Electric Vehicle Charging Stations and Display Technology
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As we all know, the Electric Vehicle (EV) market is currently enjoying exponential growth. At the time of writing this article, there are approximately 500,000 electric cars (EV) and almost 800,000 plug-in hybrids (PHEV) on the road in the UK. Over the next decade, as we head towards the 2030 ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles, the switch from a traditional ICE to an EV will continue to accelerate.
With this expected market growth, there is a need for the relevant infrastructure to be in place. Currently, there are just over 32,000 public charge points – and of these – just under 6,000 are “rapid charge” units. Over the coming years, we can expect to see more public charge points, whether that’s in supermarket carparks, on-street, or even at dedicated “charging parks”.
One of the crucial components, certainly for public charge points, is likely to be the display that will act as the Human Machine Interface. Easby Electronics and our manufacturing partners have a vast amount of experience in this field, giving us confidence that we are the right team to help customers overcome some of the issues associated with Vehicle Charging Stations.
With the availability of high-quality IPS displays from our partners Raystar and Yeebo, we are confident we can provide a display solution that meets all the challenges. Firstly, we need to select a suitable size and resolution – but that’s the easy bit. Next, because the device is likely to be outside and exposed to a range of weather conditions, we need to ensure that a suitable coverglass is applied to the display – depending on what the customer requires, this may or may not be a touchscreen. As the unit is likely to be “public domain”, it needs to be robust, so we would always suggest using chemically strengthened glass, and we can help with this and support up to IK10 if required. We can also discuss integrating an anti-reflective (AR) or an anti-glare (AG) optical filter – we may also discuss UV-resistant optical bonding to ensure the screen is readable in all conditions. Another consideration is the backlight, and we can also assist in ensuring the provided display is optimised to ensure excellent performance without over-driving and generating heat that can shorten the backlight lifetime and cause damage to the TFT.
The future for public domain charging units is bright, not to mention the potential revenue streams from advertising. There is the possibility of each EV Charging unit – not only – being used as an EV charger but also as digital signage and ad space.
If you are looking at developing a new EV Charger, and need to discuss the best display solution for your particular project, contact our Product Manager, Chris Parr (chris.parr@easby.com), for further information.
