Redeveloping an EV charging solution for a European EV charging network

Yalantis helped a European EV charging network provider to redevelop their application, modernize their technology base to make it capable for seamless international expansion, and increase user loyalty with better app performance.

  • Industry

    EV chargers

  • Country

    Norway

  • Team size

    10 IT specialists

  • Collaboration

    October 2021 – March 2022

VALUE DELIVERED

  • Average rating improved from 3.4 to 4.7 on Google Play and the App Store. The client’s in-house team needed additional resources to update their application after unsatisfactory reviews and release a new version as soon as possible. We helped them revive their digital product, increasing user satisfaction.

  • 75% better application performance compared to the initial version. With a modernized solution, the Yalantis team substantially improved application performance for end users even under extreme loads.

  • Reliable technology stack for international expansion. The client’s business strategy included international expansion in the near future. To eliminate technological obstacles, we performed comprehensive redevelopment of the solution together with the client’s in-house team, ensuring seamless expansion into new markets.

About the client

Our client is a Norwegian provider of EV charging stations that focuses on offering unparalleled charging experiences as well as creating paid marketing opportunities for businesses, such as through ad screens and interactive displays.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

  • The Norwegian EV charging station provider approached Yalantis on the recommendation of our former Danish client, who was our very first client in the EV charging industry. The former Danish client planned to work with the new Norwegian client to extend their business and encourage EV-based tourists to use each other’s respective EV charging applications.

    However, the project demanded a strong technological foundation from both companies to bring innovations to the European EV charging market. The Norwegian company couldn’t ensure the required level of technical reliability, as their in-house team couldn’t implement required changes to their solution within tight deadlines.

    Specifically, they had to solve the following challenges that were detrimental to the business:

    • Chargers didn’t communicate properly with the application, charging sessions were interrupted, and charger functionality of the app was poor.
    • Customers were dissatisfied with the application and the operation of charging stations.
    • There was no reliable technological foundation for the solution’s development and, consequently, the company’s expansion.

    The Danish company recommended that the Norwegian company hire Yalantis developers as outstaffing team members to modernize the design of their application and accelerate the launch of their collaborative project. Following this advice, the Norwegian company requested our services to improve their software in terms of both the technology and user experience.

Process overview

The Yalantis team, together with the client, focused on delivering a quick, stable, and flexible application that would be ready for rapid scaling. To achieve these goals, the development process included:

 

Designing a microservices architecture

The Yalantis architecture office chose a microservices architecture for this project and enabled each microservice to be responsible for specific functionality. This decision led to:

  • Improved fault tolerance. The solution has microservices for business logic, payments, integrations, and other functionality. If one microservice fails due to a bug or other issue, it doesn’t bring down the entire system. Other microservices can continue to function, providing a level of fault isolation.
  • Seamless scalability. Microservices allow our client to independently scale individual components based on demand. They can scale services experiencing high loads while leaving other services unaffected.
  • Error-free real-time data transmission. Yalantis solution architects helped the client’s team develop a microservice for communication with charging networks and ensured smooth data transmission from stations to the platform. As a result, data regarding particular charging stations (availability, queues, condition) in the application is always up to date.

 

Ensuring proper security

As the application operates in the EU, the client has to comply with the GDPR and ISO 15118 requirements. Our priority was to protect customers’ personal data and information about their payment methods, addresses, and routes they usually take. For this, our security team implemented SSL certificates, end-to-end data encryption between user and server, encrypted data storage, and other measures.

Additionally, we implemented the OCPI protocol, enabling EV drivers to use the services of other EV charging networks if needed.

 

Choosing appropriate frameworks

Ensuring stable application performance

Our mission for this project was to provide smooth application operation, stable releases, and proper storage of structured and unstructured data. It was important to take into account future expansion of our client’s customer base so that the team could easily monitor and manage resources in proportion to the increasing number of users.

Considering all of this, our team used the following solutions:

Enabling integrations necessary to achieve the client’s business goals

  • Integration with the partner’s EV charging network. To let users charge their EVs anywhere, our client needed to integrate with the EV charging network of their Danish partner. At a technical level, this was done through APIs from both sides. These APIs handle and monitor the synchronization of charging stations across networks, enabling each partner’s application to correctly display data and allow for the use of chargers in either network in one application.
  • Integration with Stripe. We needed to integrate with a payment processing platform to let customers pay online using credit cards. The Yalantis team chose Stripe among other platforms because of its dynamic payment forms, which allow for flexible charges. In our case, with Stripe, customer payments are dynamically changed if any discounts or coupons are applied. Besides, integration with Stripe required no extra effort or resources due to its simple API.
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