BMW said in a recent release published in the trade website
Automotive World that it is furthering efforts to make electric cars more convenient to use through its Digital Charging Service (DCS).
The German carmaker aims to provide a convenient, predictive and cost effective service that taps into renewable energy sources to further the adoption of its electric vehicles.
One obstacle to the ubiquitous use of electric vehicles has been the absence of a network of charging stations that will make long distance travel viable. BMW hopes to address this gap by integrating car charging into the daily lifestyle of its vehicle owners.
BMW’s service will optimize charging technology for the BMW i and iPerformance vehicles. It will initially be rolled out in Germany and the Netherlands in early 2017. It will eventually be extended to other brands in other markets.
The DCS needs to be activated, after which it will carry out the charging process “fully independently and autonomously,” BMW said in the statement. It will be based on two core functions, which are tariff and solar optimized vehicle charging.
In the case of tariff-optimized charging, the service will synchronize the vehicle charging plan to the customer’s electricity tariff, which aims to improve cost-efficiency by charging the BMW vehicle at the lowest possible electricity rate. Further, the car maker plans to coordinate with renewable energy providers, to make possible cost reimbursements in markets where this is possible.
On the other hand, solar optimized charging will involve syncing to the user’s domestic solar energy system. DCS will predict the anticipated solar power harvest based on the current weather forecast, and the output of the installed solar energy system, and then create a charging plan. Through the system, the household can maximize the amount of solar energy produced by using the excess to power their vehicle.
The DCS is part of the BMW 360° ELECTRIC portfolio. The service can be activated through the BMW ConnectedDrive portal.
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