Industry
With the market for electric cars expanding and the UK government announcing that all new buildings in England must have EV charging points from 2022, and an estimate of around 145,000 new charging points being built each year, the sector is demanding RFID solutions.
In addition to this, government officials have announced they would like to make electric vehicles use more accessible by ensuring all new charge points accept contactless payments.
The main recommendation made by the EVA (Electric Vehicle Association) England is that a contactless credit or debit card payment option should be offered along with a smartphone app and/or a RFID card option, drivers should be able to use a smartphone or RFID card option across all charge point networks.
Project
A major player in the electromobility sector approached Eccel and wanted to rapidly add a RFID card/ Smartphone app payment capability to their range of non-domestic EV charging points. Eccel then made the recommendation to customize the Pepper C1 module, which is ideal choice for users that to add RFID capability into to their design quickly and without requiring extensive RFID and embedded software expertise and time, associated with a self-adhesive flexible PCB antenna connecting via a 30 cm twisted pair cable to rapidly enable their EV charge point to accept contactless payments from either an RFID card or a smartphone app.
The Pepper C1 is a low cost, small footprint surface mount package, that’s an immensely powerful wireless module (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and BLE) with full RFID/NFC read write capability plus with a local equipment host controller UART interface, it can also be integrated with IOT systems. To see a full product description please click here.
To get the charge going you will need to download a specific app and follow the instructions to initiate and pay for the charge, alternatively some EV charging networks allow you to register an RFID card against a card reader.
The main advantage of using the RFID card is that it provides greater convenience for charging electric vehicles, alongside with providing outstanding ease of use with EV’s at charging stations and having security and flexibility that are also assured for the EV charging stations of the future.
Benefits of using Eccel
- Low costs- The wirelessly connected Pepper C1 module means the customer receives free lifetime Over-the-Air updates, and of course the communication protocol can be used over TCP instead of traditional UART interface, meaning that updates and maintenance can be done remotely, since the readers support remote configuration, this reduces support costs.
- Time savings– Eccel’s design libraries and many years of embedded NFC/RFID/IoT development and manufacturing experience, meaning that the development cycle is kept as short as possible thereby achieving fast time to market and revenue generation.
- International– RFID from Eccel is the perfect solution for global activities because you can use the same reader anywhere in the world.
- Compatibility– Thanks to the BLE and NFC configuration, the RFID readers can work on a smartphone with app solutions
- Full Support– Eccel are here to support your precise needs we can tailor and manage specific requirements that your customer needs to implement RFID solutions.
- Sustainable– Eccel offers more than just a product we offer a software and service which works globally to give our customers maximum flexibility, working with the customer to set everything up and when changes become necessary, the solution is easy to modify.
Get involved
Eccel are continuously developing and manufacturing bespoke products to meet client requirements, transforming the client brief into NFC/RFID/IoT solutions, no matter what sector it may be in, Eccel will deliver!
For more information on bespoke and custom-made projects, please click here.
