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Energy Efficiency and Customer Experience at the heart of software strategy for EVs
Energy Efficiency and Customer Experience at the heart of software strategy for EVs

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Below are some of the learnings from the discussion on “Energy Efficiency & CX at the Heart of Software Strategy for EVs” from the 13th NASSCOM Design and Engineering Summit held in Oct 2021

With the collective global drive towards sustainability and greener fuels, there has been a greater push towards Electric Vehicles (EVs) than ever before as an alternative to the native combustion engine. With automation and connectivity, mobility has undergone quite a change, but equally important is creating unique customer experiences through innovative business models and partnerships.

Automotive OEMs like JLR have targeted to become net carbon zero company by 2039. Towards that, Jaguar is expected to become an all-electric luxury brand from 2025 onwards. In the next 5 years, Land Rover is also expected to have electric variants. Others like American Honda Motor Inc. are also gearing towards zero emission vehicles, with a target of 40% electric by 2030.  

Energy efficiency in electric vehicles comes about in the form of product and engineering efficiency, reduction of emissions, increase of range, and other technical parameters. The overall EV adoption across the globe is driven by push from multiple governments and environmentalists. However, on the other end of spectrum lies the customer, who focuses on a unique consumer experience in using the said electric vehicle. Towards this, software strategies are playing a very significant role in delivering this unique customer experience.

 

What is expected to drive this adoption of electric vehicles by the consumers?

  1. One of the most important factors to consider is availability of charging infrastructure or hydrogen charging stations (in case of FCVs).
  2. In addition, govt incentives to the consumers will also go a long way in encouraging consumers to go electric.
  3. Similar experience to combustion engine vehicles while driving an electric vehicle is needed by the customer, including ease of use of the said vehicle. This charging infrastructure is dependent on demand and supply. When demand increases, then the infrastructure will also be in place. And this is where technology will help.
  4. Automotive OEMs, after electrification, must ascertain what their differentiator as an electric vehicle OEM would be and that is where customer experience can come into play.

 

From the customer experience viewpoint, driving experience is a key aspect of the entire customer experience. What other new features, either software driven, or other services are expected to become important for the clients?

  1. Features are not really specific to electric vehicles. There should not be a differentiation between an electric vehicle and any other vehicle. The features that are available for other internal combustion engine vehicles should be available to electric vehicles as well.
  2. Connectivity in electric vehicles is keenly explored by many companies. For OEMs like Honda, they are exploring V2X communication, where an electric vehicle is exploring communication with all the other vehicles on the road, other pedestrians, smart service stations and information is thus shared for better road use experience.
  3. Examples include emergency vehicle warning i.e. motorists can see warnings on approaching emergency vehicles and aid in their smooth passage. Other examples include smart intersection where red light violations, jaywalking, and other incident warnings are captured, road condition warnings for bad road warnings are also shared with transport departments for taking localized action.
  4. In addition, battery management, predictive maintenance of the vehicle and battery, is also shared with the driver as well as the nearby service stations.
  5. Increasing use of autonomous driving also gives rise to increase in the use of infotainment.

 

Hence the increasing use of software technologies and strategies is enabling OEMs to introduce the features quickly into the EVs than before.

 

With software technologies playing a dominant role in mobility, how does it change development and engineering of electric vehicles?

For luxury auto OEMs like JLR, any development done to the electric vehicle segment is similar to what would be done in an ICE segment. Infotainment systems are similar for non-electric and electric variants of JLR vehicles. Next generation technologies are being explored for mobility and software technologies is at the heart of everything in automotive industry. Post pandemic, this digital transformation has sped up even faster. Product development cycles have become faster. Software industry and in effect the automotive industry has become much more agile than before.

Companies like Honda, from an IT perspective, are working towards reducing the workload in development cycles, managing data and modernizing tool chains to meet the new business needs, which are basically exponential software management growth due to ECUs, battery management, ADAS, functional safety requirements, traceability, hardware, cybersecurity requirements are what is driving the system side development. Integration of these systems will be critical.

 

What are the changes being witnessed in adoption of EV infrastructure and how is the ecosystem evolving for electric vehicles away from ICE?

Infrastructure is expected to be common for all OEMs and some standardization will be required. We are already witnessing the charging infrastructure being made available in hotels, restaurants, public parking places, offices, apartment complexes etc in developed countries, which in turn is spurring the adoption from the customers.

Though EV adoption in India is less than other countries in the West, however, with increasing push from the state and central govts. through attractive incentives as well as consumers themselves getting more conscious of their choices is expected to push the need and demand for electric vehicles in the country. In addition, for the ER&D industry in India, as India makes the shift to electro-mechanical software-integrated systems, sub-systems and assemblies, the need for engineers well versed with the systems engineering area is growing. Hence this skillset needs to be developed and technologies needed for the same needs to be enabled.


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Vandhna Babu
Chief of Staff - President's Office

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