Electric Vehicle Software Development: A Complete Guide

Quick Summary: What differentiates the user experience of an electric BMW from an electric Cadillac? It’s an integrated software that powers high-impact in-car functionalities. This guide decodes actionable tips for electric vehicle software development that sets your EV apart in a highly competitive landscape.

Demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is increasing with the rising concerns over pollution and surging oil prices. These vehicles do not just require competent hardware components in their production, but impactful software that makes EVs as profitable and useful as fuel-driven cars.

As more people buy EVs, companies manufacturing these electric vehicles will require more software. There are different kinds of software that are used in electric vehicles such as battery health monitoring, infotainment, fleet management, and more.

The automotive software market is showing immense growth, and it will boost further with the rising EV industry. As per a report by McKinsey, US$462 billion will be the estimated value of the global automotive software and electronics market by 2030. Software controls various aspects of EVs making it crucial for the functioning of these vehicles.

Developing the right software is essential for creating safe and durable EVs. In this blog, we have covered all the aspects of software development for electric vehicles including importance, types, and cost. Keep going for all this information.

Build Reliable and Standards-Compliant Software for Your EVs

Contact Experts

An Overview of EV Software Development

EV software development is a process that involves building software for electric vehicles or EVs. The software can be developed for various components of an electric vehicle such as charging, battery, vehicle control systems, ECU, navigation system, and onboard entertainment system. The objective of developing software is to support the functionality, connectivity, and performance of EVs.

However, developing software for EVs is an intricate process as it requires expertise in automotive software engineering, user interface design, and knowledge of embedded systems. Plus, developers of EV software have to consider factors like regulatory compliance and performance optimizations.

Understanding the Need of Software Development for Electric Vehicles

Developing software is crucial for various features and functions of electric vehicles. From checking battery health to charging status, software plays a crucial role in different aspects of EVs.

Energy Management

It is more difficult to manage the charging stations for electric vehicles than managing gas stations. It is important to control the distribution of energy among different chargers as per the number of vehicles in the queue. EV charging software makes it easy to distribute the energy optimally and make sure that it complies with regulations.

Monitor Battery Health

EV software solutions designed to show battery status can help track its health and performance. The ability to monitor battery health will help the owners of EVs to know when they need to replace it.

Optimize EV Performance

Software plays an important role in making electric vehicles stable and functional. It controls the performance and behavior of electric vehicles. Software can optimize the performance of electric vehicles with optimal management of power usage and functionality.

Managing EV Vehicles

Software also plays a crucial role in managing and operating electric vehicles. Take Tesla self-driving cars for example, software drives the car. Moreover, software can control transmission system components like gearbox. It also plays a role in maintenance, Infotainment, connectivity, remote diagnostics, telematics, cybersecurity, and other functions.

Essential Features for Developing Electric Vehicle Software

Developing the right EV software requires you to integrate the best features that align with user demands and needs of the vehicles. The following are the important features of EV software.

• Data-driven Diagnostics: Built-in digital EV solutions collect data about a vehicle’s health that helps to diagnose problems and fix them easily.
• Updates On-the-go: Drivers can connect their phones to the dashboard of their electric vehicle to get updates and notifications with the use of EV software and apps.
• Firmware Updates: Updating EV firmware is crucial to keeping the software up to date. Over-the-air updates ensure the latest firmware for electric vehicles.
• SOS Feature: EV software is designed to handle emergency situations by offering SOS features that are accessible to drivers within vehicles.

What Options Do You Have for Electric Vehicle Software Development?

When it comes to the types of software development for electric vehicles, there are a lot of options. Some software provides general functionalities, and some others offer features for specific requirements. Let’s check what kind of software solutions you can develop for EVs.

• Navigation Software: Provides real-time location, map services, and navigational information.
• Anti-theft Software: Such software has features like geo-fencing, geo-location, remote lock/unlock, etc, that protects vehicle from theft.
• Security Software: Embedded security software ensures safe driving by detecting potential hazards like collisions in autonomous driving vehicles.
• Charge and Range Prediction Software: It is a dashboard embedded software that shows battery charge level and predicted distance on remaining charge.
• Monitoring Software: This software monitors vehicle health and collects data from various components to ensure predicable maintenance.

