With charger availability largely accounted for with an incremental plan in place, 2024 will see an increased effort to improve the customer experience as the market moves from early adopters to early mainstream users.
With EV charging software being purpose-built to help make the charging experience for EV drivers and charge point operators managing a network, we expect it to play a huge role in 2024’s EV infrastructure. As such, some of the trends we expect are as follows:
Contactless payment and e-roaming
Equipping EV chargers with contactless payment terminals is another way of improving the user experience of EV charge point sites and keeping drivers happy. In 2024, we will see an increase in the variety of payment solutions available.
With contactless payments, customers can charge their car, pay for the usage using any card, and drive off quickly. EV charge point software providers, working in collaboration with industry partners, can help charge point operators accept all types of contactless payments via touch screen terminals that provide billing and payment information.
Contactless payments not only improve the accessibility of EV chargers for drivers but allow charge point operators to monetise their chargers easily. And drivers will no doubt use their chargers again in the future.
When it comes to meeting e-roaming requirements, software providers are working on signing cross-industry deals with network providers to give their users access to a huge range of charge points across Europe.
Incorporating software into sustainability strategies
With net zero approaching, many organisations will be focused on tracking sustainability goals; and software is a key means to do that. Not only does it provide live reports on usage and carbon emissions saving compared to using ICE equivalents, it’s also a complete necessity for those managing a network of charge points, say across an organisation.
As more organisations become aware of the benefits early transitioners are seeing in partnering with software providers for their EV charging rollouts, in 2024 we can expect to see an increase in software’s profile and its subsequent incorporation as a key part of any sustainability plan.
