Electric Vehicle Charging Market - Driven by Software Now

Julien Deconinck says software innovations are now providing solutions to many of the scaling challenges and will play a crucial role in electric vehicle adoption.

- Julien Deconinck

Electric Vehicle (EV) adoption is outperforming all expectations and is now expected to represent over half of US vehicle sales by 2030. The 'key link' to mass adoption is now software, not hardware or vehicles. Fortunately, software innovations are already providing solutions to many of the scaling challenges and will play a crucial role in EV adoption. From USD 1 billion in 2021, EV charging software is forecast to grow to USD 25 billion by 2030, making it one of the fastest-growing software sector in the market today and a huge opportunity for value creation for founders and VCs.

Key Challenges in EV Adoption that Software Can Help Solve

Electric vehicles are set to revolutionize the industry. But a full transition to EVs requires overcoming several critical challenges. The first relates to infrastructure and interoperability.

• While the number of charging points is growing, it is still far away from being able to meet the demands of many EV drivers. EV drivers still must plan their journeys (especially longer ones) as network of chargers are still inadequate, and ‘range anxiety’ remains a major stumbling block for many willing consumers.

• As the EV market grows, it will strain the grid. According to some estimates, we will need 1.1 EV chargers for every EV car. This could increase peak electricity demand on local grids by 15-50 per cent, requiring expensive upgrades to accommodate the increased demand.