This 60-minute session focuses on the innovation happening in EV Charging. The transition to EVs requires lots more innovation in charging – charging networks, charging protocols, charging rates, standards, even getting electricity to the chargers. And with an infusion of capital, this sector is hot. Up to 5 startups will pitch their solutions and get us all thinking about the next set of challenges and opportunities in the EV transition.
Silicon Valley, California, May 26, 2023/Meeting Recap/ As part of our Spotlight Series, co-hosted by Avanta Ventures, the Autotech Council held a 90-minute online meeting on EV Charging with presentations from up-and-coming startups in the field, followed by a discussion that included our members, OEMs and public attendees.
As EV sales continue to grow across the world, the challenge of how to support those cars with EV infrastructure has become increasingly important. If EVs are to replace most ICE vehicles, they will not succeed without widespread battery charging options. And with the passage of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the USA, there is increasing thrust from subsidy and incentives.
For a long time, “Low Range” was the number one roadblock to EV adoption, but now, fast & widespread recharging is increasingly the dominant hurdle to fleet purchasers and consumers. Range Anxiety is shifting to Charger Anxiety as daily drives are no longer a concern, but road trips are. To make EVs match all the use cases of ICE cars, we need to rapidly increase the number of charging stations, as well as the rate-of-charge.
Our meeting on EV Charging had open discussion before, and the subject of not “range anxiety” but “charger anxiety” came up. Today, EV owners are hunting for chargers, and finding too many problems from the obvious to the Murphy’s Law:
Too few chargers, with too great a distance in between
The first three have obvious solutions, mostly dependent on capital. But let’s focus on that last one. Many EV drivers are using various apps to find chargers, but the apps aren’t all complete, so they might drive by the right charging station to try to reach a more distant one. Upon arrival, there is little to help EV drivers know which charger to use, since some operate faster than others. Which cable? Which adapters? What’s the pricing? If you think of gasoline stations, they have developed pretty good standard-operating-procedures to solve these problems, but EV charging stations are still early in their evolution. Bad customer information generates mistakes, confusion, frustration, and bad word-of-mouth, and slows EV adoption.
The challenges and solutions around EV charging were directly addressed by the startups who presented in Rapid Fire format during the meeting. We were lucky to hear pitches from companies doing
Thanks again to our co-hosts at Avanta Ventures. The startup pitches from this meeting are now available in our Member Library.