Purchasing your electric vehicle was one of the best investments you’ve ever made. It’s great for the environment and your wallet. However, keeping a charge on your car may be more of a struggle than you anticipated. Smart EV charging is coming to the rescue for many electric vehicle owners. People are wondering just how these smart chargers work and what the benefits are for their bottom lines.
If you are considering smart EV charging for your car, here is everything you need to know about how the process works:
What Is Smart EV Charging?
Smart EV charging is sometimes also referred to as intelligent charging. Smart EV charging occurs when an electric vehicle and a charging device have a data connection. In other words, the EV charger connects to the internet or the cloud. Meanwhile, the charging device has a data connection with the charging operator. This allows for different types of functions that aren’t available with a more traditional charging device.
For example, a traditional charging device doesn’t connect to the cloud. As a result, you can’t monitor or manage the charge remotely. With smart EV charging, car owners have the luxury of being able to restrict the use of their devices in order to optimize their energy consumption.
Other highlights of switching from traditional charging to smart EV charging include the ability to add and remove features. You can create a system that suits your needs with ease. This type of charger also allows you to minimize your dependence on the grid, as smart EV chargers can act in conjunction with renewable energy sources, including solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage.
Connecting with the Power Grid
If you are interested in smart EV charging, it’s helpful to know how it can benefit the power grid as well. When you enable smart charging through these means, it creates a mutually-beneficial relationship with the power grid. The smart EV charger and the power grid will serve one another.
This is great news for the power grid. Smart charging prevents electric vehicles from turning into a drain on the grid itself.
Future-Proofing with Smart EV Chargers
Technology is growing and expanding at incredible rates. Even just a couple of decades ago, electric vehicles seemed like a distant dream. As we learn more about how to manufacture electric vehicles, scientists and researchers have determined that there may still be a long way to go before the technology is perfected.
One of the major benefits of smart EV chargers is that they’re mostly future-proof. Because you can add and subtract features at will to create a custom system, smart EV chargers will easily be able to adapt to changes in technology.
Researchers and developers who come up with new solutions can turn their ideas into features that can be easily added to the smart system. As renewable energy sources continue to grow in popularity, these will also start to be more compatible with the system. Consider how rapidly science has already advanced in the past two decades, and you will likely find yourself amazed at how these smart EV chargers will continue to evolve in the years to come.
How Smart EV Charging Works
Are you interested in how smart EV charging actually works? If you have never used an electric vehicle or smart charging before, the process may feel a bit foreign to you. Once you do it a few times, you’ll get the hang of it and start to appreciate the simplicity of the process.
First, you’ll identify yourself and your car at the charging station. You may need to use the mobile application or scan your RFID tag at the charging point.
This proof of identity serves to connect you, the charging point, and your charging event together in a meaningful way. This step is also designed to exact the appropriate price for your charging service. From here, the money will be sent to the charging station owner automatically.
If you are an unregistered user, don’t worry. You can still use these smart EV charging stations, but you’ll have to pay with a debit or credit card for the services.
Charging is based on the settings and prices selected by the station owner. You won’t have to adjust anything. All you need to do as the vehicle owner or operator is to identify yourself and plug into the charger. Utilizing smart EV charging is almost effortless, though a lot of things must occur on the back-end; what you’ll experience as the car driver will be relatively simple, though.
Benefits of Smart EV Charging
If you’re wondering about the benefits of smart EV charging, there are quite a few things to consider. Electric vehicle owners will want to make the switch to this internet-based charging option in order to get a faster charge, a safer charge, and a less expensive charge.
The first thing to note is that you can often charge faster using this method. Because it’s a smart system, you’ll gain access to the maximum amount of energy with many stations ranging from 22 kW to 150 kW.
Not only is it faster to use smart EV charging, but it’s also safer than using a household socket. The technology is set up to test the connection between the car and the charging device at the very beginning. The charge is monitored throughout and can easily be controlled from a remote location.
Last but not least, smart EV charging is also beneficial for the environment (and your wallet). You can use this type of charge to time your charge when electricity is the least expensive. You will save precious dollars and cents by using less expensive energy, but it will also help to balance the grid.
As this type of charging grows in popularity, there’s the possibility that energy companies may offer an incentive for charging this way. You may have to use your car battery as a source of power at times, but it could save you financially in the long run if this were to become the case.
Connecting to the Cloud
Smart EV charging is the way of the future for all-electric vehicles. Connecting to the cloud packs a powerful punch when it comes to your home EV charging in Winnipeg. Let Powertec Solar help you coordinate your new system. Our experienced technicians can walk you through just why you need smart EV charging and get you set up in no time at all. Give us a call today to learn more about this service!
