Below you will find an overview of various questions and answers. Do you want to know more about something? Please feel free to contact us.
ChargeSim is committed to safeguarding user data through a multi-layered security approach. Our platform has successfully completed an extensive penetration test, verifying its resilience against cyber threats. We follow industry best practices for data security and access management to prevent unauthorized access. Additionally, we have internal governance policies that limit access to sensitive information only to authorized personnel. Our team continuously evaluates and enhances security measures to ensure a safe and reliable environment for all users.
eVirtuFleet Licenses include a number of running hours for the license period, which is reset at each renewal. For example on a monthly plan the hours will reset monthly, on an annual plan they reset annually. Additional hours can be separately purchased and do not expire as long as the license remains valid.
ChargeSim Annual licenses can be upgraded by purchasing a new annual license for the upgraded product level. The remaining value of the previous license will be credited to the new purchase. For example: If you purchase eVirtuFleet Basic Annual in January, then want to upgrade in April, 8/12 of the price of the original license will be credited towards the new license. Please contact sales for help with upgrading.
ChargeSim focuses on scheduled or semi-scheduled operations like buses or trucks where the use patterns are more predictable. Starting with an expected charging needs for a site, ChargeSim can help translate that into how much capacity is needed.
In most cases the key challenge for planning public charging is uncertainty about how many customers will want to charge at a location, and how much charging they will do. There are other companies which use things like traffic or other data to predict how many people will want to charge their car at a given location.
We are a SaaS company, so you access our services via the web. We have customers in US, Canada, Australia, UK, Europe and India.
We do not do business with countries subject to sanctions, or businesses who intend to use our products in or for sanctioned countries.
ChargeSim is principally a software company, we provide training and technical support for our products.
We occasionally do consulting in support of customers with especially challenging problems.
There are a few strategies which can be used, in practice the right mix will depend on your fleet and how you use it.
Overnight charging: charging with relatively low power DC chargers during the night in roughly 8 to 14 hours. For urban last mile delivery running a single shift this can often be sufficient, but it is important to plan enough charging power to take advantage of cheaper electricity rate periods.
Destination Charging: Charge the vehicles at their destination like warehouses or logistic centers. Here it’s a balance to find optimal charging during loading and unloading (30 to 120 minutes depending on the goods shipped)
On-Route Fast charging: Charging at highway rest stops during driver break periods using very high power chargers with MCS (Megawatt Charging System). These chargers and stations are starting to be built, but are still rare. This is most useful for long-haul transport.
It is important to know your energy demand prior to construction of a project. By calculating the power requirements upfront, you can get the right utility capacity. Avoid having too little power, and not being able to charge, or wasting time and money on unnecessary capacity.
Electricity grid capacity is becoming increasingly scarce in many markets, so being able to fit your operation within a smaller available capacity can often mean further electricity grid construction isn't required, saving considerable costs and project delays.
With a big fleet coming and going it is a difficult puzzle to find the best setup for your needs. In our software you can load your transport schedule, energy prices and solar profiles to find clear insights in your requirements and potential savings.
Our visualizations and reporting help you quickly understand the tradeoffs and find the lowest cost solution for you.
For planning simulations, typically a few minutes.
For OCPP simulations it will depend on the backoffice and how fast you can accelerate the operation. Depending on your backoffice setup accelerated operation may require some adaptations since the OCPP protocol is only designed for real-time use. (e.g. 1kWh will be delivered in under 1h in accelerated mode, but if the backoffice cross checks this it could cause a warning.)
In real time mode it will take as long as you intend to simulate.
Starting, stopping and reviewing eVirtuFleet simulations can be done through our API, details on our interface can be found on https://docs.api.chargesim.io/. This allows you to integrate the tool into build pipelines or automated testing. Typically scenario setup is done via the UI, but then later repeat simulations such as for build pipelines can be done via an API.
The results can be downloaded in various formats such as .csv, .xlsx ,.docx, .png, .svg and .jpg depending on the data. You can generate full summary reports for simulations in .docx format and download most raw data in .xlsx
Most OCPP simulators are intended to help you test that your system uses the protocol properly, but the vehicle arrivals and departures are manual, and the batteries never get full. eVirtuFleet simulates a fleet of vehicles, which follow a schedule, have batteries which get full and change their charge rates. This helps you test and demonstrate your smart charging algorithms are getting the vehicles full on time to meet your service needs.
No, ChargeSim is purely a design and testing tool. Our planing tools are usually used before chargers are purchased to select the most suitable setup and are vendor agnostic. They can be used to help improve workflows and smart charging of existing sites. Our OCPP tools can be used to test, validate, demonstrate and train people on smart charging software that will later control the actual chargers. We don’t make software for day-to-day operation of depots and smart charging. There are several vendors who do, and our tools can help you get an unbiased view on the value they can add.
We can use a proprietary excel format, or GTFS which is often available publicly from agencies. Other formats like KV1 and VDV452 are supported. These schedules can also help with planning on-route charging.
Our software supports multi-site operation. Simulations can have vehicles scheduled to charge at many different locations, such as a depot and transit exchanges.
With eDepotPlanner you can try different combinations virtually and see what will be most effective for your operation.
The software can simulate nose-to-tail lane parking, including evaluating if parking positions are obstructed by other parked vehicles, or vehicles are blocked in and unable to leave until vehicles further ahead have departed.
This depends on your subscription, our subscription tiers scale with the number of vehicles. We can simulate hundreds of vehicles.
