Oliver Adrian has joined chargecloud, a provider of cloud-based software solutions for the electric mobility industry, as its Chief Operating Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, focusing on growing the company on an international scale across Europe. Previously, Oliver was the Head of European EV Charging & Energy Strategy, Business Development and Go-to-Market at Ford Motor Company.
We spoke to Oliver to find out more about his new role, and discuss new insights into the public charging industry.
Could you tell us a little bit more about your new role?
I am joining chargecloud as COO and CRO, with a big focus on driving our European expansion. So far, chargecloud is having a very strong footprint in central Europe, but we have started to expand to countries such as France, Spain, and Italy – and potentially further down the road, regions like the United Kingdom, the Nordics, and so on.
What are drivers seeking in a public charging experience, and what can charging point management firms such as chargecloud offer to CPOs to meet these demands?
I think the requirements for CPOs (Charging Point Operators) are continuing to increase and become ever more complex. We’re not just looking at complex operations like payment invoicing, settlements, and clearing but also at a continuously changing diverse regulatory framework on a European and national level. That is where we step in. We substantially reduce this complexity for CPOs on all levels so they can focus on their core business, which is selling energy to EV drivers. By doing so, we give the CPOs the tools to provide a great customer experience.
Customer experience indeed is a key one – customers are now expecting much more from a CPO than they used to, particularly around uptime, quality of the POI data, correct invoicing in time, Plug&Charge and much more – the entire charging industry is still navigating to find the perfect target picture for a great customer experience. We work together with our CPO partners to address those constant changes and new requirements. Good examples are blocking fees, that have been rolled out in the last years and are now being cancelled in many areas for AC charging at night. Those changes need to be implemented and administrated accurately from the backend side while providing transparency and accuracy of the process to the customer.
Additionally, there are also newer topics for CPOs to address such as smart charging and energy flexibility or dynamic pricing schemes. All very interesting topics where we closely evaluate together with our partners how to approach the market and innovate CPO business models while enhancing the customer experience.
How do you see solar and battery-enabled charging sites playing a part in the charging experience?
This is an important point. In many countries, grid constraints remain one of the main issues towards opening or expanding charging sites. Some CPOs are waiting a long time for grid connection approvals, one to three years, in some cases, creating a significant blocker to business.
Solar and battery-enabled sites help address this issue, but also can help reduce capital expenditure, which is currently super high for CPOs. And of course, they potentially can reduce their operational expenditure with battery storage. However, it needs to be carefully evaluated on a case by case basis where battery storage and solar panels make sense from an economic perspective.
Do you see advancements such as AI playing a role in software enabled charging infrastructure?
I truly believe that there are lots of efficiencies to gain both on the software and operational side of charging infrastructure. This starts with proper infrastructure planning, which requires accurate forecasting of demand and utilization. When we look at the operations, maintenance, both predictive and unforeseen, knowing when chargers could break – is a crucial item when we’re striving for reliability and 100% uptime. On the platform side, we see many processes being automated, which reduces cost and complexities. Mature AI solutions are already available for use cases such as predictive maintenance, customer support, and smart charging – partner solutions that we seamlessly provide to our customers via our very own marketplace.
Are there any more policy changes you’d like to see on a governmental or EU level to help the charging industry?
We are facing a diverse landscape of EU and national regulations in the area of public charging infrastructure – compliance to all of those is a huge challenge for CPOs. We also already touched on grid connections, where we definitely need a reduction of complex bureaucratic processes, especially in Germany. We already foresee bidirectional charging becoming a game changer in the private charging sector in the near future, but mid-to-long-term, V2G, selling energy, and flexibilities will be introduced into the public charging arena. For many of those aspects we are missing comprehensive regulatory frameworks – we need certainty as an industry.
As we’ve seen, there are now thousands of different charge point operators across Europe. As we move forward, do you see that rationalizing and reducing down to a smaller number of CPOs?
It’s a really good question, and a discussion we’ve had in the charging industry for at least a decade. In the last years, many had forecasted a consolidation in the CPO market, but so far, this is not coming, at least not on a significant level.
Based on my experiences over the last 10 years, I would actually say that while there will certainly be some consolidations, we will also see an even increasing fragmentation in the market, thanks to the entry barriers to becoming a CPO being constantly reduced. We’re talking about lower CapEx, lower OpEx, both of which are benefiting entrepreneurs in creating new CPOs.
Have you noticed different attitudes towards the public charging industry on a country-by-country basis?
There are a number of differences between markets. Traditionally, it’s been the Nordic countries that are well developed in this space, but we also now have regions like Benelux, the UK, Germany, and others that are making great progress.
Countries such as Spain or Italy are really starting to ramp up, so in my new role, I’m really looking forward to market outreach in these countries as we see a tremendous increase in demand from these territories.
Many thanks to Oliver for taking part in our EV Leaders interview series. You can find out more about chargecloud, here.
