"It’s an Exciting Time for the EV Charging Industry" - ChargePoint's Head of Europe, Joe Gorman

Since 2007, California-based ChargePoint has been supplying electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions that work with every make and model of EV on the road. In the European markets, it offers a variety of charging infrastructure solutions for commercial, fleet and public use.

"Our mission is to make driving electric easy by offering charging hardware that enables access to our world class software platform," Joe Gorman, Head of Europe at ChargePoint, tells Auto Futures. 

"This platform is especially critical for those operating fleets, charging businesses, automotive manufacturers (OEMs), and smaller entities that just want to offer charging to their customers or employees. For drivers, we make it easy to find, use and pay for charging at over 700,000 locations across Europe, all via the ChargePoint app or the dashboard of select EVs."

It's particularly involved in the fleet management sector in the UK and Europe, providing charging solutions for depot, en-route, and take-home fleet charging.

"We recently announced the availability of a low-cost commercial vehicle charging solution to enable more fleets to go electric at a lower cost, which is particularly appealing to smaller businesses. The charger enables access to the aforementioned class-leading fleet management platform, enabling fleets to maximise the benefits of electrification, whether they operate a few vehicles or a few thousand."

ChargePoint entered the European market in 2017.

In 2021 it acquired the BE.energised cloud-based software platform for managing EV charging networks, which has been ntegrated into its European offerings. 

"From an OEM point of view, we work with some of the largest passenger and commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world, ranging from Porsche to Daimler Buses. Many of these OEMs build their own charging businesses upon ChargePoint’s software platform, branding it for themselves to deliver a proven, seamless experience powered by ChargePoint," explains Gorman.

Wider E-Mobility

The EV sector is clearly going through a difficult period in Europe, the UK and elsewhere. However, ChargePoint aims is to making EV ownership more convenient for drivers by ensuring that they have reliable charging options wherever they go.

"This is largely thanks to our app, which makes it easy to locate, access, and pay for charging across the UK and Europe. In the UK, we work with some of the biggest names in the industry to build out public charging in both urban and rural settings. One such rural initiative is the partnership our customer RAW Charging has with the National Trust, providing charging at some of the most beautiful sites across Britain," says Gorman.

Its software platform offers a number of features designed to boost EV adoption, particularly in the B2B sector.

"For fleets, we resolve common issues like reimbursing company car drivers when they charge at home, and separating home electricity usage from vehicle charging usage through our handy platform. For businesses and municipalities who wish to offer charging, the platform offers dynamic charging, proactive monitoring, remote analytics and more - all of which can be tailored for a particular business need."

For charging service providers, we continuously expand our features to make their businesses more attractive to drivers and financially rewarding for themselves," he adds.

Interoperability is also important for reliable and functional EV charging across Europe.

"It ensures the basic yet critical functionality of chargers communicating with vehicles when charging, which is facilitated by software. In doing so, it provides more confidence and convenience for drivers, thereby facilitating great EV adoption and contributes to wider e-mobility in the region."

Plug And Charge

AI is already being utilised by the EV charging industry, particularly in accelerating diagnosis and repair of charging stations in the field. 

"ChargePoint is in the process of rolling out an AI-powered driver support tool for its own branded stations in the field, which processes images of physical chargers to identify hardware problems that cannot be detected remotely. The app links the issue to the driver’s location and in most cases eliminates the need for a site visit just to diagnose the issue. This reduces charger downtime, and streamlines the repair process, thanks to AI," says Gorman.

Finally, we asked him what other charging innovations we can expect in the near future.

"It’s an exciting time for the EV charging industry, with businesses and EV drivers much better educated and market dynamics ripe for disruption. The next couple of years will be all about charging software, enabling the optimisation of all charging scenarios."

"One example is. 'Plug and Charge' technology, which allows drivers to simply plug in their vehicles and charge without additional authentication or payment steps, is already here, and its presence will expand in years to come," Gorman concludes.