With the massive increase in sales of electric vehicles (EVs) the global infrastructure supporting EV charging stations must scale up rapidly. What is also developing is the software needed to run these charging stations – and Finland’s Virta is supporting both users and suppliers while creating a global industry standard. 

Virta doesn’t do hardware or get involved with installing EV charging stations. What it does is develop systems that are compatible with the hardware or charging station being installed. The company’s cloud-based platform includes everything needed to build a charging business, from charging infrastructure management to end customer services and smart energy management solutions. It is an end-to-end solution for EV charging, providing services for companies who own and operate charging stations, as well as services for companies who want to provide mobile apps for drivers and want to handle payments and money flows.  

Virta’s digital platform connects all of these hundreds and thousands of companies together so that EV drivers can charge their cars anywhere, anytime. But different companies in different countries use different kinds of hardware – and this is where Virta’s solution really shines. “There are a lot of different charging station models around the world,” explains Jussi Ahtikari, the chief technology officer of Virta. “Our solution is compatible with more than 200 of them and we’re growing that number all the time. This is critical, since there is a clear market need for an open platform that works with all kinds of hardware and all across the globe.”  

Virta has several different customer profiles: the first is companies that own the charging stations. Virta provides management software that is connected to the charging station and allows the company to process payments, troubleshoot, see what needs maintenance, and get an overview of usage so they can optimise accordingly.  

The second group is EV drivers. Virta provides payment solutions and a mobile app that allows the user to see all available charging stations from all the different companies in the Virta network. 

“Essentially, our business model services both the consumer and the provider. This is very different from other companies working in this space, who are often involved in both software and hardware,” says Ahtikari. “When your solution has both hardware and software you can get locked in, unable to easily change to a different software solution or buy new hardware from another company.”  

Virta’s open solution allows customers to use whatever hardware they want and even have ten different models, offering much needed flexibility while avoiding the headaches of lock-in effects.

Think local, act global

When you’re working with global payment solutions, there are a number challenges that need to be addressed. Mobile payment systems can sound simple, but in reality, they can be quite complex, particularly when you’re talking about cross-border payments.  

“A few years ago, I drove my EV to Sweden and had difficulties charging because to use the local charging solution I had to download an app, register, then wait for verification to arrive at my home – where I wasn’t at. It just didn’t work smoothly,” explains Ahtikari. “There are also local regulations and other challenges, such as which currency the payment will be in and who gets the taxes. In the end it’s a complicated issue.”

Virta offers EV drivers the entire Virta network, where you need just one account to access EV charging stations, location maps, and other features in any of the countries Virta operates in.  

Charging stations using Virta’s solution are equipped with Tele2 IoT SIM cards, but this wasn’t always the case. When Virta first started offering its solution in 2014, it worked with a local Finnish telco, connecting around 30 charging stations. “We noticed pretty quickly that as our operations expanded into more and more countries, we needed a better connectivity solution,” says Ahtikari. “We didn’t want to negotiate with individual operators every time we entered a new country, so we needed a telecoms operator that could offer global connectivity, as well as roaming. Roaming is important to us – we need to ensure that if a network is down or otherwise not available, we can quickly connect to another. If we don’t have a connection, we’re losing business. Tele2 IoT has the right agreements with operators across the globe.”  

Because Virta operates globally, it needed an easy way to make and manage different configurations of its deployment. The answer? 2CONTROL (Cisco’s IoT Control Center), which allows Virta to easily adjust rate plans and communication plans for different use cases and different markets.  

“We need an easy way to deploy SIM cards used in new charging stations and to manage the SIM cards in the stations which are already deployed, as well as follow, analyse and solve different problems,” explains Ahtikari. “2CONTROL provides good functionality to manage big numbers of SIM cards in an easy way. Also, automation makes life a lot easier, because managing hundreds of thousands of SIM cards and IoT devices can be really difficult. 2CONTROL allows us to focus on our own business, and not waste time managing the difficulties of connectivity of our devices.”  

When Virta was founded in 2013, the company had just three employees. Today, it has more than 200 people on staff and was recently named Europe’s fastest growing EV charging company by the Financial Times. The growth is the result of adjusting.  

“What we at Virta are doing today is very different from what we were doing even a year ago,” says Ahtikari. ”Operating in a swiftly evolving market means we need to respond to changes quickly and make sure we’re providing our customers with what they need both now and what they’ll need going forward. Our solution does just that.”  

Virta is already operating in nearly every European country and has begun expanding quickly outside of Europe, recently opening its first office in Singapore as it grows into Asia.  

“Our competitors tend to focus on particular areas, taking one angle,” says Ahtikari. “That might be a charging app, but no charging stations, or they might have a platform to manage charging stations but don’t have a payment solution. The big strength with our solution is that you don’t need to build your own solution as an individual by buying from a bunch of different companies – you get a really good, well-working solution from us, which is very much out of the box, plug-and-play.” 

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• Source: https://www.iot-now.com/2023/08/07/133823-seamless-multinational-ev-roaming-is-the-virta-reality/