By Charlie Jardine, Founder & President at EO Charging  

Last year marked one of the hottest summers on record, with Death Valley in California reaching a blistering 56.7°C. The devastating effects of climate change—widespread wildfires, prolonged droughts and record-breaking heatwaves—are becoming impossible to ignore. As the urgency to reduce global emissions intensifies, the spotlight is increasingly falling on the transport sector, which is responsible for nearly a quarter of emissions worldwide. Road transport alone makes up 74% of those emissions, with commercial vehicles—such as vans, trucks and buses—being the most significant contributors.  

While the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) is well underway in the passenger car market, with over 40 million EV registrations globally in 2023, the commercial sector still lags behind. According to a report by Accenture, 54% of business leaders plan to electrify their fleets by 2030. However, many are still hesitant due to perceived barriers related to cost, complexity and reliability. Concerns around power outages, connectivity issues and hardware failures are making fleet operators question whether electrification is truly viable—particularly in environments where uptime is mission-critical. 

One of the key reasons early adopters struggled to achieve reliable operations is that they focused too narrowly on the hardware. In contrast, successful fleet operators have taken inspiration from the IT world—embracing a platform-based approach to electrification. Rather than relying on disconnected point solutions, this approach integrates reliable hardware, intelligent software and dedicated support services into one unified system. 

The result? Uptime rates exceeding 99.5%—a level of performance that’s essential when vehicles need to be charged and ready every single day. 

At the heart of this platform-based approach is a robust infrastructure built on open standards such as OCPP (Open Charge Point Protocol) and ISO 15118. These standards ensure that charging hardware can reliably communicate with vehicles and the back end charging station management system (CSMS), providing the foundation for secure and seamless operations. 

Layered on top is a CSMS that allows operators to remotely configure, monitor and manage chargers through a centralised dashboard. But to meet the demands of commercial use, an additional layer of resilience is needed. This is where self-healing middleware comes in—software that continuously monitors system performance and automatically restores functionality if faults are detected. Coupled with 24/7 human support, this ensures a truly commercial-grade solution.