Come back when you are charged! Self-Organized Charging for Electric Vehicles

TL;DR

This paper proposes a decentralized, blockchain-based ecosystem enabling autonomous electric vehicles to access charging infrastructure during free time, addressing charging inconvenience and promoting EV adoption.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ecosystem and service platform leveraging M2X Economy and blockchain smart contracts for autonomous EV charging.

Findings

Design of a decentralized charging marketplace for autonomous EVs

Utilization of blockchain for secure transactions and collaboration

Potential to increase EV adoption by simplifying charging processes

Abstract

Dwindling nonrenewable fuel reserves, progressing severe environmental pollution, and accelerating climate change require society to reevaluate existing transportation concepts. While electric vehicles (EVs) have become more popular and slowly gain widespread adoption, the corresponding battery charging infrastructures still limits EVs' use in our everyday life. This is especially true for EV owners that do not have the option to operate charging hardware, such as wall boxes, at their premises. Charging an EV without an at-home wall box is time-consuming since the owner has to drive to the charger, charge the vehicle while waiting nearby, and finally drive back home. Thus, a convenient and easy-to-use solution is required to overcome the issue and incentivize EVs for daily commuters. Therefore, we propose an ecosystem and a service platform for (semi-)autonomous electric vehicles that allow them to utilize their "free"-time, e.g., at night, to access public and private charging infrastructure, charge their batteries, and get back home before the owner needs the car again. To do so, we utilize the concept of the Machine-to-Everything Economy (M2X Economy) and outline a decentralized ecosystem for smart machines that transact, interact and collaborate via blockchain-based smart contracts to enable a convenient battery charging marketplace for (semi-)autonomous EVs.