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Facing a rising tide of road users shifting to electric vehicles (EVs), city authorities need to make the right investments in EV charging to reap the benefits of sustainable mobility. Toulouse-based AI solutions startup DeepVolt, supported by EIT Urban Mobility, has helped power smarter decision making on EV charging infrastructure with a unique pilot in the metropolis of Istanbul.
“I think it will change things for citizens,” said Berfin Sönmez, International Projects Team Leader at the Smart City Department of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. “İSPARK [Istanbul’s city-owned parking management company and Türkiye’s largest parking lot operator] needs to see how EV charging demand will develop in the future and we were actually stunned at how well DeepVolt fit their needs,” Sönmez explained.
Optimising sustainability
“From a citizen’s point of view on their mobility challenges, if they’d like to own an EV – whether in Istanbul or in most other cities – they’ve got to think a lot about where to charge their vehicle before even buying it,” DeepVolt Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Karem Chatti pointed out.
But rolling out EV charging infrastructure is a complex challenge that requires balancing parking space limitations, grid constraints and data availability.
DeepVolt’s Location Intelligence Assistant (DLIA) helps cities tackle these challenges by leveraging multiple kinds of data – including population density, vehicle registrations, substations and traffic patterns – to figure out optimal charging infrastructure layouts. “AI is better than humans at finding patterns, and we thought AI could tackle these dynamics of EV technology,” Chatti explained.
The platform enables planners to optimise how they deploy EV charging points by analysing and estimating future demand. The pilot in Istanbul integrated more than 5,000 square kilometres of the urban area and more than 2,400 charging stations into DeepVolt’s intuitive platform.
The startup’s solution is expected to ease citizens’ potential anxieties over issues like EV range and charging accessibility. “We make sure EV chargers are deployed where you expect them to be deployed. So, if you own an EV and there’s a supermarket near where you live, you’d expect there’d be a charging station there, and we make sure that it happens,” Chatti said.
As well as making life more convenient for residents, optimised charging layouts are expected to deliver wider benefits for urban areas as local businesses see their districts become more attractive to EV users.
For municipalities, analysing data on mobility patterns through DeepVolt’s platform allows them to see how people behave, so they can shape mobility infrastructure in ways that respond to real-world demands and requirements. “When you give opportunities to citizens for something new and sustainable like EV charging, they will use it, but you have to make the right decision about where to deploy it,” Sönmez said.
Successful partnership
By bringing municipalities and startups together, cities are empowered to find the right solutions for their specific mobility challenges. “It’s important to have an entrepreneurship network. With EIT Urban Mobility, we’ve had really positive, straightforward and rapid project pilots just like DeepVolt,” Sönmez shared.
As DeepVolt’s main liason with the city, Sönmez assembled a team whose needs aligned with DeepVolt’s solution. She also identified the essential data key to running a successful pilot. Her access and local expertise were crucial in tailoring DeepVolt’s technology to İSPARK’s needs, ensuring the startup team worked with real insights instead of assumptions, saving time and resources.
“The team at the municipality did a really great job, especially Berfin Sönmez, during the six months or more that we worked together. We actually felt like she was part of our team, and this helped us navigate the complex nature of Istanbul municipality, because it’s massive!” Chatti recalled.
For the DeepVolt CEO, Karem Chatti, EIT Urban Mobility is Europe’s “VIP club” for mobility startups. “It’s a unique ecosystem and network to be a part of. It’s a good place for us to iterate and have confidence in what we do. We see the value of being a part of EIT Urban Mobility every year through joining different programmes and events,” he said.
Snowball effect
The startup sees the Istanbul pilot as a strong boost that gives the team valuable “hands-on experience” that they can apply towards achieving their vision.
“We want to empower EV investments with AI to help find profitable locations for EV chargers, making sure charging points are always up and running for citizens, and encouraging them to shift to sustainable mobility.” Chatti highlighted. “We make sure the city owns the tool and resources, and that they understand how it works. Everything is transparently shared with them.”
Now the startup team sees international interest in adapting and scaling its solution to more cities in Europe and beyond. “We are in touch with a few other cities in some other countries such as France, Tunisia and the United States, including some advanced conversations,” Chatti noted. “There has been a snowball effect after the success we had with Istanbul and we are working on leveraging that.”
