With collaboration between stakeholders, we could realize all the benefits and advance the mobility industry into a new era of innovation.

The case for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electrification of transportation has never been clearer. They save drivers money and are better for the long-term health of the spinning ball we all live on — Earth.

Additionally, the installation of charging stations brings income and workforce opportunities. Fewer greenhouse gas emissions also help improve the health of our communities. 

With collaboration between stakeholders, we could realize all these benefits and advance the mobility industry into a new era of innovation.

Unfortunately, instead of that collaborative spirit, the EV service equipment space can sometimes feel more like a rat race, with an unspoken aim to capture as much market share as quickly as possible. From hardware manufacturers to software companies, installers, and energy providers, they all tend to get caught up in the race — a mad dash to grab available incentive dollars and market share. 

In this race, we sometimes forget about the end customer, and our collective goal of enabling the transition to electric mobility is self-sabotaged.

To quote B-list, '90s rap icon Vanilla Ice, stakeholders in the EV industry need to stop, collaborate, and listen. It's time to shift our focus to the end-user experience and collaborate across our industry to improve the customer experience. If we can pivot to this mindset as an industry, we can successfully drive the transition to electrification around the world.

The Many Layers of an EV Charging Experience

Think about what happens when a customer drives up to plug in and charge their EV, but the charger isn't working properly. Who's responsible for fixing it and getting the driver in their way?

Typically, the software company is the first level of support, and the hardware provider steps in if there's a hardware-specific problem or the software provider can't get the charger back up and running. Occasionally, you get a fun curveball, and it turns out it's neither the software nor hardware — it ends up being connectivity or grid issues.

There's often a middle person involved — the charge point operator (CPO), or owner of the charging station, who calls the software or hardware provider to report the customer issue. The finger-pointing begins, as diagnosing the issue can be very complex, all while someone is parked in front of a charger awaiting some juice to get them to their next adventure.

At this exact moment, we have a massive opportunity for industry collaboration to help our customers. Regardless of the cause, the inconvenience of someone standing in front of a charger that isn't working hurts our industry.

Additional Stakeholders: Yep, There's More

Improving the EV charging experience for the end customer requires collaboration across many industry players — legislators, automotive manufacturers, utility companies, CPOs, installers, software providers, and hardware manufacturers — all with their own interests and ways of doing business.

The EV market in North America is growing rapidly. The technology and legislation affecting the industry are changing daily — literally daily. When the rules of the game and how it's played are constantly evolving, it's hard to stay ahead, let alone keep up. As the EV industry is relatively new, changes in legislation often include ambiguously defined technical regulations for the product and the parties responsible for meeting them.

For example, California legislators passed a law earlier this year mandating that all public-facing chargers must have credit card readers. This may seem logical to a non-EV owner or someone on the fence about trying one. If you've lived it, meaning you own an EV and publicly charge it, you know this law is unnecessary. Multiple payment options already exist that are extremely user-friendly.

Additionally, this law creates an unbelievable level of complexity for industry stakeholders trying to design, manufacture, and certify products with long lead times. When the law passed, every hardware manufacturer had to instruct their technology, engineering, and product teams to design a new machine with a credit card reader. They had to start the costly and time-intensive process of getting it tested and certified — not to mention they had to source software products to integrate with the payment terminal.

Now, the California legislature is looking to possibly repeal the contactless payment aspect of the law in July. While this is helpful, there are sunk costs that many will never recover due to this type of legislative capitulation that could have been avoided by consulting industry experts.

So How Do We Improve the Situation? Collaboration

Participating in the rat race often results in cutting corners. Software coding can take over a dozen people anywhere from two weeks to six months. Changes can cost millions for production-based businesses like ours, where we produce EV charging hardware. Hardware companies need to build production facilities and scale them into a product — all while procuring different parts from suppliers worldwide. Lead times stack up, and supply lines are ruptured, which can take months or years to recover.

If we start collaborating and listening to our end-users' pain points, we can improve the EV ownership experience by challenging one another's ideas and crafting solutions. Together, we can set the bar for innovation while streamlining production, allowing for more widespread adoption and support for electric vehicles. Collaboration can and will equal profitability because the industry will take decades to see mass adoption without it.

This collaboration needs to be more than a one-off conference. We need regular conversations where all stakeholders have a seat at the table. I would love to see a quarterly (or more regular) North American-specific group, alliance, or consortium meeting to lay the foundation, drive much-needed change, and enable the transition to electrified transportation. If we all focus on the end customer experience instead of our individual gains, everybody wins.

We can take off the profit and market share blinders. Instead, we can balance those needs with collaboration and enable the desired outcome for all of us, where EV mobility is the norm.