The Charging Network Management Platform (CNMP) provides unique AI-enabled capabilities required to administrate multi-vendor, multi-stakeholder environments that can be comprised of multiple consolidated networks. CNMP has been designed to operate both existing and future charging infrastructure including megawatt chargers, onsite battery storage, physical and cybersecurity elements, plus comprehensive maintenance through a partnership with IBM.
Commercial EV charging networks, also known as charge point operators (CPOs), have steadily grown in numbers for over a decade along with the rise of electric vehicles in all categories. In the United States, funding from the federal government under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program (NEVI) led to numerous new CPOs being created. “Now that NEVI funding has been cut back under the Trump Administration, along with the general trend towards consolidation that accompanies any major technological advancement, charging network operators are inheriting systems based on multiple vendors’ software and management tools,” said David Knight, CEO of Terbine. “The Charging Network Management Platform is intended to introduce an overall ‘Supervisory Layer’ with centralized monitoring and control to ensure seamless, efficient and reliable operations,” Knight continued.
According to numerous studies, with the exception of the Tesla Supercharging Network, commercial CPOs tend to operate with an average of only 80% reliability. This and other functional issues have led to great frustration on the part of EV owners, and a generally poor impression that prevents both consumers and businesses from acquiring electric vehicles. To address these problems head-on, Terbine teamed up with IBM to bring its industry-leading Maximo asset and maintenance management platform into the EV charging environment. Many of the largest organizations in the world, some of whom are currently building up their zero-emissions fleets, already use Maximo in their daily operations, thus making integration of their fleet charging infrastructure with Terbine’s CNMP both straightforward and rapid.
Terbine says that a challenge facing organizations consolidating CPOs is the creation of a unified payments environment that works with many different methods for charging activation including mobile apps, in-vehicle-infotainment (IVI) systems and charger-mounted card readers. To address this, Mastercard has produced its cloud-based automotive payments gateway which links in not only its own card products but those by VISA, Amex, Discover and over 200 issuing banks. By linking the gateway with Terbine CNMP, virtually every aspect of payment processing is covered.
