Design of a mobile application for control of charging and visualisation of energy consumption for electric cars

Subject: Electric cars, charging, services, interaction, mobile application

Background
Currently there is a great interest in the society for vehicles with different kinds of electric propulsion and Vattenfall is also involved in several projects related to the charging of these vehicles. One area of interest is the development of information services for enabling individual users to follow up on energy consumption and control the charging of the car. The overall ambition is to boost the interest in customer-oriented charging related services, and get an increased awareness of the possibilities these services can offer both for the end customer as well as for Vattenfall.

Problem description
Compared with cars driven by fossil fuels, where fuel consumption can be measured with litres of petrol/diesel over a certain driving distance, it can for many users be harder to understand the relation of electric energy versus driving distance for electric cars. It would therefore be valuable for electric car users to have tools that can visualise the energy consumption in a more understandable way than just kilowatt hours of energy and at the same time also provide a way to control the charging process. The purpose of the master thesis work is therefore to design and implement a mobile user interface/application allowing users to control and follow up on their charging.

Requirements
The master thesis project (30p) is to be started as soon as possible and shall be delivered in January 2011. Location is Vattenfall Research and Development offices in Älvkarleby, Sweden. The applicant is a master program engineering student or equivalent with main focus on usability and industrial design.

Vattenfall Research and Development hosts several master thesis projects each year. The work done in these projects contribute to the innovation process in Vattenfall and help to utilise technology in new and efficient ways.
Do you want to contribute with your knowledge and at the same time gain valuable experience from the energy industry? Then you are very welcome to send your application to the address shown below.

Application sent before 2010-08-27 to [email protected] and shall contain:
· CV
· Grades
· Application letter
· Suggestion regarding examiner and supervisor at home university
Our reference:
Monica Löf
Vattenfall Research and Development
814 26 Älvkarleby
Phone: +46 (0)26-83674
[email protected]