Richard Wunderlich, Director of Smart Grid Canada for Seimens, told attendees at an Energy Innovations Forum in Fredericton, “there will soon be a rollout across Canada of 1000 FleetCarma devices for electric vehicle owners.”

“It’s supported by the Federal Government, and we’re going to be offering 1000 devices in service up until March 31, 2019 for EV owners across Canada,” said Matt Stevens, CEO of Waterloo, Ontario based start up FleetCarma, in an interview after the event.

“So, the EV owner will get the FleetCarma system with all the usage and benefits of the system. There’s a couple of things, like they want to be able to look at their smart phone and see what the real time state of the charge of the car is. It’s like being able to look at a ‘gas’ gauge, but while you’re not by the car. So if the car is charging in the garage, or charging at work and you want to know, am I full or not full, it will be able to tell you.”

“Think of it like FIT BIT for your car. If you want usage data about how you use your vehicle, what is your energy consumption, and also something that EV owners really want is to know the battery health. How healthy is my battery, is my battery degrading? That’s something our system gives.”

“You would see trends,” added Stevens, “like in cold weather most people get less range. The system would help you understand why.”