How Can EV Charging Networks Maintain High Uptime?

Electric vehicles (EVs) have skyrocketed in popularity the past several years, but one key issue that remains is the reliability of charging networks. Charger accessibility is critical, and currently, at least one in five charging attempts fails EV drivers, according to J.D. Power research.

How can EV charging networks improve their uptime, or accessibility, to users?

On today’s episode of EVolve by FLO, host Gabrielle Bejarano speaks with Yann Benoit, Senior Director of Network Deployment and Operations and Abel Zacharie, Senior Product Manager, both of FLO, to discuss why EV charging network uptime is important, what some of the barriers are to improving uptime, and strategies to combat these challenges.

Bejarano, Benoit, and Zacharie also discussed…

1. Why uptime is important from a business perspective
2. Challenges facing EV networks in terms of reliability and driver accessibility
3. Common complaints of EV network downtime and how they can be prevented

Zacharie explained, “Here is the key. When a charger is broken or damaged or whatever, or even bumped into by a car, anything can happen. The key to reliability is the ability to detect that quickly so we can fix it quickly. That’s another challenge, how can we do that? And that could be the charger that detects itself automatically, it could be other things. It’s bigger than the charger itself.”

“Improving reliability is not a one-time job. We could say we have a high uptime and we’re above current standard and our job is done. We don’t stop there. We don’t want to do that because we want the whole industry to get better. We’re thinking about the user and ultimately about the mobility revolution—that’s very important to us—and the climate,” Benoit summarized.

Yann Benoit is Senior Director of Network Deployment and Operations at FLO. He earned a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from the TECCART Institute of Montréal and a B.A.Sc. in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering from the School of Higher Technologies. His past roles include National Director, field services, implementation and service assurance and various other management and supervisory roles at Bell.

Abel Zacharie is Senior Product Manager at FLO. He earned a degress in Electrical Engineering from Universite Laval and achieved a certificate in marketing from Schulich School of Business at York University. His past roles include a series of positions at Prevost, including Director of Product Management.