ChargeSim is committed to safeguarding user data through a multi-layered security approach. Our platform has successfully completed an extensive penetration test, verifying its resilience against cyber threats. We follow industry best practices for data security and access management to prevent unauthorized access. Additionally, we have internal governance policies that limit access to sensitive information only to authorized personnel. Our team continuously evaluates and enhances security measures to ensure a safe and reliable environment for all users.
eVirtuFleet Licenses include a number of running hours for the license period, which is reset at each renewal. For example on a monthly plan the hours will reset monthly, on an annual plan they reset annually. Additional hours can be separately purchased and do not expire as long as the license remains valid.
ChargeSim Annual licenses can be upgraded by purchasing a new annual license for the upgraded product level. The remaining value of the previous license will be credited to the new purchase. For example: If you purchase eVirtuFleet Basic Annual in January, then want to upgrade in April, 8/12 of the price of the original license will be credited towards the new license. Please contact sales for help with upgrading.
ChargeSim focuses on scheduled or semi-scheduled operations like buses or trucks where the use patterns are more predictable. Starting with an expected charging needs for a site, ChargeSim can help translate that into how much capacity is needed.
In most cases the key challenge for planning public charging is uncertainty about how many customers will want to charge at a location, and how much charging they will do. There are other companies which use things like traffic or other data to predict how many people will want to charge their car at a given location.
We are a SaaS company, so you access our services via the web. We have customers in US, Canada, Australia, UK, Europe and India.
We do not do business with countries subject to sanctions, or businesses who intend to use our products in or for sanctioned countries.
ChargeSim is principally a software company, we provide training and technical support for our products.
We occasionally do consulting in support of customers with especially challenging problems.
There are a few strategies which can be used, in practice the right mix will depend on your fleet and how you use it.
Overnight charging: charging with relatively low power DC chargers during the night in roughly 8 to 14 hours. For urban last mile delivery running a single shift this can often be sufficient, but it is important to plan enough charging power to take advantage of cheaper electricity rate periods.
Destination Charging: Charge the vehicles at their destination like warehouses or logistic centers. Here it’s a balance to find optimal charging during loading and unloading (30 to 120 minutes depending on the goods shipped)
On-Route Fast charging: Charging at highway rest stops during driver break periods using very high power chargers with MCS (Megawatt Charging System). These chargers and stations are starting to be built, but are still rare. This is most useful for long-haul transport.
It is important to know your energy demand prior to construction of a project. By calculating the power requirements upfront, you can get the right utility capacity. Avoid having too little power, and not being able to charge, or wasting time and money on unnecessary capacity.
Electricity grid capacity is becoming increasingly scarce in many markets, so being able to fit your operation within a smaller available capacity can often mean further electricity grid construction isn't required, saving considerable costs and project delays.
With a big fleet coming and going it is a difficult puzzle to find the best setup for your needs. In our software you can load your transport schedule, energy prices and solar profiles to find clear insights in your requirements and potential savings.
Our visualizations and reporting help you quickly understand the tradeoffs and find the lowest cost solution for you.
For planning simulations, typically a few minutes.
For OCPP simulations it will depend on the backoffice and how fast you can accelerate the operation. Depending on your backoffice setup accelerated operation may require some adaptations since the OCPP protocol is only designed for real-time use. (e.g. 1kWh will be delivered in under 1h in accelerated mode, but if the backoffice cross checks this it could cause a warning.)
In real time mode it will take as long as you intend to simulate.
Starting, stopping and reviewing eVirtuFleet simulations can be done through our API, details on our interface can be found on https://docs.api.chargesim.io/. This allows you to integrate the tool into build pipelines or automated testing. Typically scenario setup is done via the UI, but then later repeat simulations such as for build pipelines can be done via an API.
The results can be downloaded in various formats such as .csv, .xlsx ,.docx, .png, .svg and .jpg depending on the data. You can generate full summary reports for simulations in .docx format and download most raw data in .xlsx
Most OCPP simulators are intended to help you test that your system uses the protocol properly, but the vehicle arrivals and departures are manual, and the batteries never get full. eVirtuFleet simulates a fleet of vehicles, which follow a schedule, have batteries which get full and change their charge rates. This helps you test and demonstrate your smart charging algorithms are getting the vehicles full on time to meet your service needs.
No, ChargeSim is purely a design and testing tool. Our planing tools are usually used before chargers are purchased to select the most suitable setup and are vendor agnostic. They can be used to help improve workflows and smart charging of existing sites. Our OCPP tools can be used to test, validate, demonstrate and train people on smart charging software that will later control the actual chargers. We don’t make software for day-to-day operation of depots and smart charging. There are several vendors who do, and our tools can help you get an unbiased view on the value they can add.
We can use a proprietary excel format, or GTFS which is often available publicly from agencies. Other formats like KV1 and VDV452 are supported. These schedules can also help with planning on-route charging.
Our software supports multi-site operation. Simulations can have vehicles scheduled to charge at many different locations, such as a depot and transit exchanges.
With eDepotPlanner you can try different combinations virtually and see what will be most effective for your operation.
The software can simulate nose-to-tail lane parking, including evaluating if parking positions are obstructed by other parked vehicles, or vehicles are blocked in and unable to leave until vehicles further ahead have departed.
This depends on your subscription, our subscription tiers scale with the number of vehicles. We can simulate hundreds of vehicles.