Introduction
With the realization of the harm that fossil fuels are causing to the climate, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are rapidly growing in popularity as the world strives towards an electric-powered transportation future. Currently, EVs are constrained by their range distance, charging times, and the availability and/or lack of charging infrastructure (Loeb, Kockelman & Liu, 2018). This presents a problem to most prospective buyers or early adopters of EVs who want to ditch gasoline-powered cars. With the extended charging times and lack of charging stations, the uptake of EVs has witnessed a major drawback amongst potential customers who have considered adopting. To increase the uptake of EVs, our company came up with the idea of creating mobile charging solutions.
Market and Market Segmentation
The main goal of the company is to reduce the time it takes to charge and expand the available options for consumers with EVs. We aim to create a network of mobile autonomous vehicles that can charge vehicles where the infrastructure is not accessible. Patt, Aplyn, Weyrich, and Vliet (2019) state that important factors that influence the uptake of EVs are the availability of and access to charging infrastructure. Our organization aims at having a network of mobile charging stations that could avail themselves to potential customers for quick charging within 30 miles of requesting via an app.
Studies have shown that owners of subcompact and compact cars were more concerned about purchase price while those of mid and full-size cars were sensitive to the availability of charging points (Hahn & Lee, 2018). The mid and full-sized electric car segment is what we decided to focus on as they are also more likely to travel long distances and thus need our services. The creation of this mobile network would greatly reduce the time taken to charge and increase the number of chargers available to consumers.
Opportunity in Infrastructure Investment
Currently, EV charging stations are insufficient, especially in rural cities and towns. The majority of charging stations are located in densely populated cities where they cater to city dwellers. This leaves rural populations who may be interested in buying electric cars without access to this important infrastructure. The availability of charging points is an essential factor when one considers buying an electric vehicle, and thus will affect the prevalence and acceptance of EVs. Researchers have found that charging stations in the US are currently not enough to allay the fears of average EV buyers (Levinson &West, 2020). This lack of infrastructure is what our company envisions catering to by providing mobile charging units, to complement the existing systems. Our stations will make it possible for electric car owners to cover long distances, without worrying about the range of the battery that their car is equipped with as they can request and recharge while on the road.
Our mobile charging stations will offer charging options for all-electric vehicle brands including BMW i8, Volkswagen ID3, Ford Mustang Mach E et cetera. Although all EVs receive power and store it in batteries to power the onboard motors, there are different technologies available for charging them. Dericiogulu et al. (2021) state that both the auto industry and charge point operators prefer to use conductive charging as it is much cheaper and more efficient, although there are various research projects focusing on improving inductive charging. The conductive method requires the car to connect with socket connectors to charge the batteries. On the other hand, the inductive method charges the batteries via electromagnetic fields at the charging points and hence does not require the EV to have any contact with the charging infrastructure.
Competitors, Partners, and Strategy
Other companies that are also involved in EV charging include companies like Tesla and public utility companies. Tesla and other EV manufacturers are building charging points as an incentive for their customers to buy their vehicles. Levinson and West (2020) further state that the US Department of Energy built over 17000 charging stations across America between 2011 and 2013. Further, utility companies in states such as California, Missouri, and Kansas have also pledged to build close to 5,000 charging points (Levinson &West, 2020). By building all these charging infrastructures, there will be a surge in demand for EVs by consumers, who in turn will need even more charging points and we hope to cater to this with our mobile charging points.
As the Government, utilities, and even States are fixated on building fixed charging points, our service for mobile charging uniquely stands out. We will be able to provide EV charging services for clients while they are on the road and thus solve the problem of range anxiety. A major disadvantage of EVs is the time taken to charge compared to filling up gas (Brandstatter, Kahr & Leitner, 2017). Our software will allow users to specify the model of their car and the location they want to park and charge and thus save them time. By requesting the 30 minutes quick-charge service through the app, our mobile charging stations will provide the service within 30 miles of the users.
Tesla has built over 1,201 supercharger locations all over the US with almost 30% located cumulatively in California, Florida, and New York. They do not have any locations in only five US States and Territories. To compete with them, we can locate some of our mobile charging in the states where Tesla has no or very little presence. Additionally, most Tesla supercharger stations are located on interstate highways connecting the East and West Coasts with close to equal intervals between them (Motoaki, 2019). Deploying our mobile chargers on roads that have no charging stations located nearby can provide us with an advantage over Tesla. This will enable us to serve customers who otherwise would have to go out of their way to charge their vehicles.
Through the provision of mobile charging services to electric car owners, we can build relationships with different EV manufacturers who do not own charging infrastructure of their own like Tesla. Manufacturers such as BMW, GM, Ford, and Mercedes Benz do not own or operate their charging infrastructure but they are building EVs. We can collaborate with them to provide mobile charging options and locations for their clients who buy EVs. This can aid them to cut down on infrastructure investment and results in a win-win situation as they can concentrate on making vehicles rather than building charging infrastructure.
Conclusion
We shall collaborate with the global leader in battery technology Contemporary Amperex Technology Company (CATL), which manufactures Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries that have larger capacity cells. CATL has invested in assembly lines to increase production making them the world’s largest EVs battery cell manufacturer ahead of the competitors (Ma et al., 2018). This makes CATL the best supplier to collaborate with when sourcing our battery solution needs. Fitting these to our mobile units will provide us with a clear advantage over our competitors such as Tesla who have built immobile charging stations.
References
Hahn, J., & Lee, J. (2018). A market segmented analysis of electric vehicle purchasing behavior in Seoul.Journal of Korean Society of Transportation, 36(2), 129-140. Web.
Levinson, R., & West, T. (2018). Impact of public electric vehicle charging infrastructure.Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 64, 158-177. Web.
Loeb, B., Kockelman, K., & Liu, J. (2018). Shared autonomous electric vehicle (SAEV) operations across the Austin, Texas network with charging infrastructure decisions.Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 89, 222-233. Web.
Ma, J., Stringer, D., Zhang Y., & Kim, S. (2018). The breakneck rise of China’s colossus of electric car batteries. Bloomberg. Web.
Motoaki, Y. (2019). Location-Allocation of electric vehicle fast chargers- Research and practice. World Electric Vehicle Journal, 10(1), 12. Web.
Patt, A., Aplyn, D., Weyrich, P., & van Vliet, O. (2019). Availability of private charging infrastructure influences readiness to buy electric cars.Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 125, 1-7. Web.