CDTA, a company from New York reports about experiences and benefits.
A webinar was held with our Sales Manager Maximilian Haag together with the “Capital District Transportation Authority”, a regional mobility provider in Albany, New York. The company operates 275 fixed-route buses as well as paratransit vehicles, trolleybuses and electric vehicles. MOBILEvhm has improved the processes and communication there considerably, so that it has been easier to make the right decisions since then.
The exciting webinar with a duration of only 23 minutes shows the challenges that have been overcome by using MOBILEvhm and lessons learned in managing the vehicle fleet. Watch the recorded webinar and feel free to ask us any questions.
The right interface determines your daily routine You don’t have time to plan and keep track of every charging process and every preconditioning request individually? Do you think it’s too time-consuming to constantly check the charge status of your buses? You are afraid that a bus will not make its tour with its current charge? Then VDV 463 might be just the solution you’re looking for, because it is a decisive interface to remove the stress around your daily operations.
The challenge with public transport becoming increasingly electric-powered lies with overall systems that enable comprehensive data exchange. Communication between the vehicle and the charging station (ISO 15118) and between the charging station and the Charge Management System (OCPP) has already been standardized, but there has not been a uniform format for the Charge Management System and the cross-modal pre-system. With a well-defined standard for communication, companies no longer have to develop their own solutions, which have long integration times and involve a lot of effort. This is exactly what VDV 463 is about: an interface between the Charge Management System and the Pre-Systems such as the Intermodal Transport Control System (ITCS) or the Depot Management System (BMS).
How VDV 463 works
Functionality and application The above mentioned systems using this interface acquire up-to-date data, which is continuously exchanged between the systems in both directions. The interface has been developed for three different use cases.
Manage circulation and provide loading request from ITCS and BMS to Charge Management System: new request or charge request
Control loading process and transfer information about loading processes from Charge Management System to ITCS
Implement preconditioning request from Pre-System in Charge Management System and return current status
Your main advantages
Flexibility– open interface and thus no vendor lock-in
Ensure compatibility and thus simplify processes considerably
Benefit from our experience and implement an intelligent charging concept in your e-bus fleet. The following three factors will bring your project to success: Taking an iterative approach, maintaining close communication between those involved, ensuring that system components are interoperable, and having an experienced partner on hand will all play an essential role.
With its software application MOBILEcharge, CarMedialab is involved in a range of projects since 2019. More and more transport companies start to realize that managing a fleet with this new type of refuelling is so complex that it requires the help of an intelligent charging system.
Are you considering a transition to electric power for your bus fleet?
Controlled charging thanks to charge controller in Barcelona
Hydra Power uses CarMedialab’s charge controller in street cleaning vehicles. The system links internal control units, such as the battery management system via ISO 15118 and IEC 61851, with the charging infrastructure for the charging process. A special feature of the system is the integrated mobile radio interface, which can be used for remote diagnosis of the charging process, individual control units or via the many CAN interfaces of the entire vehicle.
These vehicles clean streets in Barcelona
About “Cuidem Barcelona Residus” (Let’s take care of Barcelona’s waste)
Our customer Hydra Power develops, produces and markets hydraulic and pneumatic systems. In the Cuidem Barcelona Residus project, they are using the Flea as a charge controller. The project aims to improve the cleaning and maintenance of public places in the city.
To learn more about our software stacks for smart charging or our embedded systems, you can arrange a personal meeting here.
Interfaces between vehicle, charging station and backend ensure further development of charging infrastructure.
When charging electric cars, several factors are important to ensure a fast and safe charging process. This must also fit seamlessly into the local energy supply.
The Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is the common language between charging stations and their management systems. It has become the de facto standard for electric car charging. When an electric car starts its charging process. A comprehensive data transfer begins between the charging point and the CPO/MSP backend system connected to it. User data can be transmitted to the contract partner as billing data for the charging current. The time frame and the amount of energy consumed for the respective charging process are also transferred.
Vendor-neutral, license-free – the obvious solution for reliable and efficient management and control of the various tasks mentioned above. As a quality feature, the international partnership of over 160 electric mobility companies, Open Charge Alliance (OCA), added a certificate in 2019. This enables interested parties to immediately recognize whether a charging station is compatible with OCPP. CarMedialab is also a member of OCA. Currently, almost all leading manufacturers are looking to equip their charging stations with OCPP-compatible technology.
What are the advantages of OCPP? OCPP has a number of advantages over other standards and protocols. For example, charging stations can fully communicate with any OCPP-compliant CPO/MSC backend system, with data well protected. In this way, customers get a future-proof and cost-effective charging infrastructure. It can also be combined with additional software and hardware components from different manufacturers at any time.
Up-to-dateness for use of all functionalities It is important that the charging stations always use the latest version of the Open Charge Point protocol. This means that the core includes all services such as firmware management, smart charging, reservation, management of a local authorization list and remote triggering. All of this is provided with the current OCPP, which will be converted into an ISO standard in the future.
All info about our software stack OCPP can be found here.
A new version is released and will be available from CarMedialab this summer
ISO 15118:20 is an important communication standard that offers many new possibilities for electric vehicles.
This can be divided into four major functionality sections:
AC for alternating current charging
DC for direct current charging
wireless power transfer (WPT) for inductive charging and
Automatic Connecting Device Pantograph for charging communication via pantograph charging infrastructure
Bidirectional charging represents a sought-after technical advancement in the new standard. It enables both the charging of a vehicle and the feeding of energy back into the grid.
