vehicles is already becoming much faster than it was before and that's one of the main goals of manufacturers. Nobody likes waiting, therefore, they work towards the goal to make it as fast as possible.

We will see more of them any time soon and hopefully, manufacturers and engineers will create something extraordinary for us.

Did you get some new ideas for a project? We would love to hear about it. Send us a sales inquiry here.