Smoothing the way for EVs

Beep co-founder and CEO Kristoffer Jacek Soh.

WHILE the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem is growing fast, there are challenges that need to be addressed for the market to thrive.

Fragmentation in the market, roaming-connectivity issues, and the lack of shared platforms among EV partners are some of the hurdles that could affect the growth of the market.

Highlighting the challenges faced by the market, Kristoffer Jacek Soh, who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Beep tells StarBizWeek charging operators in Malaysia and South-East Asia are using different charging management systems, hardware and payment methods to manage their respective charging services.

Beep, a Singapore-based startup founded in 2018, helps vending machine operators modernise their machines to offer cashless transactions and online connectivity. In 2021 the company entered the EV infrastructure services through its subsidiary Voltality.

Soh says, since 2023 more players such as Kineta, ChargeSini, Carput Zap, JusEV, EVPower, EVlution, KuroEV, Time Charge N Go, Rexharge, Powered by Rise, Flexi EV Charging, EV Guru and EVPlus Mobility have entered the market to focus on different segments

“While the largest players like Gentari and ChargEV have 400 or more charging points each, many of the others have anywhere from 10 to 400 or more points each as well, causing increasing fragmentation in the market.

“This is similar to our observations of the markets in Singapore and Thailand, where there are 30 or more operators in each country with the largest operators having not more than 20% of the total market space.

“New features being built such as reservation and overstay/idling penalties are usually not coordinated among each charging operator, which causes problems with maintaining roaming connectivity. This results in partners being unable to work together as most of their apps are not on a shared platform.

“The fragmentation makes it difficult for consumers because they will have to download multiple apps and sync different payment methods to access different charging stations,” explains Soh.

This is where Beep’s comes into the picture.

Through its Voltality platform, it aims to empower charging operators, allowing them to embed connectivity across different charging stations directly inside their own platforms, with an added option for app-less payments through credit cards and QR codes.

Therefore, drivers need only one interface to charge wherever they go, Soh adds.

He says Beep does not believe in building its own application for charging, and instead prefers to work with partners to enable them to provide better charging experiences for their driver base.

With its Voltality platform, Beep aims to establish an integrated ecosystem of charging stations, payment services, and vehicles, revolutionising the EV industry.

The transaction platform provider has achieved significant progress with its vision of an integrated ecosystem, including charging stations, payment services and vehicles.

In June 2022, it launched the region’s first roaming pilot with five operators.

In one year, Beep announced the successful launch of South-East Asia’s largest electric vehicle roaming network spanning over 1,350 charge points, together with 11 operators in Singapore.

To date, Beep’s total network has grown to over 5,000 charging stations across the region.

Soh says significant progress has been made in Malaysia.

Beep has signed contracts with several charging operators including Sime Darby Bhd’s subsidiary Kineta Sdn Bhd, a major player in Malaysia’s EV space.

In May Kineta had announced a partnership in May with ChargEV to accelerate EV charging and roaming .