An Electric 2024: A Year in Review

The team looks back at 2024 through the lens of Dodona Analytics, offering their take on what has been an electric year for Dodona and the EV industry.

This week, as 2024 is about to disappear into our rear-view mirror, our regular authors and the Dodona executive team reflect on the year with their take on the EV infrastructure industry, what has been the priority for our clients, the technology trends, and an update on what has been an electric year for Dodona. 

Stefan, on Dodona Analytics

It’s been a very exciting year for Dodona Analytics, that we could describe as a breakthrough year, and it’s been a privilege to lead this team through what we’ve achieved. A talented group that we have grown by over 70% in the last year and at every company meeting I get to welcome so many new faces. 

Some of those new faces have had American accents, as we now have a very established business in the US that has significant momentum with not just new colleagues, but new clients and some really interesting projects in the pipeline as the US continues to invest with public and private funding in making the switch to EVs. 

In our software category international expansion is not just about sales and marketing, but R&D investment in the product to meet local market needs. It’s been exciting to see the development team grow and release some really innovative features that have been welcomed by our clients and changed their businesses. 

All of this was fueled by our most exciting announcement this year; in June we secured Series A funding, led by Flashpoint Venture Capital with the participation of WaVe-X. That not only enables us to accelerate our development but validates our strategy and belief in the revolution of electrification in mobility.      

This not just validates our strategy, but the whole Charge Point Planning software category, in which I am proud to see, through this talented team and our fantastic innovative clients, we are being recognized as an emerging leader. 

Dr. Stefan Furlan is the founder and CEO of Donoda Analytics and following his PhD in Intelligent Systems, has been a serial data technology entrepreneur.
Follow and connect with Stefan here on LinkedIn.

Chris, on The Industry 

In an industry that has benefited from a significant boost from legislation, we can’t ignore that 2024 has been a year of uncertainty, with changes in the political landscape across major EV markets, prevarication on governmental policy and targets, and the threat of tariffs. It’s hard to predict how heavy the thumb of legislation will sit on the commercial scale in favor of EV ownership.

Softening global economies has created further uncertainty. It has meant a slowdown in car sales across the board, regardless of their engine, which has challenged automotive manufacturers, specifically on how they will meet the legislation mandating EV car production and sales. 

The rollout of EV charging stations across countries outside the most progressive, like Norway, is still behind consumer demand and government adoption targets. It’s unclear if this is a cause or an effect. If slow charger rollout is contributing to “range anxiety” denting consumer confidence in EVs, or if the economic and adoption trends are affecting confidence in investing in EV infrastructure.

However, from the consumer perspective, the underlying trends have been positive, with inexpensive new models being launched, heavy new car discounting, and an increased supply of used EVs, it has never been a better time financially to make the switch to EV. In fact, in the UK in November, 1 in 4 new cars sold was an EV. (BBC)   

So, the opportunity for charge point operators remains strong, and we are seeing a number of exciting entrepreneurial ideas for meeting the demand for consumers. It remains  an exciting opportunity.  

Chris Chamberlain is our VP Americas and co-founder, but he is also an avid evangelist for the industry and has amassed a strong following on LinkedIn for his insight and forthright views; you can follow Chris here on LinkedIn.

Boris, on Tech

When I was asked to comment on the technology of 2024, it’s impossible not to mention generative AI which seems to continue to dominate every technology conversation. 

I’m always curious about new ways to solve the complex problems our R&D team works on, so I took a dive into ChatGPT and shared what I learned in this blog post. It’s been a few months since I wrote that, and this technology moves fast, but I don’t think ChatGPT and these generically available tools are stealing the jobs of charge point planners quite yet. But I continue to experiment; it’s an exciting space. 

On the topic of complexity, the models and data points needed to make good decisions on where to install chargers have become more sophisticated to support a maturing market with more competition for both new sites and investment. This has been a great challenge, and we’ve invested heavily in development and rolled out a long list of new features, keeping our clients competitive. 

What’s also become clear is that “rolling your own” is no longer a great strategy when it comes to the technology used in planning - I stand by the point I made on this blog in August:

"When deciding what to focus on, maximize your own solutions where your company is producing value and minimize self-made solutions when they are not part of your core business - especially if better solutions already exist."

