CASE STUDY: Afcon Electric Mobility

Afcon Leads the Israeli Market in Private, Public, Business, and Municipal EV Charging Networks

Afcon selected Driivz™ to deliver end-to-end EV charging and energy management for its extensive EV charging infrastructure

  • CLIENT
    Afcon Electric Mobility
  • SECTOR
    Charge Point Operators
  • SOLUTIONS

-EV Charging Operations Management

-EV Charging Billing

-Smart Energy Management

-Driver Self-Service Tools

  • IMPACT
    • Customer satisfaction
    • Scalability
    • Business flexibility
    • Innovation

 

 

 

 

 

Overview

Afcon Electric Mobility is a subsidiary of the Afcon Holdings Group, a leading Israeli solution provider in infrastructure, electromechanical systems, control and automation, and communication, and a Shlomo Group entity. The Shlomo Group, via its subsidiary Shlomo Motors (franchisee of BYD), is at the forefront of advancing sustainable public transportation in Israel. Today it provides and maintains a variety of green vehicles including electric buses, articulated buses, midi-buses, taxis and passenger cars.

Afcon Electric Mobility operates Israel’s largest EV charging network, with 250 public charging stations as well as residential, parking lot, fleet, municipal, and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) charging facilities. In this role, the company is supporting Israel’s transition to EVs and sustainable transportation. Today, the company serves more than 6,700 connected drivers, saving more than 25,000 KG of CO2.

Company Challenges

Established in 2017, Afcon Electric Mobility is one of the first charge point operators (CPOs) in Israel, and today it is the largest and most advanced. The company started with individual charging stations for private homes, a business that has grown to include authorization by most EV importers in Israel to establish private and shared residential charging stations.

At the same time, Afcon began building and operating what is today the largest and most comprehensive public charging network in Israel. The company also expanded its business to include designing, building, and operating slow and fast charging solutions for private and public parking lots, company-owned fleets of EVs, municipalities, buses, and MDUs.

It soon realized the need for a management system that could handle all of its chargers and charger types. Specifically, Afcon was looking for a unified solution that would ensure network stability and 24/7 charger availability. The solution also needed to provide billing capabilities, energy management, and support for EV drivers who need assistance with the charging experience.

“Power management and billing are both needed to support MDUs, which is a growing segment of our business, and power management is essential for our large charging sites. We have one with more than 50 chargers in one location, which presents real challenges,” said Ilan Dan, V.P Technologies and Business Development for Afcon Electric Mobility.

“Typically, MDU sites don’t have the needed power to support all the chargers if they are used at one time. Smart energy management would give us the capability of doing that. And MDUs need a way to bill residents for use of the charging stations, so we needed an industry-specific billing solution,” Mr. Dan continued.

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Solution

After evaluating several providers, Afcon selected the end-to-end Driivz EV Charging and Energy Management solution, including the Operations Management, Smart Energy Management, bespoke EV Billing, and Driver Self-Support Tools modules.

Driivz was chosen for its breadth of capabilities, extensive experience, capacity to support Afcon’s entire infrastructure today, and scalability to accommodate future growth. Additionally, Mr. Dan noted, Driivz works closely with the company to enable its innovation. One example is Afcon’s approach to managing buses as a fleet.

“The billing and authentication of users is different for buses. Rather than using the app or RFID, authentication is by a digital handshake when the bus is plugged into the charger,” Mr. Dan explained. “Driivz is a great partner in helping us support this solution, a necessity for us because our approach is something very new in Israel and the world. Everyone is focused on Plug&Charge ISO 15118, but until that standard is completed, we already have a solution that works.”

“Driivz was chosen for its breadth of capabilities, extensive experience, capacity to support Afcon’s entire infrastructure today, and scalability to accommodate future growth”

Ilan Dan,

V.P Technologies and Business Development for Afcon Electric Mobility.

Results

The Driivz platform allows Afcon to support private, business, MDU, and municipal government customers through a single platform. Additionally, Driivz’ flexibility and its willingness to provide new solutions to support Afcon’s customers’ requirements set it apart from other providers. For example, for one Afcon municipal customer, the Driivz operational dashboard gives authorized personnel a real-time view of what’s happening across the city’s network of chargers.

“It gives them confidence that the chargers are working well. Most of the issues are resolved automatically, but if there is an issue with a charger, they see it happening and are able to take fast action to maintain high availability of their operations. And this is thanks to Driivz,” said Mr. Dan.

For users of the public charging network, Afcon has a branded mobile app developed by Driivz. The app helps users locate and navigate to charging stations, pay for charges, report problems they encounter and get help. These functions are also available via a web driver portal.

Driivz’s Smart Energy Management enables Afcon to balance loads and optimize management of charging stations. The Driivz solution monitors the largest site in Israel, with more than 50 chargers, employing energy management algorithms to manage and adjust energy consumption against local grid capacity.

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