Implementing NFC technology in electric car charging application

Parking Energy is a Finnish start up established in 2014. Already next year they received a highly valued start-up award for their electric car charging innovation. They concentrate on guaranteeing cost-effective long-term charging possibilities for the owners of electronic cars. 80 % of the time these owners park their cars either at their home or work parking place, thus, this is the optimal time for charging as these parking places already are equipped with electricity.

With Parking Energy’s innovation it is possible to replace the existing electrical outlets with Parking Energy’s outlet utilizing NFC, Wi-Fi and 3G/GPRS antenna technologies.

Each electric car owner will be equipped with a NFC tag to be attached into the power line that goes into their cars. When this power line is attached to Parking Energy’s electric outlet the NFC reader inside their hardware solution recognizes who is taking the electricity and how much is the charge for the use.

NFC technology was chosen for this purpose as there were requirements for very short distance reading since two (or more) power sockets can situate very close to each other. This way it was possible to avoid situations that the invoice goes to the wrong address. The actual data that is read from the NFC tag is then gathered and data packages sent either by Wi-Fi or as 3G/GPRS packages to the host that is run as a cloud service.

“With simulation based antenna design Radientum found quickly the best NFC antenna solution for us based on our sensitivity and EMC requirements”, says Mika Kosonen Supply Chain Manager at Parking Energy.

“We are happy to be part of the development to support charging of electric cars as the growing amount of electric cars need proper infrastructure to cover less expensive and environmentally friendly way to commute” , says Pia Mielonen Marketing Manager at Radientum.

Parking energy is a technology oriented parking electricity operator solving the issues within electric car charging in real estate environment. They have more than 20 years knowledge of and practical experience in electric vehicle technology. Their service model activates both electric car charging with billing based on real consumption and remote control for engine heating. Model is suitable for both housing companies and parking garages and even within workplaces. www.parkingenergy.com

Radientum is a world-class antenna design company. They help their customers to develop superior antenna solutions for wireless products. Their experienced engineers can design compactly integrated antennas – from the very first concept studies to ready-made prototypes.