Role of IoT in boosting Mass adoption of EVs in India

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are the flavour of the season, and India is no exception. Rising fuel prices and commitment towards sustainable development goals is leading to a big push towards EVs. The EV market in India is expected to top USD 50 billion by 2030. After a temporary setback in the last 18 months, the adoption of EVs has picked up the pace. With EVs now becoming the preferred choice for e-commerce deliveries and passenger transport, the future looks promising.

While the EV demand is expanding, this comes with its own set of challenges. Every point on the EV value chain is progressing at a different pace, from business models to pricing mechanisms around charging stations to industry standards around critical items like wattage, charging cables, plug etc.

There is a sense of apprehension and anxiety among the buyers as the EV industry is still in its early days. Buyers, habituated to the ubiquity of gas stations, vary the product, range, and charge time. Insurers and lenders are unable to identify and quantify risks or compute the residual value. Numerous business models are being tested, which will take time to develop fully.

IoT devices (telematics) play a key part in eliminating these complexities by addressing the root cause of most uncertainties by providing real-time information. Some ways in which IoT devices are helping the EV industry include:

Safer and Smarter EVs

The new-age technology and fintech players are investing in IoT-enabled vehicles to create an integrated EV platform that would help drivers improve their income, get financing, ensure better EMI repayment, and reduce their insurance claims, thereby providing a better user experience to make the EV experiment successful in India. Besides this, it would also enable real-time monitoring of the vehicles, equipment, and other assets in an enterprise. Predictive and preventive maintenance offered by the technology makes the users find it more reliable.

IoT devices embedded in EVs can provide users with the following features:

• It can gauge the absolute and relative parameters of the driver, such as speed, acceleration, and others, for providing real-time tips to ensure better performance.
• Theft can be prevented through real-time tracking, geo-fencing, and immobilisation. Thus, there will be enhanced safety and security to reduce the dependence on insurance.
• It will monitor the vehicle performance data, based on which the EV and battery OEMs can improve the products. The parameters include a range for each charge, utilisation of a vehicle, performance difference based on geography, weather conditions, age, and alteration in range for each charge over a certain period.
• Maintenance of battery
• Warranty and maintenance prediction

In India, EV players have started to opt for high-quality Li-ion battery packs as they have a longer life and give a better range because of high energy density. Along with these advantages, there are some drawbacks too. Besides being very expensive, there has to be strict control of the charging and discharging of the battery by keeping the temperature at a limit.

In such a scenario, the onboard sensor data obtained through IoT can help in managing the challenges. Then, these can be run through AI-based models for performance evaluation.

Tests can be conducted on some Li-ions to assess the patterns of partial & complete charging and discharging and the thermal stress pattern. Models are characterised using the data collected from each step. These are integrated with AI before deploying on a server. The EV sends crucial sensor data to the server, providing insights on the next course of action and performance. We can say that the EV’s state is monitored by the server.

Though EVs are carefully designed, there can be situations where the components might fail. To predict this, AI algorithms and remote IoT data can be instrumental. This helps in alerting the EV users ahead of time to fix any possible issues or avert a total breakdown. This will lead to a better customer experience as they will find it to be reliable.

Keeping in view the overall temperature and moisture conditions in India, monitoring the remote performance is extremely important. This will not just help in resolving the issues quickly but also provide a sense of comfort and security to the users about the EV’s health through predictive diagnosis.

Use in EV charging stations

With an IoT ecosystem in place, EV charging stations can stay connected and easily accessible from remote locations. The maintenance can also be done quickly. Let’s see how:

• Better support and management for Users

With IoT technology, EV charging stations become smart, connected, and easily accessible for remote support and maintenance.

Moreover, a great number of factors such as charging time, weather conditions, charging queues are analysed by IoT powered AI software, so users can access real-time information about charging process.

• Cloud solution for data collection and analysis at a single place

Advanced cloud solutions help the users collect and analyse the various parameters at a place. The data relating to voltage, temperature, electric current help the service workers to maintain the station conveniently and monitor the processes.

• Dashboards showing geographically dispersed EV stations

IoT powered apps enables users to search for nearby stations and schedule trips. IoT provides different access levels based on the job and capacity of the clients. The clients can obtain high-level help in case the network admin of a charging station fails to resolve an issue.

Geographical distribution of the EVs also allows the management to assess the demand for charging infrastructure in respective geographies and helps plan the strategic expansion.