[ad_1]
//php echo do_shortcode(‘[responsivevoice_button voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Listen to Post”]’) ?>
While there is a positive outlook toward commercial opportunities in EV charging, there remain many challenges such as infrastructure and cost. Taiwan’s first charging and operating software company – Gochabar was founded in February this year to focus on integrating charge management, IoT, digital technologies, and green energy technologies with charging software and hardware. The company has been actively deploying charging areas based on its core smart charging management system and offering diverse, safe, and convenient services while embracing the opportunities and challenges of the charging market.
Rise of EVs Ignites Opportunities in Charging
The explosive growth of commercial opportunities in the global EV market has led to the rapid rise of the charging station market. Market research data shows that from 2022 – 2030, the market scale of EV charging stations will grow from US$46.5 billion to US$417.3 billion, achieving a CAGR of 31.5%.
Looking at the Taiwan market, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MoTC) estimates there will be 100,000 EVs in Taiwan by 2025, a number which will grow to 500,000 in 2030; however, the number of EV chargers currently available is numbered at approximately 7,000. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recommends the ideal state of “10 EVs:1 EV charger”; as such, current charging infrastructure is drastically insufficient for addressing the rapid growth and future demand of EVs as development in the near future will undoubtedly accelerate.
In light of the massive commercial opportunities in charging infrastructure, Gochabar, a company jointly funded by eTreego, Hotai Motor and Shihlin Electric, was founded initially as a systems integrator targeting both domestic and foreign residential buildings, enterprise deployment, and public deployment markets.
Wang Chien-Wen, General Manager of Gochabar explains that compared to existing business models of major charging station suppliers who provide hardware and partner with other companies for software, Gochabar provides charging hardware and software services based on the B2B model. This provides EV charge point operators (CPO) and other customers with one-stop integrated services from the engineering planning and construction of charging hardware, smart energy management systems, and post-sale repair.
Competitive Advantage: Safety-oriented Charging Design
With a full grasp of the core technology and vehicle-end customer requirements for charging hardware, Gochabar developed a cloud-based smart charging management system. “Compared to other system suppliers, the differentiation and advantage of Gochabar lie in the core safety requirements of EVs and EV chargers. Their development and design of the management system encompasses the basic functionalities of charging equipment.”
Wang Chien-Wen states that Gochabar’s cloud-based management solution offers 3 major features:
- Comprehensive energy management. Adept system-end application of technologies such as unbalanced current management, flexible charge scheduling, and current regulation.
- Support CPOs with solutions for cash flow and payment. Negates the necessity of an app by integrating official LINE accounts with third party payment services.
- High degree of integration with external systems. EV chargers can act as an independent management system or be integrated with other external systems such as parking management, property management, or security systems. Support for services such as one-time payment for parking and charging services in a single area.
Furthermore, Gochabar continues to enhance data security measures based in ISO15118 and vehicle communication protocols. The introduction of vulnerability analytics mechanisms assists in building enhanced data security for vehicles, EV chargers, and general cloud architecture.
Residential Buildings: Both Opportunity and Challenge
From the perspective of technology and business expansion, Gochabar’s systems integration services encompass 4 major categories of business customers: “the first is app-based charging service operators followed by CPOs who want to operate charging stations on their sites such as enterprises, hotels, department stores, or parking lots. The third type is residential buildings, especially building management committees. Lastly, there are also EV fleets such as electric buses and electric logistics vehicles.” Of these categories, residential buildings provide a massive opportunity as well as the greatest challenge in terms of business expansion.
Wang Chien-Wen states that charging demand for EVs is primarily generated through households and outdoor charging stations, “especially since 80% of EV charging activity is conducted in residential or commercial buildings while 20% is conducted outdoors.” For Gochabar, the biggest opportunity is in the household charging market, especially residential buildings. However, the installation of EV chargers in residential buildings requires compliance with energy management systems based on the specifications of Taiwan Power Company; this is where the Cloud Charging Management System (CCMS) developed and promoted by Gochabar can be applied.
Wang Chien-Wen also points out that there are currently 2 major obstacles in their residential building business: The first is safety considerations towards EVs and charging areas, the other is the implementation costs of charging areas.
“Safety” is where Gochabar’s core values can be fully expressed. Wang Chien-Wen states: “the cloud management systems provides 24-hour operation and ensures comprehensive security management with functions such as the monitoring and immediate response to abnormalities. The system is also capable of managing electricity usage to ensure it does not exceed contractual capacity or usage caps; functions such as scheduled charging, queue mode, or scenario-based current regulation can prevent power outages while catering to the economic management of electricity costs.” Furthermore, payment and management services through an official LINE account allow building management committees and residents to conveniently achieve their requirements for charging and third party payment.
The exorbitant deployment costs of charging facilities and basic power systems have also resulted in disputes in fairness. “For example, should residents who don’t own EVs share in implementation costs?” In order to address these issues, Gochabar has been patiently communicating with building management committees and residents or striving to decreases the burden of costs. Currently, Gochabar plans to utilize residential buildings as large-scale charging areas, allowing operators to enter and deploy charging and power systems while directly collecting payment from users. Thus far, the new plan has attracted the interest of many residential buildings.
TAcc+ Assists in the Overseas Export of New Models
Management required by electric buses and electric logistics vehicles. Gochabar plans to further integrate vehicle data and expand fleet management functionality to allow operators to increase their efficiency in energy use and management as well as functions such as smart routes and charge scheduling.
As for the company’s outdoor public charging station business, it will be dependent on cooperation with CPOs. Therefore, Gochabar primarily sells hardware to CPO and other partners who conduct their operations and promotions, or combine them with Gochabar’s service system. Also, through support and assistance from the latest accelerator, Taiwan Accelerator Plus (TAcc+), of the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, MoEA’s next-gen industry startup acceleration program, Gochabar is actively looking to expand into international markets in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.
Wang Chien-Wen states that throughout Gochabar’s service planning and development process, the TAcc+ program has provided recommendations and support for how startups can develop in the charging service industry; more importantly, the program provides matchmaking with both domestic and overseas companies. For example, support from TAcc+ has allowed Gochabar to contact Singapore’s carbon rights trading platform project developed through industry-academia collaboration and partner with local companies to invest in construction bids for charging infrastructure and accelerate expansion into overseas markets. Hopefully, additional strategic partnerships can be forged in the future for the joint discovery of even more opportunities and business models in emerging markets.
[ad_2]
Source link
