Electric Vehicle Charging Station that uses IOTA and blockchain unveiled in the Netherlands

ElaandNL IOTA Electric Vehicle Charging Station unveiled in Netherlands

World first Internet of Things Application (IOTA) electric vehicle charging station has been unveiled in the Netherlands. The Charging station designed by ElaadNL, a Dutch solar and wind power firm utilizes the IOTA’s Tangle technology for feeless machine-to-machine communication.

The charging station is located at a business park in Arnhem Buiten campus. The park is being used as a test site opened to the public where customers can access machine-to-machine charging and smart-meter payments for parking.

IOTA Tangle is an innovative new blockchain technology designed to function as the backbone of the Internet of Things. It is an open-source protocol enabling Machine-to-Machine (M2M) interactions such as secure data transfer, fee-less real-time payments. The technology has been gaining popularity in recent times.

ElaanNL revealed on its website that the IOTA’s charger is outfitted with hardware to set up a TCP/IP connection with a car, after which the payments and data exchange would be done automatically. Furthermore, the charging cable and other “special” hardware are used for a new type of communication called e-Mobility ISO 15118, specifically designed for the car and charger.

Even though the IOTA charger will be made available to the public for charging, cars not equipped with the required hardware and software would need to send IOTA tokens directly to the charger using their normal IOTA wallet.

Onoph Caron, managing director of ElaadNL about the IOTA charging station: ‘This charger shows the ability to use a real machine to machine communications and micropayments, with the use of IOTA as a secure layer for these payments and data. ElaadNL researches all kinds of innovative and smart technologies with regard to charging electric cars. DLT-technology might become a widespread thing in the near future. Now we can explore and research its possibilities on our testing ground in Arnhem.’

The new charging system would require no back office and no communication protocol to operate. The transactions are done without the use of charge card or subscription. ElaadNL explains that the system is totally autonomous, to ensure reliability and security of the system, the meter would store all token values every fifteen minutes in the Tangle.

Solomon Sunny is the market reporter for Smartereum, one of the global leaders in Ethereum, blockchain and currency news. He produces technical price updates on digital currencies and writes recent developments about blockchain.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.