Accelerate Your Charge Point Business Now, Not Later

Now is a time of growth and opportunity for those in the EV charge point business. David Patterson, our US Director of Sales, takes a look at why companies need to be able to move quickly and efficiently now, if they want to see success in the future.

With demand for electric vehicles (EVs) continuing to rise, charge point businesses are moving fast to secure locations for their charging stations. 

Within this context, I am seeing a recurring theme when talking to both prospective and current clients - the ability to evaluate and move on a site, and move now, is becoming invaluable. The quick and accurate identification of sites which are both profitable and maintainable is an invaluable asset in enabling them to beat their competitors, convince investors, and provide a sustainable return.

This is known as Charge Point Planning, or CPP, and is the process of collecting and collating data within structured models, in order to assess and project the potential value of a particular charge point location. The data pool needed for this is both huge and specific to the EV market, and without the right tooling in place it can be a daunting, fragmented, and hugely time-consuming task.

So what are the risks of not having the right CPP solution in place?

Loss of Profit

This might seem like an obvious one - a company that decides it will not invest in a paid platform for site assessment for the moment, will likely invest in ineffective sites and/or miss out on sites truly suited to their business goals. Equally, it is unlikely to have any real transparency on how existing sites are running, and therefore also run the risk of being unable to rectify any loss-incurring issues such as faulty hardware.

It can be shocking, however, just how significant this financial loss can be. I recently spoke to a customer who shared with me that their delay in implementing a charge point planning tool led them to an estimated loss of around $250,000 in recurring value each week for a period of six months. That is the kind of loss that many businesses cannot come back from. 

A Loss of Momentum

When it turns out that one or two sites in your network were indeed not the right choice for your business, it can result in a significant financial loss with a devastating snowball effect. There may be less buy-in on any future site proposals, fewer funds at hand for the necessary maintenance of existing sites, and of course business cuts might need to be made such as personnel, business services such as marketing, or indeed tooling.

Loss of Investor Interest

This is something of heightened relevance in an emerging market, with many young businesses needing the support of investors who believe in their goals. Getting the right sites up and running from the start, has never been more important. If charging sites show losses, it will become increasingly difficult to convince investors to invest more funds into decisions which are showing to have been faulty ones.

So how can the right software transform and accelerate a charge point business?

The most successful Charge Point Operators (CPOS) are avoiding these risks and maximizing on the opportunities that are out there right now, by prioritizing the charge point planning process and the tooling within it. 

They make sure they are set up for success when it comes to site assessment right from the start, or quickly realize they need to up their game in order to ensure they can achieve their goals.

In doing so, they benefit from:

• Accuracy - Real-time, EV-relevant data, collated in the same way each time, and assessed objectively within a data model targeted to the business need.
• Efficiency - Chosen sites can be assessed within the click of a few buttons, reducing previously manual processes from many business hours, in some cases days, down to a matter of a few minutes.
• Transparency - This is the “why” behind the insights. Many CPP tools offer businesses a data-driven result, but not many show the why behind the outcome. A transparent assessment score shows how the score came to be, and this can sometimes be more insightful to a business than the score itself.
• Flexibility - A favourite saying of mine is “One size fits nobody”. Out of the box tooling can be a great start but it misses all of the nuance of incorporating a business’ needs and goals. Tailored data models and the ability to absorb custom data particular to the business is a key feature in the right CPP solution.
• Collaboration - This is another biggie. Individual site reports are a snap shot in time. Whereas,  in-platform collaboration can significantly increase the efficiency of the site assessment process as it speeds up communication and refinement rounds between stakeholders.

With the right charge point planning platform or solution in place, the results begin to speak for themselves and the business success begins to accelerate. The right sites deliver on the estimated return on investment, allowing businesses to follow through on their planned next steps - whether these be strengthening their network by investing in the next sites or maintaining or enhancing existing sites. 

Of course, you know what I am going to say next - the Dodona Analytics Charge Point Planning Platform offers all the above benefits of the ideal Charge Point Planning solution, and one which our customers benefit from the moment they implement it in their charge point planning. 

Check out some of our customers’ stories here , on how transformative it has been for them here, and please do reach out to me here or on LinkedIn if you want to learn more about our CPP Platform.

You may also be interested in our latest eBook - a guide to building and maintaining a profitable charging network: