Driivz is showing its end-to-end smart EV (electric vehicle) charging and energy management software platform at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2023 this week, introducing the telecommunications industry leaders to the new revenue opportunities they can realize by offering EV charging services. The leadership team from the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company is there to convince the industry that EV charging is a natural fit for telecom providers.

“Telecom companies have unique advantages that can lead to rapid success in this new market,” said Driivz Founder and CEO Doron Frenkel. “They have existing operational and infrastructure assets they can leverage to meet the rapidly growing demand for EV charging. They are already deeply engaged day-to-day with a large and diverse customer base and can offer value-added services to their subscribers, from an all-inclusive solution for charging electric vehicles, to on-site consultancy, professional installation of hardware, EV charging operations, field service, and customer support.”

A subsidiary of Vontier Corp., Driivz was founded in 2013 by Frenkel. From locations in Israel, the U.S., and Europe, the company claims to power the largest EV charging networks in the world with a market-leading, “telco-grade” solution aimed at increasing customer loyalty, preventing churn, and maximizing new revenue generation. Its platform currently manages tens of thousands of public chargers and hundreds of thousands in roaming, with hundreds of millions of transactions per month for more than one million EV drivers in North America, Europe, and APAC.

 

Promoting managed chargers

The company’s technology has huge potential to make a positive impact on EV adoption.

Lack of confidence in the quality and quantity of the charging infrastructure is holding back consumers from purchasing EVs, especially in the U.S. However, the U.S. is looking to support the growing fleet by investing in the infrastructure through legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act and other mechanisms.

One primary issue holding back growth is that many of the chargers initially installed are not managed, meaning they do not have connected computers for remote monitoring. That is especially the case in the U.S., where operators do not know when chargers are having operational issues.

Having managed chargers is important for many reasons. One of the primary ones is that, as more are installed in local areas to keep up with the growing EV fleet, they can help with load balancing by controlling the power remotely. If not, EVs could impact the grid and actually can kill it without the technology, says Frenkel.

He recommends that anyone involved in upgrading charging infrastructure like the U.S. government use technology that is self-healing and ensures that service level agreements are written to so that chargers are kept “up and running.”

“We have the technology to do that,” said Frenkel, emphasizing that chargers should be remotely supported to manage the energy. “In the States, there [are] so many non-managed chargers on the ground. Just replace them with managed chargers.”

Forward-thinking companies like EVgo, the largest public fast-charging network in the U.S., are doing just that, according to Frenkel.

“[EVgo] started by building their own homegrown solution,” said Frenkel. “At the beginning of 2017, they migrated their old platform to our Driivz platform. Today they’re developing based on APIs on top of the platform. They’ve created their own front end, their own app, but they’re using our back office.”

 

Recent implementations powering growth

That momentum is accelerating.

Earlier in February, Francis Energy, LLC announced it had migrated its charging network in Middle America of more than 130 public DC fast EV locations to the Driivz smart EV charging and energy management platform. It supports the charging company’s mission to eliminate range anxiety by building stations every 50 mi. The company is the fourth-largest owner and operator of fast-charging stations in the U.S., having secured public grants in Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, and Alabama to build charging stations along highway corridors.

The Driivz solution for Francis Energy provides integrated software modules for EV charge point operations including real-time operator dashboards, remote and automatic issue resolution, EV charging billing, and complex reconciliations between ecosystem partners. Francis Energy also migrated to a branded version of the Driivz white-label mobile app, which enables drivers to locate and start a charge, track usage history, and receive discounts and promotions.

“We selected Driivz because the platform’s scalability will enable us to optimize the management of thousands of DC fast chargers as we build out our network across the Heartland and achieve operational excellence,” said David Jankowsky, Founder and CEO of Francis Energy, adding that the company built the nation’s first contiguous statewide fast-charging network in its home state of Oklahoma, providing coverage in rural areas, underserved communities, and on tribal lands.

Jankowsky says that the federally funded NEVI (National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) formula program offers significant opportunities for the rapidly growing public charging industry. The flexibility of the Driivz platform enabled the company to enhance additional business channels such as its partnership with GoMart convenience stores covering West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio.

Even traditional energy companies are getting into EV charging and looking for innovative technology to rapidly scale.

In September, Shell announced that it had selected the Driivz platform to help accelerate the build-out of new charging locations in more than 10 European countries, supporting the energy company’s ambition to operate over 500,000 charge points globally by 2025 and 2,500,000 by 2030. Initially, Shell will deploy Driivz’s EV charge point operations management software as the framework for new installations in Austria and France, leveraging the platform’s scalability to expand to other European markets.

The Driivz platform’s real-time monitoring of charger status and remote self-healing capabilities can proactively resolve up to 80% of charger issues, enabling Shell to deliver a better charging experience. The Driivz platform is hardware-agnostic and supports many charger types and standards, providing Shell with a solution that is future-ready and backward-compatible for OCPPs (Open Charge Point Protocols), and capable of roaming with other EV charging networks. The solution will integrate with the driver-facing Shell Recharge app. Driivz’s smart energy management software and proprietary interface for EV fleet management will also complement Shell’s support for commercial and fleet customers in decarbonizing and electrifying their fleets.

In addition to EVgo, Francis Energy, and Shell, key Driivz customers include Volvo Trucks; Mer, the leading European EV charging operator owned by Statkraft; and Japanese EV charging provider E-Mobility Power.

 

Modular, self-healing technology

Driivz says its white-label software solutions can be used throughout the ecosystem for applications such as fleets, retailers and other hosts, municipalities, commercial and industrial buildings, and multi-dwelling units. Proprietary self-healing algorithms can address up to 80% of software-related operational problems remotely without human intervention, making the entire charging environment more stable for users, as well as lowering the total cost of ownership.

The company’s smart energy management solutions enable optimal utilization of the grid, energy, and cost savings along with the integration of EV charging with renewables, batteries, and building management systems. The company has developed and deployed an integrated billing engine that supports multiple business models to ensure customers can monetize their networks and gain a competitive advantage by offering innovative billing plans.

The Driivz cloud-based modular platform can deliver a fully integrated solution and supports customization, API-based development, and customer-provided software such as existing driver apps. It consists of Operations Management to manage aspects of EV charging to ensure operational excellence, EV Charging Billing to monetize charging networks while supporting multiple business models, Energy Management to reduce energy costs and initial investment in infrastructure using smart energy management capabilities, and EV Driver Self-Service Tools for mobile or web app for real-time charger location, availability, reservations, payments, and route planning.

The solution is certified for OCPP 1.6 and complies with ISO 15118, OCPP 2.0.1, ISO 27001, and local regulations like Eichrecht to support more than 200 charger types. The company believes its support for standards will enable the introduction of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) energy transfer as the industry adopts this technology and hopes to avoid vendor lock-in.