Oren Halevi is the Chief Product Officer of Driivz, a global leader in EV charging and energy management solutions. At Driivz, Oren plays a key role in shaping the future of energy management. He works at the intersection of emobility and clean energy to support the transition to a sustainable, electrified future.
We were very happy to catch up with Oren at Eurelectric’s EVision event in Brussels. The event tackled the complex challenges of grid flexibility and stability, with the rise of EVs changing grid usage and demand more intensely than ever before. However, with advancements in V2G and smart charging technology, the grid could become strengthened, even become profitable for everyday users. A report, created by Eurelectric and EY, was released at the event to explain the benefits in full.
It was fantastic to catch up with Oren at EVision to discuss Driivz’s role in the smart charging revolution, how he sees the emobility market evolving with added convenience and support, and much more…
Can you tell me about how Driivz is helping to facilitate flexible charging and grid stability in your software offerings?
Driivz is a leader in the EV charging market, working with the largest charge point operators, both in Europe, in the US, Japan, Australia, so about 40 countries. Not all countries are the same as far as how advanced the market is; especially when you look at the more advanced markets, such as the Nordics, or Germany, or even parts of US.
You already see the distress of the grid and the need for a solution. It’s not only because of EVs, it’s because of the entire transition of the electric market moving into distributed energy resources, or DER. That means it’s a much more volatile and less controlled market, but also has an advantage because it allows free marketplaces or additional new solutions to come into place. This is where Driivz can come into play.
Today, Driivz manages about 150,000 chargers around the world. Many of them are DC fast, which works very well if you look at some specific verticals like fleets or parking places. It’s challenging when you look at public charging because customers want to come in, charge, and go out. They don’t want to get impacted by this.
You reduce charging times by 20-30% and you still help the market. This is what we’ve been doing in the last two or three years.
Do you think there’s a big market for bi-directional charging in the public network, and do you think that’s going to take off and become profitable?
Bi-directional charging is the most extreme example of the flexibility market. There’s still a lot to do before you go into that level. We see some examples with Renault, even with the Renault 5 here in the show. However, it’s also showing how complicated that is because, currently, the only way to implement it in vehicles is with an end-to-end solution. Renault owns the charger, vehicle, even the utility tariff. Because of that, it’s not a good example on how to scale.
Another challenge is regulations. Every country has different regulations as far as taxes, as far as who can offer this technology, which makes it very hard for implementation. And the business model is not really there yet.
That’s why it’s moving very slowly. But before you go to V2G, you can do V1G, as we call it. That’s where we’re controlling and stopping charging at peak times and pushing usage into less demanding hours. So there’s a lot to do before you go to V2G in the flexibility market.
And we believe this is what’s going to take prevalence in the next two or three years before the V2G technology matures enough to become widespread.
You mentioned that you’ve expanded into 40 or more countries. In your experience so far, what have the main challenges been in creating a network that works and is interconnected across borders?
Many of our customers are active in multiple countries; some are global.
So if you look at Shell as an example, one of our customers. Each country division within Shell has some autonomy on how to operate, which makes it more complicated. If you look at companies like Mayer, Stratcroft, working in six or seven countries, the complexity is different in each case.
Different taxes and regulations, billing, and complications like how to show an invoice where someone is coming from one country but charging in another one. So it is complicated, but this is where we come into play with our experience and our advanced billing capabilities. There are many local solutions that work well within a country, but not that many that can work across borders.
So those regional differences are contributing to the charging hotspots and coldspots across Europe, with some areas having easier and more developed grid connections?
For sure, you already actually see that. If you look at the heat map of the consumption, central cities and industrial locations are creating hotspots with high demand. On the other side, the generation side, there’s also imbalance. Demand imbalance means that, in some places, there is too much generation during some hours of the day which contribute to the imbalance of the grid.
From a software perspective, do you see AI and machine learning helping to mitigate that sort of fluctuation?
Definitely. You cannot work on a large-scale without automation, and the best way to automate these days is using machine learning or AI. You see that a lot with proactive maintenance.
You want high uptime of the chargers, but not all hardware is born equal. Some is less stable, some is more, and you need some ways of automatically fixing all of them remotely, or at least notifying that there is an issue. And this, again, needs to be done through understanding the machine to understand what the issues are, understand what is the root cause, and recommend a solution.
That’s one area. The second area that we see quickly grow is dynamic pricing. Similar to the gas and oil industry, the CPO (Charge Point Operator) has the ability to push some less common locations by offering reducing prices to their customers. We see 20/30% improvement in actual usage of the chargers just by doing that.
How do you think charging companies and charging-related companies could be working better and more efficiently with energy companies to accelerate the rollout of smart charging?
Many of our customers are energy companies, so actually they hold both sides of the dilemma. But the important thing is maintaining standards. So standards help the market and the different players talk smoothly with one another. Things like OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol), OCPI (Open Charge Point Interface), and other protocols that allow the different players to communicate efficiently. It’s still not there when you look at the flexibility market.
Each country has a main player that creates custom APIs, which makes it very hard to move from one country to another, so standardising that would be a great help. You see it better in Europe, where the utilities took ownership of charging and EVs, versus the US, where, largely because of regulations, they are basically standing and waiting for the industry to mature.
On the US, as Driivz is active in the country, I’m curious as to how you’ve noticed the advancements changing with the Trump administration and the reversion back to more traditional fossil fuels?
You also saw actions like removing chargers from government-owned buildings, so you see some issues with the administration not backing this industry. We definitely see a relationship between how much the government is pushing the EV market and the success of the market. We’ve seen Norway as a great success versus the US on the other side.
Do you see a future in which the US grid is less stable than the rest of the world, if we continue at this pace, and they don’t for the next four or five years?
Yes, assuming the EV market will grow. If the market keeps growing at the same pace as today, you will definitely see issues, and I think the market will react, even without the support of the government. You see that locally, with the local utilities in the US and in New York, in California, where there is enough demand, and they’re doing it because they have to. So it will happen, with or without the help.
Driivz recently signed a partnership with On The Run in Canada to expand your software solutions across their network. What are the more unique challenges in places like Canada, where there are many remote areas with difficult grid access?
It’s outside our scope to bring power to remote locations, so we have to work in locations that have the power. So what you see happening very often in the Canadian and US markets is convenience stores taking a very active role in EV charging. It totally makes sense because a customer is charging for 20 minutes, they would like a place to sit and eat or drink or rest, and all the convenience store offers that. Because of that, we’ve have really nice experiences with most of the convenience store chains in those markets.
Where do you see Driivz and your charging offerings progressing in the next five years?
We will continue to expand with our customers. Our customers are growing and we’re enjoying their growth, which is good for us. In the next two or three years, we’re probably going to continue focusing on Europe and the US.
It’s too early to say about what’s going to happen in other markets. We see fleets as a major focus for us in the next two years, and we will continue to focus on DC fast charging. With additional services around energy integration, batteries, renewables and dynamic pricing.
So those are the main big deals. Maybe loyalty is another upcoming topic where you see convenience stores and destinations joining the game.
Thank you to Oren for taking the time during EVision 2025 to provide such fascinating insights from the heart of a leading CPO. Find out more about Driivz’s relentless work in streamlining and unifying charging here.
Eurelectric isn’t done yet. The electric advocates’ next leading European event is coming this June. The Power Summit 2025 is focusing on accelerating electrification, energy security, and innovative solutions for Europe’s energy future. Mobility professionals should attend to stay ahead of the evolving energy landscape, gain insights on sustainable transportation solutions, and engage in discussions shaping the future of energy and mobility.
