WEBWIRE – Monday, September 11, 2023
Knowing where things are on a map is crucial for a good EV experience.
When someone says electric vehicles (EVs), you probably dont think of TomTom but you should. As the world goes electric, we must find ways to make living with EVs and using them in businesses as simple and effortless as possible. We need to rethink the experience and create something new, something that solves the problems of anyone or any business that uses electric vehicles, we need an excellent EV experience. Going electric is complicated for everyone, but it doesnt have to be and TomTom thinks its maps have the answer.
Industries arent shaped in ways that work for electric vehicles. For example, historically, businesses in the auto world, like carmakers and filling stations, worked separately from one another. But for EVs to really take off, we need these kinds of businesses to work and learn together, with the OEMS, with carmakers, fleet operators and charging providers, as a group. Were all moving together in this new direction, where theres a lot of learning we all have to do, Drew Meehan, TomToms Senior EV Product Manager, says.
Despite the vast learnings ahead, were not that far from a world of well-functioning, easy-to-use EVs. The world will look a little different to what were used to, though, consisting of three main elements: EV makers, charging infrastructure providers and mapmakers.
This third element, which is where companies like TomTom come in, will be key in facilitating, enabling and delivering the EV experience. They will be the ones to connect traditionally siloed industries and help accelerate EV adoption by providing access maps and location tech maps that hold solutions to the universal challenges that come with using electric cars, vans or trucks.
Knowing where things are on a map is crucial for a good EV experience.
Drew Meehan
TomTom Senior Product Manager, EV
Think expansively about EV
When talking about EVs, its easy and most common to focus on individual drivers, the consumer driver. Its easy to relate to, and for any of us that drive, its a position we can easily imagine ourselves in. But when TomTom talks about the EV experience, its referring to something far broader than that one instance.
The challenges of going electric are universal whether youre a parent driving your kids to camp, a fleet manager looking after hundreds of electric vans or an EV charger firm looking for the best place to build your next charging location.
Even if the end-user changes, the challenges of going EV remain the same. Fleet managers care about using the most economical and range maximizing routes as much as the family going on a long-distance road trip does. Minimizing the time spent charging, finding compatible chargers on route and scheduling when to charge is just as important to EV delivery firms as it is to the lone driver who commutes 100 miles (161 km) a day. Any optimization in any of these parts of the EV experience benefits everyone.
Rethinking the vehicle experience
Broadly speaking, in the combustion engine world, the companies that provide services, infrastructure and hardware, the things that come together to build the experience, havent had to be that connected.
Drivers and managers of combustion engine (ICE) fleets benefit from highly developed infrastructure, high quality navigation and routing, normalized driving behaviors and the fact that fueling and routing needs can exist simultaneously without much bother. Driving an ICE vehicle takes little planning, and were all far too used to that.For EVs, the situation is quite different.Driving an EV is very different to an internal combustion engine car when you could just fill up wherever you are or can easily find a gas station if required. Its different for fleets and their managers too, where using fossil fueled vehicles they only need to fill up once a week, not the once or twice a day they might with EVs, Balraz Singh, TomToms EV Specialist says. Owning and working with EVs takes some getting used to. It takes quite a bit more planning and a shift of mindset.
Not only do EV drivers and fleets need to think about how to get from A to B in the most efficient way, one that will maximize their vehicles range, they need to think about where they can charge on route, how long that will take and if itll affect their schedule. They must also check if the charger is compatible with their vehicle, if its working, if they need a subscription account with the charging provider and how they need to pay. Depending on the length of charge, they might also want to find somewhere close by to grab some refreshments or use it as part of a longer legislated rest stop if so, all this needs to be planned.The solution then is to connect everything together so that useful location information and context about charging, routing and range can find its way to the people that need to use it. Connecting all the dots will allow carmakers to provide drivers and fleet managers with economical EV-friendly routes based on the traffic of the day. It will allow for accurate range calculations based on the road ahead and the load of the vehicle. And it will help integrate charging into the everyday use of the EV, whether as part of delivery routes or personal commutes.If we can do those things, we can improve the EV experience, simplify it and make it much less stressful as easy as, well, driving.The dream is for it to all be seamless and near invisible. Good tech disappears, Meehan says. It should just vanish into the background and leave users with no stress, worry or concern. Great tech just works, and we never think about it again, like with satnavs, we put in our destination, we trust it and we get to where we need to go. And that should be the case for EVs.