The new software is soon available for charging stations
The CarMedialab release is already available from the end of June. Ask now!
Smart charging of buses with “OppCharge” Alstom – a world leader in railroad technology – manufactures, among many other things, streetcars and trains for mass transit. Thanks to our charge controller, smart charging for buses has been made possible.
OppCharge and Pantograph Here, charging is done with so-called “Opportunity Charging”, among experts this is called: OppCharge. This refers to opportunity charging of the batteries of buses or trucks: With this technology, they are recharged with high energy at terminal stations or selected locations. The challenge here is to transfer a lot of energy in a short time. The connection is made by conductive poles and rails on the vehicle as well as Wifi communication and control within an automatic connection system. For charging, the pantograph is moved to the contact point on the roof of the vehicle.
The charging process works
Successful acceptance test on site With our valuable client we’ve performed successful acceptance test onsite. This was to verify that the application works as planned for the customer. Smart Charging from CarMedialab offers embedded systems that can be integrated into both the vehicle and the charging pole. For vehicle and charging pole to harmonize, software and hardware must be in perfect harmony. Our software stacks help to make this possible.
Future-proof charging management thanks to VDV-Normen Users of our charging management system MOBILEcharge benefit from the interoperability of the software to efficiently charge many electric buses. But what does that mean exactly?
Interoperability generally means that a system can work together with other systems. If the system’s interfaces are open, collaboration can work with two or more programs or systems. Thus, multiple systems can be integrated without problems of access or implementation.
Interoperability enables the integration of existing systems
At Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr GmbH (rnv) for example, e-buses, as well as passenger cars, are charged at four depots with over 100 charging points. Various interfaces ensure optimal functionality: VDV 463 between charging management and depot management system (DMS) at the customer’s site and VDV 261 for communication between charging management and vehicle to control preconditioning (Interior and battery are tempered in time). Compliance with these VDV standards enables a high degree of interoperability. GoRaleigh based in the USA also controls and monitors the charging activities of the e-buses with MOBILEcharge in connection with the control centre. Changes can be made permanent so that charging can always be carried out in a cost-saving manner.
Conveniently charge and monitor e-buses Through our charging management system MOBILEcharge, all charging processes can not only be primarily controlled but also monitored in real-time. Charging with reduced amperage increases battery life while lowering overall energy demand.
Your contact person: Maximilian Haag Phone +49.7251.7240.161 maximilian.haag@carmedialab.com
Increasing gasoline prices Who would have thought six months ago how much our gasoline prices would be affected by a major crisis in the middle of Europe? None the less, here we are. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, gasoline prices have been rising rapidly, and unfortunately, it looks like the rest of the world will also be affected by the war raging in our European backyard. Since Russia is one of the biggest energy suppliers when it comes to crude oil, prices have increased by a whopping 42% compared to gasoline prices at the beginning of 2021.
This is how much people spend on gasoline Share of fuel costs per 1000 km in net wages in percent, Germany
Increased use of public transport However, the rising gasoline prices also mean that more and more people are switching to public transportation like taking the bus to work. Gasoline prices will remain at an all-time high for the foreseeable future, but you can reduce your gasoline consumption on public transportation with our innovative and cost-effective products. Introducing: MOBILEefficiency. CarMedialab’s driver assistance system MOBILEefficiency records real-world fuel consumption and driving situations during operation and automatically generates reports. These reports provide valuable information on energy demand and fuel consumption based on analysis and empirical values. By informing drivers in real-time when they are braking or accelerating too hard, more energy-efficient driving is achieved and encouraged. For example, York Region Transit in Toronto introduced MOBILEefficiency in December 2017 and has already seen an average 50% reduction in unsafe and inefficient vehicle use.
In addition, MOBILEefficiency helps protect passengers on public transportation. By notifying the driver of unsafe driving, action can be taken to correct it. Warnings appear if the driver makes sudden steering movements or applies the brakes too hard. Driving behavior improves, resulting in satisfied passengers who can be assured that they are being transported from A to B in a safe manner. Long periods of idling are detected, encouraging the driver to turn off the engine and avoid wasting resources. That means you can make sure that you are protecting the environment by assuring not overspending valuable energy.
Save resources MOBILEefficiency helps to reduce fuel costs. Even if one already uses electric vehicles for public transport, one can still benefit from MOBILEefficiency as one can increase its range. One can even view their energy consumption specifically by vehicle, route, driver and even time of day. The data from our driver assistance system can also be used to create training programs for drivers to improve their driving style in general. Use MOBILEefficiency to effectively reduce energy consumption, energy emissions and costs.
Each bus reduces CO2 emissions by 135 tons per year The dual city of Champaign-Urbana is using CarMedialab’s MOBILEvhm and MOBILEefficiency software on 16 buses in the USA. Fourteen of them are e-buses, two of which are powered by hydrogen. The location is a university town with a population of about 88,000 in the state of Illinois, south of Chicago.
Completely emission-free! Mass Transit District is the first transit agency in the country with 100% sustainable hydrogen buses
The special thing about the project in Champaign-Urbana is that this city is one of the rare places with emission-free hydrogen production: Instead of producing hydrogen from the extraction of natural gas and thus releasing greenhouse gases, an electrolyzer is used. This splits water into hydrogen and oxygen – with the help of solar energy.
“The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District is certainly a pioneer because this system emits only water vapor instead of greenhouse gases, and that’s leading the way in the fight against climate change,” said Nuria Fernandez, director of the Federal Transit Administration. For those interested in the benefits of e-buses, feel free to stop by our latest blog post.
