In the world of digitalization, vehicle data is becoming increasingly important. Why is vehicle data relevant for fleet management? What contribution does it make to the challenging electrification of the vehicle fleet? And what role does intelligent charging management play in this?
We will answer these questions in this article and take a closer look at how the operation of the electric fleet can be optimized with the right vehicle data.
Telematics is made up of the terms telecommunications and information technology, and links these areas together. The technology is used to record and transmit vehicle data.
There are a variety of telematics systems, such as black box telematics devices, app-based telematics devices for the smartphone or OBD2 port telematics devices.
Vehicle manufacturers can also offer their own telematics software. If manufacturers do not offer these, companies can rely on hardware devices, such as an OBD2 port telematics device.
OBD is short for on-board diagnostics and describes a vehicle diagnostic system integrated into the car, which is an international standard for all vehicles. OBD2 is the second generation of an on-board diagnostic system that can read, monitor and process all the vehicle's ECUs - it is the gateway to the vehicle's health. The OBD2 port is usually located under the steering wheel and is familiar from workshop visits, for example, to read out faults in the car.
An OBD2 telematics plug is inserted accordingly into the OBD2 port and connected to the OBD interface in the vehicle. However, the code to be read out varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
Telematics collects relevant data from the vehicle that is indispensable for the operation of an electric fleet, such as the state of charge (SoC) or the energy required for each journey.
Vehicle data is highly relevant for fleet management. They come into play when fleet decision makers need to make informed decisions about charging electric vehicles.
ISO 15118 is an international standard that is intended to regulate bidirectional communication between electric vehicles and charging stations. Both the vehicle and the charging station must support the standard. ISO 15118 specifically supports Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and automatic authorization and payment of the charging process (Plug & Charge). Authorization via an RFID card can be omitted at this point. The vehicle automatically identifies and authorizes itself at the charging station, which then starts the charging process.
Read more about bidirectional charging here.
Having the right data available is key to efficient electric vehicle operation in any fleet.
If the fleet is to be electrified, the biggest concerns are that
OCPP stands for Open Charge Point Protocol and describes a standard that regulates communication between charging stations and a backend. The backend can then perform billing or, to a limited extent, charge management.
Modbus is a communication protocol used to transfer information between two or more devices via serial or proprietary connections.
OCPP and Modbus are both open protocols, which means that manufacturers can integrate it into their products without having to pay license fees. The difference here is standardization: OCPP is intended to be the standard for controlling charging stations, while Modbus communication varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.
API stands for Application Programming Interface and describes a programming interface with which applications can communicate with each other. It is provided directly by the manufacturer.
An intelligent charging management system like IO-ELON uses vehicle data to create new charging profiles and 24h charging forecasts for the fleet vehicles.
The vehicle data is either transmitted
to the cloud. The algorithm uses the vehicle data to decide how and when to charge the vehicles.
In addition to the vehicle data, the charging and energy management algorithm also takes into account the energy consumption of the building and the energy consumption of an installed PV system (if present). A charging schedule for the electric fleet for the next 24 hours is then created.
The charging commands are passed on to the charging stations accordingly. The charging stations therefore do not communicate directly with the vehicles, so they do not necessarily have to be intelligent and have ISO 15118, for example, as the charging infrastructure communicates via the charging management system.
The fleet management system thus ensures that
Vehicle data can be used to manage a vehicle fleet efficiently. An intelligent charging management system ensures that electric vehicles are optimally charged and reliably operated.
If you would like to learn more about how our intelligent charging and energy management system can be used to manage your electric fleet or would like to see a demo, feel free to send us a message via our contact form.