Driving Efficiency: Using Real-Time Data to Optimize the Electric Vehicle Industry

As electric vehicles (EVs) grow in popularity, the demand for reliable and efficient charging infrastructure and services also increases. Currently, EV users frequently face issues including long wait times, unavailable charging stations, limited charging options, and other inefficiencies with station operations, all of which impact the adoption and user satisfaction of EVs. In addition, station operators must balance station utilization with real-time vehicle health monitoring to ensure seamless service while maintaining and growing their business.

In this blog, we’ll dive into how leveraging modern data processing technologies like Ververica’s Unified Streaming Data Platform helps to solve these challenges, optimizing real-time charging station operations, monitoring EV telemetry effectively, and helping to provide a reliable, efficient user experience for EV drivers and station operators alike.

EV User and Station Operator Challenges

Harvard Business School recently published an article about the infrastructure state of charging stations, calling them: “... unreliable and not as easy as topping off a tank of gas.” The research further demonstrates that chargers are, on average, only 78% functional and have “pricing like the ‘Wild West.’” Additional issues they discovered include concerns with:

• Charging cable management
• Charging station compatibility issues
• Slow charging speeds
• Unreliable charging infrastructure
• Safety of charging stations (particularly when charging speeds are slow)
• Connector compatibility problems
• EV charging apps are glitchy or unavailable
• Faulty charging
• Loose connectivity
• Payment difficulty
• Software glitches
• Unpredictable pricing models
• Charging "deserts"

In addition to these findings, EV drivers and station owner/operations experience other common key challenges and pain points, including:

• Station Availability: High EV adoption and a lack of available charging facilities leads to station congestion and delays.
• Operational Inefficiencies: Simply building charging stations is not enough. They must be staffed, maintained, and run efficiently. Stations may exist but remain unavailable to EV users due to issues like delays or operational downtime. These inefficiencies lead to lost revenue for station operators and frustration among EV users.
• Supply/Demand Mismatch: When there are more EV users than stations available to support drivers within a region, it results in congestion at the stations that are available. This imbalance creates delays and inconveniences for drivers, further undermining the user experience.
• Extended Wait Times: Unpredictable wait times and delays frustrate users and further impede adoption of electric vehicles.
• Vehicle Health Monitoring: EVs have specific, potentially expensive maintenance needs, making real-time data essential for operators to provide timely and safe maintenance.

Dynamic Solutions For Complicated Problems

Ververica’s Unified Streaming Data Platform is uniquely positioned to help solve each of these challenges Powered by VERA, the cloud-native engine that is revolutionizing Apache Flink®, Ververica is 100% compatible with open source Flink, the stream processing framework that excels at processing large columns of real-time data with low latency. In addition, Ververica leverages Fluss, the streaming storage system designed for real-time analytics, to deliver incredibly efficient data storage and retrieval capabilities. This combination enables Ververica to offer seamless data ingestion, analysis, and updates that can solve problems like those listed above. In the next section, let’s dive more deeply into the technology that tackles these specific challenges.

Real-Time Data Ingestion

Ingesting data in real-time allows for continuous collection of telemetry data and empowers instant decision-making and actionable insights. For example, EV metrics like battery level, charging needs, and vehicle location can be matched to station metrics including station availability, operational status, current wait time and load. The driver can decide, based on this data, where and when to stop and charge. The ability to pull data from multiple sources and then process that in real-time provides a better user experience, matching needs with available resources immediately.

Ververica provides the ability to process data dynamically, matching EVs with the most suitable charging stations. With intelligent data analysis, drivers can expect information like proximity of the nearest available stations, the availability and confirmation of open charging points, and load balancing which ensures that vehicles are distributed in order to avoid station overcrowding and long wait times. Matching in real-time both minimizes user wait time and optimizes the resources available in a given region.

Efficient Storage and Updates with Fluss

Fluss is open source software that is incorporated into Ververica’s solution and ensures low-latency updates and smooth integration with data Lakehouse architectures. This powerful technology allows for real-time updates, providing immediate visibility into changes that happen with station availability and wait queues. By simplifying streaming workloads with efficient updates via changelogs, Fluss directly consumes these updates by stream processing in real time. Its seamless Lakehouse integration, combined with real-time analytics and historical data insights to equip station operators with an up-to-date view of the changing network at all times, empowering prompt decisions and efficient and effective infrastructure management. In turn, drivers have a better experience and EV adoption continues to grow.

Outcomes That Transform Experiences

When users and businesses are armed with a solution that provides insight into the entire charging network, facilitating real-time, data-driven decision-making, numerous positive outcomes emerge. These include:

• Efficient resource allocation based on the number of users accessing available stations.
• Reduced wait times and faster charging assignments.
• Improved station utilization that optimizes the use of charging stations across the network by recommending stations based on balanced load and workflows.
• Enhanced user experience and proactive planning, with real-time notifications and charging options that allow users to know what to expect before arriving at a station.
• Predictable maintenance needs through telemetry trends that anticipate and address issues before they become emergencies.

What Other Challenges Can We Solve?

This integrated real-time data solution opens the door to a wide range of potential benefits. Combining data from a nearly infinite number of sources allows for some really interesting questions to be addressed. For example, analyzing historical maintenance reports for individual EVs or car models can help identify issues before they break down or cause downtime.

Aligning charging operations with data on renewable energy source availability not only supports sustainability strategies, but also maximizes the cost efficiency of owning an EV. Operators could also engage in dynamic pricing, incentivizing off-peak usage to improve grid stability. It could be helpful for both users and beneficial for business to allow users to schedule charging, providing them a guaranteed available slot, and allow trip planning that eliminates range anxiety all together. Or, station operators offer additional loyalty or membership programs along with text notifications as users drive close to their location.

The possibilities of using real-time data for vehicles extends far beyond EVs also. Imagine using real-time data to find the cheapest gas reliably, or the highest-rated, fastest service provider in a region. Ultimately, the power of real-time data at scale has profound implications that transform everyday life and businesses in ways we are just beginning to explore.

Conclusion: Building a Smart and Sustainable EV Ecosystem

In conclusion, leveraging Ververica’s Unified Streaming Data Platform provides a robust framework to solve known challenges with EV charging stations and operations, unlocking data-driven optimizations in real time. This solution in turn provides a reliable, efficient user experience, paving the way for a more efficient and user-friendly ecosystem. As a result, users and station operators alike can build and benefit from a highly scalable, sustainable, and user-centric EV ecosystem and stronger infrastructure.

Get Started

• Learn more about how Ververica solves other real-time use cases
• Watch the video (coming soon)
• Learn more about Fluss