Making, and mapping, something new
For this to happen, were going to need a few things: were going to need to connect in-vehicle systems with real-time information about charging points, were going to need EV routing algorithms that consider the specific EV being driven and its payload and were going to need a lot of fresh and constantly updated data about charging points and traffic.The key is map data, Singh says. And at TomTom were sitting on a very large pile of data that weve accrued, and continue to accrue, over the years.
Indeed, the challenges we face with electric vehicles and fleets are not challenges that carmakers or charging infrastructure providers can solve on their own. Some of the challenges are fundamental challenges of mapping, data and location information.
The problem today is you have a lot of people competing with each other [to make EV infrastructure and tech]. I think there has to be some grown-up syncing, some consortium work to bring the data together, Corinne Vigreux, TomToms Co-founder, said in a recent interview.
Heres where we see the opportunity for location technology and maps, Singh says. We [TomTom] can show the driver or fleet manager, the specific information on charging stations theyre looking for, like, is the plug type going to be compatible with their vehicle? Is the station occupied or not? Is the charger even working? How are they going to pay? With location data and maps, we can address the very specific needs of electric vehicles.Thats all well and good, but data is only useful if it can be interpreted by or presented to drivers and fleet managers in ways that are easily understood, help solve their problems, are reliable and can be trusted. Thats where TomToms EV products and strengths as a mapmaker hold a potential solution.
The experience as a collection of products and services
Years ago, we realized we had all the ingredients for EV and the mapmaking capabilities to do something with them, but they werent all brought together into products that the driver, fleet manager or end user could make use of, Meehan says. Thats what were changing to realize our vision.
TomTom isnt going to fix the challenges associated with EVs on its own. Itll require collaboration between automakers, OEMs, system developers, eMSPs and charging station providers.
To help all those players come together, and to connect data to end-users, TomTom is combining all of its ingredients to provide EV specific data, routing algorithms and location technology in the form of APIs and SDKs to those that build systems for EV fleet management or in-vehicle infotainment platforms for EVs, so they can obtain key information thats important to those driving and using EVs.
Think of it like this: imagine a new charging location is built and put online in a place that was previously a charging desert (a place with no EV chargers for miles around). As soon as these chargers are opened, TomToms map can reflect that information in cars, vans and on fleet management platforms, so people can start using and benefitting from the chargers. As soon as new plug types are added, or a charger becomes available to use, that information can also be sent to those that need it. Itll keep us constantly aware of an ever evolving and growing charging network.
TomTom can be the connection between all sorts of data about the world thats useful to those that use EVs such as, road characteristics, real-time traffic and weather forecasts for EV range calculations and routing.
Its these tools and services that bridge carmakers and charging infrastructure in a way that helps drivers and fleet managers now. We can maximize the use of the EVs and charging infrastructure we have now, alongside its further development. It can connect the in-vehicle experience and the charging experience, and for some, the fleet management experience, to create one, cohesive EV experience. It wouldnt be possible without the mapmaker.
Were so well-placed at TomTom to do this. Weve worked with OEMs for a long time, we know car integration, we know navigation, we know fleet and asset management and charging points are essentially just new forms of POI about which we gather information in real-time, to regularly update our map, Meehan adds.
Were incredibly invested in EV at TomTom for this reason, Singh explains. TomTom is a mapmaker and location tech company that knows driving like no other. The EV experience has very specific requirements that are different from fossil fueled vehicles, all of which can be solved with dedicated maps, location data, specialist EV location services and relationships with carmakers, charging providers and e-mobility service providers.The vision is clear, and TomTom is going to put the jigsaw puzzle together.
I equate this transition to electric vehicles to when the first iPhone came out. Everybody freaked out because the battery life was so short compared to the basic phones we were used to. But soon, everyone adapted. We charged during the day, took backup batteries on long trips and now were all quite used to it.
Drew Meehan
TomTom Senior Product Manager, EV