By David Mitchell, UK CGO & Board Director at Futurice.
Price, range and charging speed are all integral to the EV experience but they no longer lead the debate. In an era of fierce global competition and fast-emerging tech, the most significant changes are happening beyond the vehicle itself. Tariff and battery software, as well as energy distribution, are now core differentiators for the sector’s best and brightest minds. The timing couldn’t be better. BEV registrations rose by 44.5% in July, compared to muted growth a year earlier, giving fully electric cars a 27.5% share of the UK new-car market. No longer a niche technology looking for a use case, EVs are evolving into what could become one of the nation’s largest distributed energy resources.
The winners in this new world are not simply producing a fantastic design or installing faster chargers. They are using the latest software to connect EVs to homes, businesses and energy markets, then making the complexity of those connections almost invisible to the end user.
The EV as a flexible energy asset
Futurice’s latest Electric 40 report, which ranks the UK’s best EV leaders alongside global players, magnifies this trend. The report’s number one spot this year went to Axle Energy, which links EV chargers, batteries and heat pumps to electricity markets through a single software layer. In July 2026, the company raised $25 million in Series A funding, and has so far built a network connecting more than 300,000 connected devices, creating more than 2GW of flexible capacity.
This is a useful litmus test of how EV values are expanding. Hardware at home can now become an energy asset without the homeowner necessarily having to change supplier. Axle’s integration with energy storage provider Solis allows compatible home batteries to join a virtual power plant, with homeowners earning money as their batteries charge or discharge in response to grid needs. Installers play a key role in helping customers understand, commission and connect the asset.
Tariffs are following the same path. Intelligent Octopus Go schedules one-way charging when electricity is cheaper and greener. Octopus Power Pack goes further by scheduling both charging and export, offering free EV charging in return for access to the vehicle’s flexibility.
Beyond the UK, E.ON and BMW have activated Germany’s first commercial V2G offer for compatible vehicles built on BMW’s next-generation Neue Klasse EV platform. Unveiled in late 2025, this is a landmark development, signifying the emergence of a joined-up proposition spanning car, charger, energy contract and grid participation. The result is a connected system that is tougher for competitors to displace.
Fleets: a fertile proving ground
Commercial fleets offer an especially strong test for new EV systems, because they combine large batteries, predictable routes and concentrated charging demand. They also expose the cost of poor decisions quickly. A depot operator cannot electrify successfully by purchasing vehicles first and thinking about power, tariffs and duty cycles later. It all has to happen at once.
Several of this year’s Electric 40 contenders are tackling this problem in different ways. Volteras connects real-time data from more than 35 vehicle manufacturers through a cloud API, creating what it calls “the virtual connective tissue” between fleets, chargers and energy services. Fuuse provides the operational layer for enterprise charging, and has worked with partners including EDF and Veolia on V2G trials that test how fleets can return electricity at peak demand.
It has also just launched Fleet 360, a charge point management system that unifies charging activity; from workplace and depot stations to home and public sites. This enables “a single real-time view of all charging methods”, to help fleets minimise costs, maximise home charging reimbursement and access more public chargers via one integrated card.
Dynamon, meanwhile, addresses the EV fleet planning question. Its ZERO platform models routes, vehicles, charging infrastructure, depot constraints and energy prices before operators commit capital to EV growth. In a 4,000-vehicle trial, it identified potential annual energy savings of £22 million and a possible 8,700-tonne reduction in carbon dioxide, having identified the best solution for fleet electrification.
Charger selection and electrical capacity remain fundamental here. But businesses are also seeking out solutions that can exchange data, respond to tariffs, accommodate future bidirectional charging and remain manageable across mixed fleets and hardware brands. At every step, the idea is to use data and advanced AI to optimise one stop fleet efficiency. Operational intelligence is therefore as important to fleet decarbonisation as the vehicles at the centre of the shift.
A new type of smart home
The same change is taking place in the home. As it stands, an EV may sit alongside rooftop solar, a heat pump and a stationary battery, each with its own app, tariff and control logic. Left uncoordinated, those assets might work against each other. A home battery may discharge into a car at the wrong time, or charging may begin just when household demand and electricity prices peak.
Zoa, part of SaaS software provider ENSEK, illustrates the platform opportunity. Its software helps energy suppliers coordinate EV charging, solar generation, batteries and smart thermostats through consumer-grade controls. For householders, this means EV charging, solar and battery storage can work together around cheaper, greener electricity.
With Europe setting its sights on battery localisation, the race is also on to make better, faster decisions around battery selection, application and lifetime durability. European manufacturers will also hinge their advantage on the ability to understand, optimise and extend the life of EV batteries.
This is where software and AI can help turn locally produced battery hardware into more intelligent, and commercially valuable assets. Eatron Technologies is embedding AI into battery architecture to predict faults before they occur, while Breathe Battery Technologies is building a modular software toolchain that enhances battery performance across both EV design and broader energy applications.
These cutting-edge approaches play into an interconnected future where EVs and energy systems powerfully overlap; both in the home, and beyond.
UK policy is catching up
The Government’s Clean Flexibility Roadmap, updated in July puts smart EV charging and V2X technology firmly within UK energy policy, as a means to reduce charging costs and unlock next-level flexibility. A formal consultation on charge point communication standards is due by the end of 2026, alongside work to make V2X grid connections more consistent. The roadmap recognises a practical problem. At the moment, electricity exported from a car or domestic battery can face levies despite having already been charged on import. Westminster plans to remove this snag from re-exported electricity.
It’s one in a number of regulatory and technical barriers that still need to be resolved. With its policy updates, the UK government is signalling its support of a dynamic model that the tech sector has championed for some time now.
In this new framework, millions of smaller assets respond to price and grid signals rather than electricity flowing in one direction from a small number of generators to passive consumers.
The global EV outlook points to continued strong growth but the standard for success is higher when a vehicle becomes part of the energy system. That means having the workable standards, connections and market rules in place to make bidirectional charging an everyday service.
Platforms must work across manufacturers and devices. Customers need clear consent and control. Installers should be able to rely on straightforward commissioning, dependable support and confidence that products will remain secure through software updates. And energy providers will ideally draw from robust forecasts; rather than theoretical capacity that disappears when drivers unplug.
EV’s first chapter was about challenging the internal combustion engine in terms of performance and efficiency. Its next phase is about connecting the vehicle to everything around it. This new story places digital resilience front and centre, with companies that can bring together service design and responsive energy into one standout offering: a runaway asset for the decarbonised age.
