Commercial viability of the charging infrastructure is vital to a sustainable EV market

The charging infrastructure sphere comprises all services ranging from manufacturing the charging stations to setting up the physical infrastructure and managing the delivery of energy.

Today’s charging industry

Charging industry stakeholders continue to wrangle over standards, each championing a favorite solution. Behind the scenes, some governments are still deciding how involved to be.

Market strategies differ among Asian, North American, and European countries. These differences may become different regional standards, slowing growth for all.

It’s likely chargers will be located at home and work. Other charging locations include:

• Hotels and restaurants
• Car rental/sharing
• Fleet managers
• Gas stations
• Parking lots

Introducing the EV charging value chain

The basic elements of the emerging EV charging value chain are clear. It must:

• Transfer energy from an outlet to a vehicle
• Track information of the energy provider and the energy recipient
• Include a payment system easy for the customer to understand and easy for the energy distributer to integrate with existing systems
• Meet government regulations and carmaker requirements

However, some of the smaller details remain unclear.

For the purpose of this analysis, we envision the EV charging value chain as a combination of four spheres inter-connected by over 18 activities.

1. The charging infrastructure sphere comprises all services ranging from manufacturing the charging stations to setting up the physical infrastructure and managing the delivery of energy through the network of charging stations.
2. The utility sphere involves activities ranging from generating and distributing energy to billing the end-user for consumption.
3. The OEM sphere comprises all activities associated with the vehicle, ranging from selling to maintenance, operating and up to the end of its life cycle.
4. These three spheres revolve around the customer sphere, which is the private or business user of EVs, and encompasses the services they need over their ownership cycle of the vehicle.

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