Vehicle charging driven by data: Kempower connects globally with Telia

“We wanted a solution that works everywhere, and we did not want the pains that most growing companies have with connectivity on a global scale, such as dealing with multiple operators, understanding local roaming restrictions and other regulations and having trouble ensuring security everywhere,” says Juhana Enqvist, Advanced Charging Solutions, at Kempower. 

Kempower offers electrical vehicle (EV) charging solutions for electric passenger cars, for buses and trucks and for heavy-duty electrical vehicles such as mining and construction equipment. So regardless of where the vehicle is to be used, be it in harsh conditions outdoors, in cities or along public country highways, Kempower charging solutions need to be fast, reliable, secure, suitable for different types of electric vehicles and scalable.
Now, Kempower uses the Telia Global IoT Connectivity solution to connect all their charging stations to the Kempower ChargEye cloud service. IoT connectivity is a crucial part in making the charging stations work – from user authentication through the charging itself to payments. In addition, connectivity enables the useful and necessary data insights that add value for Kempower’s charging operator customers and the end-users alike. It is truly data driven business. 

“Through the connectivity we’re able to offer a completely different and more exciting user experience,” Enqvist says. “For example, for the enthusiasts we have a “bring-your-display” function through which the user can follow the charging session directly on his or her own screen to see costs, electricity consumption and many other factors. The car and the charger station exchange a lot of data which is valuable for the user experience.”

Enqvist explains that with the ability to hyperscale, Kempower has greatly enhanced its product development speed, partly with continuous and detailed data. Kempower is also seeing new product and solution opportunities and more streamlined production, logistics and operations.

“We need to be on top of every single charging station in every market we are present in, wherever they are installed in the world,” he says. “Today we can use the data from the charging stations, and it is invaluable. For example, we can immediately see performance, predict maintenance and learn more about how users want to charge their vehicles. If you have a vehicle that can be charged during the night, we can optimize the utilization of grid power connection in real-time, enabling significant cost savings for our customers. We can move quickly into new markets globally, and we don’t need new installations and configurations in each place.”

Timo Ogliastri, Head of Commercial Product Management at Telia, says the challenges are becoming more common as companies go global. 

“We’re seeing how most of our customers are discovering the same challenges when it comes to global IoT connectivity,” Ogliastri says. ”They have to deal with multiple operators and several technical integrations, complex regulations and expensive barriers to execution. Handling several operators and technical integrations takes a lot of time and, in most cases, end up being very costly. Furthermore, complex data regulations and restrictions on permanent roaming increases the risks of failing. Our solution enables simplicity, compliance and cost efficiency everywhere.” 

Read more about Telia Global IoT Connectivity here. 

Read more about Kempower here.