In the early days of the EV revolution, range anxiety was one of the main barriers to adoption. Those days are gone. As EV charging infrastructure rollout gained momentum, EV adoption continued to grow, further promoting the deployment of more infrastructure. But even this positive feedback loop pushing the spiraling growth of EV charging networks is not enough. No single network can deploy enough chargers in every location to meet demand. To extend the reach for its own subscribers, each network needs eRoaming agreements with partner networks. These are usually bilateral agreements in which everybody wins:
- Each network effectively grows to offer more charging opportunities for its own subscribers
- Each network generates additional revenue through higher charger utilization from partner network subscribers
- Drivers have more places to charge to alleviate their range anxiety
So, one could say that eRoaming has been a catalyst to the exponential growth in EV adoption.
eRoaming is Critical for Electric Heavy-Duty Vehicles (HDVs)
Electric trucks and buses are latecomers to the EV revolution. The industry had to evolve to provide batteries that were large enough to power the heavy frames of HDVs. Moreover, while EV charging infrastructure rollout dealt with range anxiety for passenger car drivers, electric HDV fleets were not as fortunate. Trucks or a buses traveling across country, or even, between countries are challenged to find suitable charging stations along their routes – they need high powered charging stations to make en-route charging a viable option. Yes, megawatt chargers are already being deployed to pilot programs, but they are far from being ubiquitous and readily available along common bus and truck routes.
Inter-fleet eRoaming Agreements
It makes sense that fleets will come to their own rescue. To mitigate the excessive emissions from fleet vehicles, governments in both Europe and the US have set down policies and legislated regulations to stimulate fleet electrification through incentives such as tax benefits and subsidies. So, these regional distribution fleets are all in the same boat. They have to electrify, and therefore, need to provide chargers for their electric HDVs in their depots. To their mutual benefit, fleets can form partnerships to enable electric HDVs from one fleet to charge up at another fleet’s depot along its route.
eRoaming for Fleets
But that still leaves the question of timing and availability. How can a fleet ensure a charger is available for one of its drivers when they’re halfway across the country? That is no longer a problem.
Scheduled Electric HDV Charging through OCPI Bookings
The EVRoaming Foundation has recently released an extension to OCPI 2.2.1 to manage bookings. This module enables fleet operators and depot managers to book charging sessions well in advance with their partner fleets. As a fully featured capability, it supports modifications, cancellations, payments, and status updates. While reservations have been integrated into OCPI for a long time, they were targeted at passenger vehicles and did not solve the use case for buses and long-haul trucking. Here are some differences between reservations and bookings in OCPI:
| Reservations | Bookings | |
| Purpose and scope | Designed to reserve a connector for a real-time context – i.e. reserve and drive there immediately. Little control over duration and cancellation policies. | Designed for booking timeslots well in advance. Future bookings enabling charging-aware journey planning. |
| Time frame | Short term (15 – 30 min) | Long-term scheduling – future-oriented |
| Functional complexity | Relatively simple, basic parameters (location, time, connector) | More complex supporting multi-stage workflows (Request, confirm, modify, cancel). Includes availability checks and payment pre-authorization. |
| Use cases | Mainly targets passenger vehicles. | Can be used for many vehicle types, but targets Fleet logistics, commercial eHDVs with strict route schedules. |
| Interoperability | Optional – varying levels of support across CPOs and eMSPs | An optional extension in OCPI 2.2.1, but fully integrated into the OCPI 2.3. |
Through Bookings, electric HDV fleets reap benefits similar to those that EV charging networks and passenger EV drivers get from eRoaming agreements:
- Each fleet has access to high-powered charging along their HDV routes
- Each fleet maximizes its own charger utilization and generates additional revenue from partner fleet charging sessions
- Electric HDV drivers benefit from predictable and scheduled charging stops
Through OCPI bookings, fleet operators improve their operational efficiency and reduce vehicle down time while generating more revenue.
Summary
Traditional eRoaming on public EV charging networks may solve range anxiety for passenger vehicles, but it can’t support the needs of electric HDVs. Until megawatt chargers become widespread, the most viable option for buses and long-haul trucks are fleet depots along their way that can offer reliable, high-powered charging scheduled well in advance. The new OCPI Bookings module can be a catalyst that drives EV adoption in the electric HDV sector by enabling fleets to reserve charging slots at partner depots, ensuring charger availability, reducing downtime, and boosting utilization.
Driivz’s Fleet offering will support OCPI bookings with Book & Charge, a solution that provides fleets with a practical and profitable way to expand access to charging to support their electrification journey while promoting inter-fleet collaboration, for the mutual benefit of all parties involved.
