Recently we were fortunate enough to participate in IPMI's Mobility & Innovation 2021 virtual conference. We had some amazing audience interactions and very much enjoyed fielding questions from them. The presenters were Blink Charging's VP of Marketing, Rebecca Gutierrez, and Blink's Senior Vice President of Technology & Product Development, Joshua Winkler. They were honored to provide this inquisitive and knowledgable audience of parking industry leaders with some valuable information about the current state of the EV industry and the future of EV charging infrastructure. Here are our answers to a few of the audiences questions during the Q&A.
What is the appropriate mix between Level 2 and Level 3 chargers?
There are needs for both in this market. Blink always tries to accommodate every location where people may need to charge, mainly workplace charging and home charging. People also need to travel, so along mayor highway routes and corridors is where DC fast charging will have the biggest demand. There is no magic equation for Level 2 or DC fast charging because there is a need and a demand for both.
Can you integrate with a parking payment infrastructure to facilitate payment of charging and parking simultaneously?
The short answer is yes. Interoperability is supported using OCPI which can allow payment processing via an open source and have the chargers activated using that interface.
How do you see auto charging stations integrating with shared e-bike and scooter sharing stations to make the charging spot more of a multi-modal mobility hub?
This is already happening in Europe! Blink has launched the innovative IQ 300-EU which does allot for two EVs plus an e-bike or micro mobility solution to be charged using a small dedicated plug. These technologies will surely make their way into the US sooner rather than later.
Do you have units that allow patrons to pay at the Charger itself via NFC, EMV etc?
Yes. Our units have an NFC RFID reader which allows for payments including smart chip RFID cards, Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other contactless payment solutions. However EMV is not supported as we move closer to a contactless experience.
Do your respective states offer EV rebates?
Rebates, grants and incentives always vary by state or even by municipality. We always encourage hosts to also look at their utilities, as electric companies often have rebated and incentives for EVSE installation. For a complete list of state rebates please visit our Commercial Incentives page.
What do you think is the percentage of EV vehicles that need to be driven to pay for the infrastructure investment and validate parking space usage being converted from gas to electric?
This situation will vary greatly depending on your location and the Blink Business Model you operate under. Please check out this post to better understand when you'll see a return of your investment.
How much power loss is there with inductive charging?
This is one of the biggest challenges in developing this technology. In some cases, we are pushing into the low-to-mid- 90% efficiency in testing that comes out of some major national labs and some OEMs.
Would you speculate that wireless/contactless charging solutions would be compatible with the infrastructure we are implementing for our current charging stations? / What retrofitting might need to take place to be successful when wireless charging becomes a reality?
As long as the voltage input characteristics are the same, then the existing infrastructure, conduit, etc. can be used and should be compatible with whatever is needed to support wireless or inductive chargers.
Does Blink share info with other networks, or do you have to use separate apps to identify where charging stations are?
Currently we have EVSE interoperability agreements with two other major EVSE providers. If the issue is solely identification of charger sites, there are some very useful and popular third party applications which drivers find very helpful because they list all EV charging networks.
Is Blink looking at the Vehicle to Grid (V2G) space?
Yes. And this will really be an intermediate space. The ISO 15.11.8 spec does support plug-and-charge which is truly the first step that must be taken in order to support vehicle-to-grid technology.
Is Blink willing to share information with a 3rd party app like a parking application?
Blink already shared data and information with 3rd party mapping applications such as PlugShare, Google and Apple Maps.