The rate at which electric vehicle sales are increasing far exceeds the rate at which charging points, especially public ones, are being installed. The shortage of public charging points is only getting worse.
Turck Banner is working in partnership with EV charging companies like VCI to provide sensors and expertise, which detect the presence of a vehicle and monitor the charging current. It is using existing industrial sensor technology to helps solve the issues, which is used across different sectors such as automotive, medical and others.
These two pieces of information are primarily used to identify the main problems of vehicles, parking but not charging and vehicles staying beyond full charge.
The information is also used to address those problems in the following ways.
Using external indication to users, like a simple traffic light visible to the driver, shows that they have been seen and are being monitored, which encourages correct use. This can be expanded to full bay illumination in red and green or any other colour.
Creating visual charging information using multi segment LED lights to indicate charging current, % of full charge, time on charge, time remaining for charge. This is especially useful to users waiting for a charger, seeing this information from within their vehicle allows them to estimate how long the wait will be.
There are a number of queuing systems currently being planned and trialled. Every one of them relies on real-time usage data and indicators to inform and guide the users.
The data gathered can either be transferred to the equipment operator or supplier, via the charger system, or with GSM built in to the Turck Banner equipment. Messages can also be sent to traffic wardens or others in authority.
The usage data gathered is invaluable in identifying locations where demand is highest, in order to plan expansions and for early warnings of charger problems.
As many locations have a number of chargers with different charging current capabilities, users will often pull into a bay then move onto another with higher capability. By comparing data gathered from individual chargers to data from the whole site, informed decisions can be made for expansions and the types of chargers required.
Turck Banner also provide equipment to monitor the charger for failures, tampering or vandalism, all of which cause frustration for potential users.
It is very likely that we are far from the final solutions for EV charging. In the meantime the companies in this market, like Turck Banner need to be flexible, innovative and fast reacting.
