Austria

SMATRICS, a subsidiary of VERBUND from Austria and the German EnBW (Energie Baden-Württemberg), is one of the leading international e-mobility service providers. As a 360° provider, SMATRICS has been offering expertise along the entire e-mobility value chain since 2012: from planning, rollout and operation of charging networks, software solutions, customer hotlines and field services, to tariffing and billing solutions.

In Austria, SMATRICS and EnBW operate the first nationwide high-speed charging network in their own joint venture: SMATRICS EnBW. Over 35,000 active users charge their vehicles at more than 500 charging points along all main motorways and in urban centers across Austria.

Partners involved: SMATRICS, VERBUND, ABB, BMW, VCC

Current problems related to charging in the area

  • Users are currently not able to reserve a charge point in advance.
  • Current authentication methods still have some inherent weak spots. Hence, to improve user experience and to be ready for new market developments, the Plug & Charge feature must be deployed in the network.
  • Network connection for superfast charging stations carries prohibitive connection costs, thus leading to foreseeable shortages of available power to customers.

Short description of planned demonstrations

  • Implementation of ISO 15118 Plug & Charge feature in SMATRICS backend, which will be a technical demonstration at an ABB charging station
  • Standardised communication of charging stations to respective backends
  • Online direct payment as a feature to enhance user experience at charging stations
  • Short-term reservation feature which can be triggered via a manual command out of CPMS (expert system)
  • Implementation of dynamic communication between local micro grids (stationary battery, local power generation) and superfast charging stations to increase maximum power available