Normally, electric cars are charged either at work or at home, which is unsustainable.

According to a Slovenian e-mobility company, electric car owners only use public charging stations if they need them for longer journeys. Their smart charging stations offer a solution to this problem.

Electric cars will be an increasingly important tool in the fight against climate change. As this technology is currently the most widespread and supported among non-fossil fuel vehicles, the source of the energy needed to charge them becomes an important issue, as if we charge the car at home while having dinner, there is a good chance that we charge the battery with voltage produced in a coal-fired power plant. It is no coincidence that Bill Gates also promotes this kind of investment.

The Slovenia-based company Etrel, which manufactures smart charging stations for both industrial and home use, provides a solution for this. These devices can be controlled via a web interface (or app), and their operation is coordinated with other devices connected to the network by artificial intelligence. Moreover, the machine analyses the sources, so where possible it uses energy from the nearest power generator - and always prioritises electricity from renewable sources such as hydropower.

„What we believe is that the future will see predominantly pure-battery electric cars when it comes to passenger cars. We think hydrogen will be more a solution for ships and heavy transportation.” – said Rok Poteko, Head of Software Sales at Etrel in an interview. According to the expert, the current trend is that roughly 90% of all charging happens at home or at work, where a sustainable or energy-efficient system is not necessarily in place.

According to Poteko, the only time when drivers have to think about where to charge is on longer trips, but if they are driving more than 400 km, a half-hour stop is useful anyway. The company expects a huge breakthrough in electric mobility in 2025 when the transportation industry will tip toward electric cars to such an extent that building the necessary infrastructure will be paramount for the largest mega-companies.

According to Etrel’s estimates, the proportion of electric cars will be so large by then that it will have an enormous effect on the countries' energy production. That is, smart charging stations with a sufficient power supply will be needed.

Networks will be much more exposed to load management problems than at present (i.e., consumption will skyrocket in some locations, such as shopping malls), and drivers will also need to be flexible (and patient) with the sudden energy demand. According to Poteko, charging during the night is already a typical trend, as there is lower consumption then, and this can also be used in the future.

Etrel’s idea is by no means new. In the first half of 2021, sales of electric cars jumped by 168 percent compared to the previous year, and by 2028, not only will there be no price difference between fossil fuel-powered models and electric cars, but the latter may even be cheaper (if for no other reason, because of incentive programs in various countries, such as lower taxes and free electricity.). However, local networks are not designed to charge millions of cars, what’s more, and also, social aspects need to be considered as well.

In the UK, for example, around seven million households have no off-street parking – there is no chance of installing a charging station in these places, so the UK would need about 750,000 street chargers to ensure that those without home chargers can charge once a week.

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