Obviously, I am biased, but we can definitely offer a better solution, as I see what the team is working on every day. As I reflect on what we’ve built this year, we can be proud of how it’s helping our customers. 

As Head of Engineering, Boris Marn directs our R&D Investment, drives product development aligned with our customer needs, fosters innovation, and mentors our engineering team.
Follow and connect with Boris here on LinkedIn.

Phil, on Our Customers

As we’ve grown through 2024, it’s been an eventful year for our customer services team as we’ve been onboarding a raft of new clients, and I wanted to share what we have learned from our customers over the last 12 months.

There were some clear themes across all clients; the first was that profitability is key, with one Dodona customer stating, “We live or die through site selection”, and the ongoing need for sustainable success.

Taking a data-led approach to making consistent, objective, well-informed site assessment and selection decisions at speed is the primary benefit our clients share with me. But what’s interesting is how they make the most of our customization and configuration options, importing their own data, and we build models that are uniquely theirs, playing to the strengths of their business, the hardware they install, and their business model. 

To better support our clients, we’ve grown the team during 2024 and developed an expert services methodology to take clients from commissioning through the various customization options and rollout. 

Phil Radcliffe is our Chief Delivery Officer. He has an accomplished track record of customer success and project delivery leadership with a strong empathy and advocacy for the needs of our customers.
Connect with and follow Phil here on LinkedIn.

Janja, on the Dodona Analytics Team

We are very lucky here at Dodona Analytics to be drawing relevant and impressive talent to our team. As a young company, it is important that we can attract the right people so that our product can continue to support the needs of the market.

This has been showcased in our Meet the Team blog series, in which we interview one Dodona team member at a time. It has been a real pleasure to introduce these professionals to our community, but also on a personal level to get to know our employees to new depths.

So far we have spoken to some of our impactful team members, including Data Scientists, Technical Consultants, Sales Managers and Human Resource experts. Each has brought their own personality and expertise into unique focus, and emphasized their work and career ethic. What I have found most impressive so far is their willingness to share these passions and insights, and a real warmth which I feel radiates out from their words.

A relatively new series, we have so many more team members to chat to and I can’t wait to introduce them to you and our wider community. The Dodona team has so much to give, in terms of our product of course, but also when it comes to ensuring that the expert skills of our team members are applied in support of a sustainable, and clean future. Roll on 2025!

Janja Hren is the HR Manager here at Dodona Analytics. As a recent addition to the team, Janja believes in life-long learning and capacity-building, nurtured by a wide-ranging experience in the field of HRM.
Follow and connect with Janja here on LinkedIn.

Junaid, on the Market

It has been an exciting year of growth and evolution for the EV charging industry, and some of the key recurring themes remain the same as far as new and upcoming entrants to the market are concerned. 

Firstly, the financial viability of proposed charging sites is paramount. Our clients really want to understand a site’s potential for the kind of return on investment they want to achieve and, indeed, the factors that influence this. 

Secondly, securing funding remains a challenge for a number of CPOs just entering the market. Profitability and meeting targets are integral to scoring such investment, and of course, potential investors want to understand the financial viability of any proposed sites before they are happy to commit to the investment. It has become clear that getting a good return on investment is not always enough, and that the ability to prove the consistent nature of a profitable decision-making process is also invaluable. 

Finally, it’s good to learn that new CPOs recognize the importance of data-driven decision-making from the get-go, instead of as an afterthought following a poor investment into chargers deployed at a failing site. Taking a considered, data-led approach to selecting potential charging sites based on the relevant criteria and data sets that are constantly updated is a key element within the successful CPO’s growth strategy. It is fair to say that CPOs are abandoning guesswork in favor of data-driven processes, and I believe this will remain a core building block for many key players in the EV charging value chain throughout 2025.

Junaid Munir is an EV Evangelist and leads our European Business Development, helping the eMobility industry make better, evidence-based decisions with data science and AI to accelerate the successful transition to a lower carbon future.
Follow and connect with Junaid here on LinkedIn.