Solving ICEing – the dirty secret of EV charging

Smart cities need to be accessible to all, and that includes those who drive electric vehicles (EVs), especially as they continue to rise in popularity. EV drivers using public chargers frequently encounter a problem: their app or car thinks the charger is available, while in reality, the charging space is occupied by a vehicle that is not charging, has finished charging, or is occupied by a car with an internal combustion engine (ICE).
The EV industry has even coined a term for this practice, “ICEing.”

ICEing significantly reduces the utilization of publicly accessible urban EV chargers. This reduces revenue for the charging companies and increases frustration for EV drivers seeking a charge. EV chargers are usually subsidized by governments so ICEing also wastes those public funds.

Cleverciti helps its clients reduce ICEing and maximize utilization of EV chargers by monitoring the usage of EV parking spaces both on-street and off-street.
Cleverciti’s sensors provide real-time occupancy detection using industry-leading artificial intelligence (AI) technology to determine if an EV charger has an available parking space. That data is married to the charging status reported by the EV charger itself. Municipalities and/or the charging company can access this occupancy status via the Cleverciti Cockpit, allowing them to see a bird’s eye view of usage of all chargers. The accurate availability status of each charger can then be published to EV drivers via standard charging apps, giving drivers the confidence they will find an available space.

This innovative approach to ICEing has already shown tremendous success in the German city of Düsseldorf. To help solve for ICEing, the city receives violation alerts any time a vehicle has been parked in a dedicated EV space, without charging, for at least 10 minutes. This could be either a vehicle that arrives and doesn’t start charging in the first 10 minutes or a vehicle that has finished charging but remains parked after 10 minutes. The municipality then has the information necessary to enforce correct usage of these spaces, for example, by issuing a warning or fine. Data obtained over 3 months in Düsseldorf identified an average of 1.25 violations per charger per day (40 per month). Each of these violations represents lost use of a public asset – the EV Charger – because a vehicle is blocking it while not charging, lost charging revenue, and EV driver frustration.

As the world races to deploy EV chargers, Cleverciti stands ready to support cities and EV charging companies to maximize the utilization of those chargers and guide EV drivers to available charging spaces.

The History of Smart Parking

We love to say that parking hasn’t changed in 100 years. Until Smart Parking, finding a parking space has always been based on pure luck. Will I find a pole to tie my horse up to? Will I find a parking spot to park my car? But then Smart Parking came along and revolutionized parking completely. It started out with simple ground sensors and moved to sophisticated overhead sensors that eliminated the element of luck. Smart Parking as we know it has evolved into ingenious sensory guidance systems, leading drivers effortlessly to the nearest available parking spot, while saving time and money, improving quality of life, and reducing emissions substantially.

Above mentioned milestones have influenced (smart) parking directly. But, of course, that were more important milestones that indirectly played a role in the development of smart parking as well. 1886, for example, is regarded as the birth year of the modern car when German inventor Karl Benz patented his Benz Patent-Motorwagen. By 1900 mass production of cars was well underway in France and the US. Without the existence of cars, no smart parking. In 1920, forerunners of automated parking systems (APS) appeared for the first time in big American cities like LA, Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati.

The History of Cleverciti

In 2012, Cleverciti entered the smart parking stage, initially under the name of “Schlauerparken.” Three years in, the company has already grown a lot, more and more people have joined the team and the company needs a more international name to better fit the international ambitions of the team. First international clients of Cleverciti go live, including Dubai in the UAE.

In 2016, Cleverciti got awarded with Deloitte’s prestigious Technology Fast 50 Award and over a dozen other international awards for their innovative parking solutions using high-tech sensors. Cleverciti launched the world’s most comprehensive turn-by-turn guidance solution in Cologne, Germany, in 2020. Early 2021, a smart tourism project in Lübeck Bay that includes Cleverciti’s smart parking guidance system gets awarded with the Deutscher Tourismuspreis 2020.

And the best is yet to come…

More information about Cleverciti’s history can be found here.

Want to have a chat with one of our smart parking experts about what the future of smart parking looks like? Schedule a demo below.

Reducing parking search in Redwood City with smart parking