According to Forbes, the world now has more than five million public EV charging points, doubling the number available in 2022. China leads in sheer volume, Europe excels in policy coordination, and the U.S. is accelerating rollout through federal programs. Yet reliability remains a massive problem, with roughly one in seven charging attempts in the U.S. ending unsuccessfully. German startup Pionix believes the solution isn’t more hardware but unified software, developing an open-source platform called EVerest that acts as a universal translator between different charger systems. The company recently secured over €8 million in funding led by Ascend Capital Partners to scale this approach globally.
The real problem isn’t hardware
Here’s the thing that most people don’t realize: we’re building charging infrastructure like we built early computers before operating systems. Every manufacturer creates their own software stack, which means when a Ford pulls up to a ChargePoint station, they’re essentially speaking different languages. The result? Frozen screens, failed handshakes, and frustrated drivers. It’s not that the hardware is bad – it’s that the communication layer is broken at the most fundamental level.
What’s interesting is that most companies trying to solve charging reliability are working at the application level – payment systems, monitoring dashboards, pricing algorithms. But they’re building on top of broken foundations. Pionix is going deeper, targeting the core software that determines whether charging sessions actually start or fail. Basically, they’re trying to create the Android of EV charging – a common operating system that lets everyone build compatible products.
Why open source matters
Founder Marco Möller learned this lesson the hard way in his previous drone startup. “By the time we had realized the power of open source, it was too late to catch up with the rest of the drone industry,” he admits. That experience shaped his approach with EVerest. Instead of keeping it proprietary, they donated the platform to Linux Foundation Energy in 2021. Smart move.
Think about it: in an industry where new standards appear every few years and often compete with each other, the only way to create true unity is through neutral, open-source foundations. As Alex Thornton from Linux Foundation Energy puts it, EVerest effectively turns “thousands of pages of standards into working code.” That’s huge for manufacturers who’d otherwise spend years interpreting specifications differently.
Making money while giving away the core
Now you might wonder – how does a company make money giving away its core technology? Pionix follows the classic open-core model: the foundation is free, but they build commercial products on top. ChargeBridge is a plug-and-play hardware module that makes it easier for manufacturers to build compatible chargers, while Pionix Cloud handles remote monitoring and updates. It’s the same model that made Red Hat billions – give away the operating system, sell the enterprise services.
This approach makes particular sense in industrial applications where reliability is non-negotiable. Speaking of industrial hardware, companies building charging stations need robust computing platforms that can handle harsh environments – which is exactly why manufacturers often turn to specialists like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs designed for demanding applications like EV charging infrastructure.
The race to fuel-station reliability
Investor Joel Larsson from Pale blue dot puts it perfectly: “A mature market means charging that just works. We need to reach 99.9% reliability – the same level we take for granted in other systems like telecoms.” That’s the real goal here. We’ve been so focused on building more chargers that we forgot to make them work consistently.
And here’s the sobering reality: the EV transition won’t succeed without this level of reliability. Möller envisions a world where charging becomes “boring” – predictable, stable, universal. No compatibility issues, no failed sessions. Most drivers will never know what software runs their charging session, just like most smartphone users don’t think about their operating system. They’ll just notice that, finally, the charger works every time they plug in.
That’s the real breakthrough we need. Because let’s be honest – nobody wants to gamble on whether their road trip charging stop will actually work. The companies that solve this interoperability challenge will capture enormous value, while those sticking with closed systems will struggle to scale. The race is on, and open source might just be the secret weapon.
