The business case of dynamic wireless charging for electric vehicles

Details

Supervisors

De Jaegere Tanguy

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur de gestion, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

This Master Thesis aims at formalizing the business plan of an imaginary company named Indra which offers a dynamic wireless charging solution for Electric Vehicles (EV). Indra's product is a resonant Inductive Power Transmission (IPT) solution. It is based on the project VERA developed by VEDECOM, a French research institute. Its energetic efficiency from grid-to-battery is 90 percent while a single coil can transfer up to 30 kW. Its main advantage is its adaptability. On the one hand, the same solution can be used for any type of EV. On the other hand, the power transferred to the EV can be variable depending on the need and the price of electricity. Indra is going to target the Belgian company Warehouses de Pauw (WDP) within the warehouse industry, as its first customer. WDP is only an intermediary as Indra's end-customer is the one operating the warehouse, which is the Belgian company's customer as well. Indra's strategy to enter the market is to take a whole year to develop a proof of concept (by providing WDP's customer financial incentives) before offering it to the whole warehouse industry. From a financial perspective, Indra will use a network-operator business model. It will thus not retain the ownership of its product. Indra will make a profit in Y3. After four years, it will generate a revenue of around 6.3 million euros as the sales plan forecasts that 78 warehouses will be using Indra's system. In terms of cost, to implement and operate Indra's technology in a 15,000 m^2 warehouse over a 15 year period, an investment of around 1.1 million euros is required. Compared to the fast charging station solution, Indra's technology is around 160,000 euros cheaper to install and operate over a 15 year period. The created value is captured by WDP, Indra and the operator of the warehouse which get respectively, 2 percent, 37 percent and 61 percent of it. Eventually, the business of Indra is increased, when the size of the warehouse is bigger with many EVs driving at any speed. Any rise in electricity prices will favour Indra's revenue.