Happenings

Bosch’s “eMobility Solution”

BY Keegan Gan

Bosch will be providing charging stations and software to manage mobility in mega cities and support the proliferation of electric vehicles in Singapore.

The Bosch Group - a leading global supplier of technology and services in the areas of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods and building technology - has been appointed by the Singapore Government to be the Infrastructure Service Provider to implement and operate an Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure test bed in Singapore.

Bosch’s 'eMobility Solution' is a comprehensive service platform for electric vehicles. It features charging stations and a web-based application with an integrated communication system. It is based on Bosch’s software technology, such as the market-leading Business Rules Technology Platform (Visual Rules), which is the foundation for innovative business models. The project will commence in March 2011 and is intended to run until 2016. With this project, Singapore is amongst the first cities in the world to lead the way in test-bedding an ecologically sustainable and affordable transportation system of the future, paving the way for Singapore to establish an early presence in eMobility.

As a global market leader in automotive technology, Bosch believes that the future of electric vehicles will be shaped with innovative solutions. The company is confident that electric vehicles will continuously gain market share, as technological solutions for both vehicles and infrastructure are further developed. Whilst Bosch is already devoting substantial research efforts to electric power trains and batteries, it is also supporting Singapore’s eMobility test bed via its newly setup software and systems unit in Singapore, Innovations Software Technology. Innovations Software Technology’s strength is to develop advanced, modular software solutions that can be customised for a variety of enterprises. Their flexible design offers a comfortable information platform for the drivers of electric vehicles and to network operators, it provides the ability to remotely manage charging stations, including software update, encryption, metering, billing and surveillance. There is also a smart grid control function for utilities to monitor demand and energy distribution. In addition, the open system enables easy integration with other software solutions for supplementary business models and information services which can be easily interconnected. Together with local partners SingTel and Greenlots, this project marks Bosch’s foray into developing urban infrastructure system solutions to achieve an integrated infrastructure for electric vehicles in a mega city environment for the first time in Asia Pacific.

Bosch’s cooperation with local telecommunications market leader, SingTel, entails interconnecting the operating infrastructure (charging stations, vehicles, smart phones) with different eMobility participants (individuals, potential charging station operators) and business partners (shopping malls or supermarkets, utilities, backend system operators or urban service providers). Mobile data connectivity will be used for user interaction, advanced reservation of charging stations, management of the charging process, as well as enabling authentication and billing. Bosch will also be partnering with Greenlots, a local provider of electric vehicle charging stations. Together, Bosch and Greenlots will be installing some 60 charging stations at locations convenient to electric vehicle users. Bosch has built up a core eMobility team in Singapore through its Innovations Software Technology business unit for the project, with plans to extend knowledge creation via collaborating with local universities and government R&D agencies such as the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.