Policies are making EV charging even more expensive

A question I get asked a lot, especially from government entities is

Is your hardware measurements approved?

Feel free to listen and follow along ...

Background information: Measurement approval has to do with how accurate a device can measure units of power (ie. kWh, joules …). Utility meters are usually 99% accurate (hopefully, cause I've heard otherwise from electricians).

This usually is a trick question because there is only one right answer to it, which is “No”! The answer happens to be obvious because no other electric vehicle charging company, other than utilities, has this certification. Only recently a few companies, that where fueling this strategic chess move, got certified in California. If you’re wondering why I call it a strategic play, because its extremely anti-competitive, I will explain later in detail.

Since this is only happening in California now (More details can be found here: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/dms/regulations.html search "Electric Vehicle Fueling Systems") and lately being talked about elsewhere, it’s not too late to stop the spread. That’s why, I’ve decided to write this article to unfold the truth behind measurement approved products.

Let’s begin by analyzing why measurement approved electric vehicle charging equipment is not going to help the end consumers

The answer is simple, measurement approvals significantly increase the cost (both initial and on-going) of the finished electric vehicle charger, and adds little to no tangible benefits!

At Plugzio, our focus is primarily on affordable & scalable charging. We have conducted an investigation that if we wanted to increase the measurement accuracy of our device from 95% all the way up to 99%, which is the required range, we have to rent a calibration system that would cost us $10,000 a week, A WEEK! And this is only, low-power (120V) calibration, can’t imagine how expensive these machines are for high-power (240V+) solutions.

This will effectively force my company, and other electric vehicle charging products, to increase the end price of the products to compensate for the manufacturing headache.

Just to give you a slight hint of this, some of the policies ask for our measurements chip to be in a vacuum sealed enclosure inside another tight fit enclosure, do you know how difficult and expensive manufacturing this is !!!

All of this for what? $2 in potential savings per month in inaccuracies!

So this policy is effectively forcing an increase in the cost of my product (by more than $150 per device due to specialized manufacturing process) so the consumer can maybe save $20 a year. How does that make any sense!

Note: Remember, inaccuracy is dynamic so sometimes you are paying more and sometimes less (environmental conditions play a role), it may balance out at the end.

This increase in the cost of electric vehicle charging is now being paid by tax-dollars in the way of government funded electric vehicle charging incentives and later-on will be handed politely back to the end-consumer! By then it will be too late to change anything!

Why do large electric vehicle charging manufacturers love/support this idea?

Two very important reasons:

• The measurement approved electric vehicle chargers need to stay calibrated, that means every year a property is forced to pay a hefty fee to someone from the manufacturing company (remember this is specialized work) to come calibrate the machine. Electric vehicle charging manufacturers make a lot of profits collecting maintenance fees and this just adds another repeatable revenue stream, so why the heck not! Besides, this is a cash cow for utilities or government entities as well, cause they have to hire a team to police/enforce calibrations.

So it’s a win-win for every corporation involved except for the end consumer!

• Exactly like Facebook that loves making content moderation a policy for social media companies since they have the budget/team to support it; Large electric vehicle charging manufacturers love measurement policies cause it immediately raises the barrier to entrance in this market. This is as anti-competitive as it can possibly get! Crushing the competition in the name of public service.

This is as anti-competitive as it can possibly get! Crushing the competition in the name of public service.

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If you have read this far, I salute you and I want to make a promise that I will never end any of my articles without offering a practical solution, so here we go.

So what’s the solution?

I completely understand that utilities want to maintain control of power and are trying to protect the end consumer from bad actors & black markets for power, but instead of mandating manufacturers to produce 99% accurate products, there is a better way.

Give the choice of accuracy level on a product to the end consumer, or in other words honor the “free market!”.

This is how gasoline octane levels work, the consumer has the choice between 87% 89% 93% or even more.

If a consumer wants to purchase a lower cost option with lower measurement accuracy level, it’s their choice, let it be!

If cities want to spend tax-payers money to buy highly accurate electric vehicle chargers, that's also their choice!

If utilities (policy makers) want to help the end consumers and not fund large corporations, they need to create policies that forces the electric vehicle charging manufacturers to display their measurement accuracy level with a label at manufacturing. Just like an energy star rating.

IP (Ingress Protection) ratings work the same way, IP 68 on a product essentially means it can be submerged in water. It would be very stupid for a rainy city to start mandating manufacturers to produce IP 68 products simply to protect the consumers who may trip and drop their phones in a puddle.

Measurement accuracy is very important at the utility level (megawatt-hour) because minor differences can have significant financial ramifications which are out of consumer's control but an electric vehicle charger is being operated/purchased by an individual owner so they must have a choice.

Electric vehicle chargers are already too expensive, let's not give corporations motive to make it even more expensive in the name of pointless measurement accuracy.

Let's stop this madness, please share this with anyone who can make a difference.

I would love to hear your comments.

#ElectricVehicleCharging #ElectricVehicles #EV #ElectricVehicleInfrastructure