Stand Out from Competitors with an Innovative Software Solution for Electric Vehicles

Let’s Do Innovative

Tech Stack to Develop an Electric Vehicle Software

A good tech stack can help you build robust EV software that can provide the expected results. Hence, you must pay heed to it when developing your electric vehicle software. You should consider your requirements for software to choose a suitable tech stack. For example, if you want to build software that can be compatible with various devices, you can choose a tech stack that lets you build software with multi-device support.

• Python
• Golang
• C/C++
• Java
• Swift
• Kotlin
• Apache
• Nginx
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• MongoDB
• Hadoop
• Spark
• Apache Flink
• Google Places API
• Google Maps
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud
• AWS

Challenges in EV Software Development

There are many challenges when it comes to developing software for electric vehicles. Software for EVs is sophisticated and needs to comply with many standards. The following are some challenges faced in EV software development.

• Compliance: Regulations are getting more stringent to ensure driver and passenger safety. Hence, meeting various standards is critical for EVs. Therefore, you need to develop software that complies with various regulations and standards such as ISO 26262, UL4600, AUTOSAR, and ISO 21434.
• Reliability: Safety and reliability of EV software is paramount to ensure safe driving. Software testing and validation is an essential step to overcome this challenge. Testing involves checking the software to ensure it meets the functional requirements. Validation helps to ensure that the software is doing accurately what it is designed to do.
• Choosing the Best Architecture: Selecting the right electric vehicle software architecture is also an important challenge in EV software development. Developing software for EV vehicle components is different and more complex. Developers have to consider several factors including scalability, security, flexibility, compliance, and interconnectedness of components. Hence, AUTOSAR has been adopted as a standard to build software in this domain.
• Changing Standards: As the EV sector evolves and new advancements are introduced, EV software must meet a new set of standards. These changes can cause various issues like interoperability issues with third-party components and OEMs, compliance issues, testing and validation challenges, and more.

What is the Cost to Build Software for Electric Vehicles?

Typically, software development costs for EVs range between $50,000 - $300,000 depending on the type and complexity of the software. Moreover, there are many other factors affecting EV software development costs including software features, location of the development team, and more.

The actual cost can be more than the specified range depending on the customization work and complexity. The following table shows the estimated cost for developing electric vehicle software based on complexity.

What’s the Future of Electric Vehicle Software?

The future of EV software depends on the new software development trends and innovations. These trends and innovations will enhance software capabilities and enhance overall user experience. The following are some innovations that will redefine the future of EV software:

AI and ML

The role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is going to be deeper with enhanced autonomous driving, customization, driver behavior analysis, and more. The integration of AI and ML will help in making smarter software that will use advanced algorithms to manage and operate EVs. For example, they will help in predictive maintenance to help identify issues like battery glitches. They are also helpful in energy optimization. Plus, autonomous driving is a real-life application of this technology.

V2G Connectivity

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is the next level of technology that connects vehicles with electric grids. As a result, vehicle batteries can be charged from different signals and reverse the charge to the grid. EV software working with V2G technology can manage battery charging and discharging based on the grid conditions and user preferences.

Big Data

There is a large amount of data generated by EVs that software can utilize to make useful predictions. Big data is helpful in identifying driver problems and improving the experience. It is also useful in optimizing vehicle performance and improving user experience based on usage patterns.

Looking for the Best Team to Develop Custom EV Software?

Get Top Talent

Get Cutting-edge EV Software Development with RadixwebToday, software has become indispensable for the mobility industry with the increasing digitization of vehicles and transportation systems. Software for electric vehicles is vital to manage their functions and provide an elegant driving experience.If you wish to create tailor-made software for your electric vehicles to elevate customer experience, you can partner with Radixweb for exceptional software development services for electric vehicles. We specialize in creating EV software with the right features and standards. You can leverage our expertise in electric vehicle software to build custom solutions. Contact us and get all the details about how we can help you achieve the goals of your next EV software development project.