The Linux Foundation Energy & EVerest Join Forces To Create An Open Sourced EV Charging Software
Yesterday, I met with Marco Möller, CEO and cofounder of Pionix, and Dr. Shuli Goodman, executive director of Linux Foundation Energy (LF Energy), who shared some details and insights about a major problem in electric vehicle charging and how their project, EVerest, is designed to solve that problem. EVerest is an open-source software stack designed for EV charging infrastructure and LF Energy just announced the project partnership on its website.
In a nutshell, EVerest is a stack of several software packages run on most Linux distributors. The goal is an open-source software stack for EV charging infrastructure that runs on any device, from AC home chargers to public DC charging stations. Marco told me that the problem the software is solving is a critical issue of EV owners having trouble finding a working EV charger.
EV chargers are made by a variety of companies. Tesla, for example, has its own Supercharging network. There are other companies that provide EV charging, such as ChargePoint, Electrify America, EVgo, Blink, etc. Shell is also opening up EV chargers. And there are many more.
Marco pointed out that each EV charging company has its own software and ways of doing things, and this can create a problem for some EV owners who are looking to charge their cars quickly. It’s simple at a gas station — you go to the pump, pay, and pump your gas. Different EV charging stations have apps, different types of software, and sometimes these could lead to an EV owner having problems by not being able to charge. These are the challenges Marco and Shuli are solving with EVerest.
Marco told me that if we are going to address the climate crisis, then innovation and speed are key to solving it. We have to act fast in solving climate-related problems, and one way of doing this is by making it easier for EV owners to charge their vehicles no matter what type of EV they have.
“Even today it is still quite a challenge to charge in public. Way too often cars and chargers are not fully compatible or chargers are not working properly.
“And even behind the scenes, chargers have connectivity issues with their payment cloud solutions. This is all caused by the same problem: There are way too many slightly different implementations of the same communication protocols over and over again.
“This is where we think EVerest can be a perfect solution: by co-developing in a globally collaborative way the fundamental open-source software for modern chargers, all vendors can utilize the same core, which will ultimately save them a lot of cost and headaches whenever trying to charge.
“From an innovation standpoint, open-source will speed up developments by a factor of 10x! We need this as the current industry is on a very slow path of standardizing and co-implementing. Standards are a good thing to have, but having them in source code additionally to human-readable PDFs is a big difference.”
Marco also explained how EVerest would help the world’s charging infrastructure be ready for whatever challenges may come. Using open-source software would empower companies and consumers alike. He added that EVerest is looking for developers and industry partners that have the same vision.
“With an open-source solution like EVerest, annual investments around the globe into charging infrastructure will become future-proof, by having them ready for whatever comes next. Having an open-source stack will finally prevent a lot of stranded investments in this domain.
“With EVerest, we’re looking to attract both developers and industry partners who share our green mobility vision and are interested in working together as part of our community. This can range from commercial charge point manufacturers or operators who want to deploy EVerest in their products to developers who are interested in getting their ideas and new features into the codebase to investors who share our vision of global scale.”
Shuli, who I’ve interviewed before, added that by launching EVerest, LF Energy is continuing its own mission of speeding up the energy transition by delivering software-defined infrastructure.
“In the race to decarbonize our economies, power systems are a leading enabler. Right after that are vehicles. We need clean energy for clean transportation. Together they represent 50%-60% of our global emissions. By launching EVerest, LF Energy continues to deliver software-defined infrastructure to speed the energy transition. Because EV batteries are both a load and a resource to the grid, EVerest enables communication interoperability between the vehicle, the charging infrastructure, and the power network. EVerest is the open-source commodity layer software for electric mobility. You build your value on top of it.”
You can learn more about EVerest here.
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