New Yorkers test Siemens’ new EV smart charging tech

Siemens eMobility solutions announced this week that it will field test new EV charging technology, a Meter Integrated Charger (MIC), in New York. The MICs measure the quantity of electricity needed to charge EVs so that drivers, utilities, and others can track and manage consumption.

The standard utility meter can be used to record energy usage, and the meter will send the data back to the utility, which can then be shared with the customer. The data could be used to bill the EV on a separate rate in the future.

German multinational conglomerate Siemens is partnering with New York utility Con Edison to recruit up to 20 residential customers in New York with smart meters to participate in the project.

John DeBoer, head of Siemens eMobility solutions and Future Grid Business in North America, said:

Currently, for most customers who own EVs, EV energy consumption is mixed in with all other usage in the owner’s electricity bill, making it impossible to identify the energy costs from charging the EV versus the home’s air conditioning or lighting. With the MIC, the power used for the EV will show up separately. Siemens is working to promote EV adoption with our full range of charging equipment and solutions, and this could be a game-changer for EV drivers in understanding their fuel savings when they switch to EVs.

Con Edison will collect information on the charging habits of the participating customers and share it with Siemens. The project is supported by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

Electrek’s Take

In January, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert wrote about Tesla launching a new level 2 home charging station with a Wi-Fi connection, the Tesla Wall Connector. It was unclear at that point whether Tesla’s Wall Connector will be able to record the energy usage, but it probably will soon.

Further, Con Edison already offers the SmartCharge New York program, which rewards EV drivers for charging during off-peak hours. Drivers get a FleetCarma C2 connected device that plugs into the vehicle’s on-board diagnostics port or diagnostic connector and collects driving and charging data. The EV owner can then log in to their portal and see information about their driving efficiency, energy consumption, and battery.

So if and when the Siemens MIC is launched to the general public, it will be joining ChargePoint and JuiceBox in the smart charging arena. EV charging improvements, and an increase in the number of chargers, particularly in urban areas, are only going to encourage more drivers to switch to electric.

Photo: Emily Gilbert/The New York Times