It’s an exciting time for Charge Point Operators (CPOs) rolling out EV Charging Infrastructure. With conditions just right, the ability to seize this promising future, and to do so quickly, will enable them to get their foot in the door while it is still wide open. Junaid Muneer discusses the significant benefits of acting now.
For those looking to become Charge Point Operators, or indeed for CPOs already in the game, the time is ripe for building and expanding a charge point business (see The business case for CPOs). Legislative incentives, consumer demand and climate needs are driving the public towards electric vehicles (EVs) like never before and in a market which is still relatively fresh, this means the opportunity is a-knocking.
There is, of course, a flip side to all of this. When it comes to the prime locations for hosting an EV charging station, well, these are more or less finite in number. As they say in real estate, they are not making any more land, and in the world of EV charging, there will be a limit in any geography on the number of sustainable and profitable EV charging sites. The consequences of not acting quickly, therefore, are significant.
But what might slow a CPO down if there is so much fantastic possibility surrounding them?
Put bluntly – data. Before being able to decide which sites are worth investing time and money into, CPOs need to collect and interpret data from a multitude of sources, hoping of course that this data is indeed accurate and up to date. This process can take considerable time in some cases many weeks and can turn the task of identifying and qualifying potential charging sites into a formidable roadblock.
Even worse than going at a snail’s pace, is a diversion. Charge Point Operators who find themselves unable to move as quickly as their competitors are one thing, with sales missing out on tenders purely due to slow response times, but making bad decisions on the viability of sites can lose a business both money and momentum. With their capital clogged up in inefficient deployments and unprofitable sites, they find themselves having to work harder to get their next investment before they can even move on to winning the good opportunities.
The value of quick action
The ability to identify and qualify which sites are worth pursuing quickly is key to increasing tender response time and creating a profitable network. Once a CPO is able to pursue one or more sites which are worth its time and effort then the wheels begin to turn. The chosen tenders can be responded to confidently and with dedication, and once won, their well-informed decision-making process is rewarded with a profitable return on investment.
The quicker a charge point operator sees a return on investment from a project, the quicker they can attract more investment, claim the next high-value opportunity, and quickly turn that from a pilot site into a profitable project. As this process repeats itself, trust from investors and landowners is gained, with the CPOs clearly demonstrating an ability to pick profitable locations, and install chargers at pace and scale.
Quickly answering when opportunity knocks
So, when an opportunity comes knocking, CPOs do not want to be slowed by a mountain of data blocking their path. Thankfully they can escape this drudgery by using site assessment/network planning tools (such as Dodona eMobility) for this resource-intensive part of the process. Such platforms gather and aggregate the many relevant EV infrastructure-specific data points which support a sales opportunity, and present them clearly and intuitively. With Dodona, this is all done and dusted in a matter of a few clicks.
For sales, getting this kind of groundwork covered at speed is a game-changer. The ability to identify sites which are both feasible and viable in a matter of minutes, without weeks of prior data analysis, is an incredible advantage to have over your competitor in any situation, let alone across multiple tenders.
This is the feedback we often hear from our clients in the industry – here’s a taster of what Dodona client PoGo Charge has to say on how it uses our platform within its network development team to advance its EV Charging network. There is more to come from them soon so keep an eye on the blog.
Built specifically for the EV industry, Dodona Analytics eMobility (DeM) platform can provide an almost instant boost to sales and operations accuracy and productivity, and there is no time like the present to leverage these advantages.
Here is what we do – book a free workshop to see how DeM could help.