published 30.03.2022
BMW now available over re.alto Connect API
At the end of last year, we announced the launch of re.alto Connect. This product offers cloud-based, assetless connectivity to various kinds of high energy consuming applications at home and now also enables connectivity to electric vehicles. With EV uptake advancing and EVs set to have a fundamental impact on the decarbonisation of our society, re.alto is thrilled to announce that we have now integrated BMW vehicles onto our Connect platform, a significant milestone in maturing the Connect product.
BMW is a pioneer in electric vehicles in Europe and worldwide. The company is driving the energy transition by enabling use cases like smart charging, which creates a lot of value for their customers. Our integration with their platform will help enable the many interesting use cases that we unlock through re.alto Connect, use cases that any company with BMW cars in their portfolio can potentially benefit from. This integration means re.alto has access to the official BMW APIs, enabling us to provide our clients with reliable and high-quality data, while also generating value for BMW’s EV customers, who are partaking in the energy transition and can expect to see their assets increase in value as the ecosystem grows. With increasingly more use cases now arising around capacity tariff optimisation, vehicle and battery health monitoring, employee reimbursement, CAPEX reductions, Energy-as-a-Service and smart charging, there have never been more opportunities in e-mobility.
Alongside standard telematics data, such as charging data records and GPS locations, re.alto Connect gives clients access to the more elusive state of charge and odometer data. We are able to provide BMW EV insights for fleet and private vehicles. While our customers are mainly larger companies operating fleets, the end users of these devices reap many of the financial benefits of the optimisation offered by EV monitoring and eventually by smart charging. The BMW platform currently enables EV insights through re.alto, and we are also in the process of implementing further features, such as the ability to steer the charging of a car, which will ultimately allow us to provide smart charging functionalities to third parties without the need for a smart charge pole.
Our EV insights features offer value to those responsible for residual value calculations and are useful in employee reimbursement use cases. Residual value estimation can help leasing companies and fleet managers better manage their fleets. With some of the data sets we have available now, they can easily assess the health status of these fleets and determine the rate of depreciation of their vehicles. Utilities and charge pole operators, on the other hand, will be interested in state of charge data to optimise charging. This is data that we can provide our clients through re.alto Connect.
We’re currently working on access to start and stop charging commands, which will enable more advanced use cases, such as smart charging and optimisation for a capacity tariff. These are use cases that can be provided by any company with a large B2C client portfolio that wants to offer Energy-as-a-Service. With current end user apps, increasingly more companies are taking advantage of the opportunity in diversifying to other sectors where they can further monetise their extensive user base. re.alto is developing the energy services for third parties to take advantage of. This is an ongoing process, and we will communicate more on this once these additional features have been implemented.
Are you a fleet manager or leasing company interested in capacity tariff optimisation, residual value calculations or involved in employee reimbursement? Or are you an electric utility needing to know state of charge for smart charging purposes? If either applies to you, re.alto Connect is the solution you have been waiting for. Get in touch with us today to find out how Connect can benefit and transform your business.