A UNIQUE SOLUTION FOR OVERCOMING “RANGE ANXIETY”
30 November 2015
In response to climate change challenges London aims to have 25,000 electrical charging points across the city by the end of 2015 and 100,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2020.
As of November 2015 there are only 1,656 operating charging points (zap-map.com) and just over 3,000 electric vehicles (EV’s) in London, although numbers are predicted to at least double by 2018.
A significant number are operated by progressive and very successful private hire firms and that reminds me of a very particular challenge – range anxiety.
Range anxiety is the fear that an EV may not have sufficient range to reach its destination, thereby stranding the occupants – very inconvenient and embarrassing if they are paying passengers. An extensive charging infrastructure is the best solution. However right now in London there are only 1,656 operating charging points (zap-map.com) that is still a work in progress.
There is a very real issue here that private hire firms with EV’s will have to overcome to optimise operation efficiency.
That issue is, how do they schedule and route online all drivers in EV’s to connect with ‘on-demand’ requests, whilst maintaining future on-time commitments to pre-booked customers and still provide realistic response times for all ‘on-demand’ queries – as well as managing the remaining range capacity of all the vehicles and the re-charging times – and all in real-time?
Impossible? No.
Echo, the dynamic real-time scheduling, booking and dispatch platform for private car hire businesses is already developing the complete solution.
Based upon unique technology, Echo continually evaluates every single contingency involved in the current moment, (including live traffic conditions and the location of the nearest charging point to every EV in the fleet), to make the optimum decisions to maintain the very best customer service, so that vehicles arrive on-time, every time.
Matthew Borland, Sales Director matthew.borland@magentatechnology.com