Case Study: Developing a Cost-Optimized Hardware Platform for Next-Generation EV Charging Stations
- Ing. Amil Brkic
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
A manufacturer of Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) set out to develop the next generation of its charging stations after successfully launching its first commercial product. While the initial design was primarily installed in commercial parking facilities, the new platform was intended to expand into the residential market, requiring a more cost-effective hardware architecture without sacrificing performance or reliability.
The engineering objective was to redesign the electronics from the ground up, creating a scalable hardware platform capable of supporting multiple product variants while reducing development time, manufacturing complexity, and long-term maintenance costs.
Hardware Design Objectives
The new charging station platform was designed around several key engineering goals:
Develop a reliable embedded hardware platform for both residential and commercial EV charging applications.
Create a flexible PCB architecture supporting multiple product configurations.
Reduce manufacturing cost while maintaining industrial-grade reliability.
Integrate communication, measurement, protection, and user interface functions into a single hardware platform.
Support secure firmware updates and long product lifecycle management.
Achieve fast development and validation to shorten time-to-market.
Engineering Challenges
Designing a modern EV charging station involves significantly more than selecting components. The hardware platform needed to satisfy demanding electrical, environmental, and production requirements simultaneously.
Major engineering challenges included:
Integrating power management, energy metering, protection circuitry, communications, and control electronics onto a compact PCB.
Ensuring reliable operation across an industrial temperature range of -40°C to +85°C.
Managing supply-chain risks during periods of limited semiconductor availability.
Supporting multiple product versions without designing completely different hardware.
Optimizing PCB layout for EMC performance, signal integrity, manufacturability, and long-term reliability.
Reducing overall BOM cost while maintaining product quality.
Hardware Architecture Development
Instead of simply evolving the previous-generation electronics, the engineering team redesigned the hardware architecture to improve scalability and simplify future development.
A modular embedded computing platform was selected as the processing core, allowing engineers to concentrate on developing the application-specific carrier board rather than redesigning complex processor circuitry.
This approach significantly reduced hardware development risk while enabling rapid PCB design, validation, and production readiness.
The custom carrier board integrated:
Power supply circuits
Charging control electronics
Communication interfaces
Safety monitoring
Energy measurement
User interface connectivity
Expansion interfaces for future product variants
The modular architecture also simplified PCB layout by separating high-speed processor circuitry from application-specific electronics, reducing design complexity and improving signal integrity.
PCB Layout Considerations
PCB layout played a critical role in achieving product reliability and manufacturing quality.
The hardware design focused on:
Controlled routing of high-speed interfaces
Clean power distribution
Noise reduction techniques
Proper grounding strategy
Thermal management
EMC-conscious component placement
Design for Manufacturability (DFM)
Design for Assembly (DFA)
Careful placement of communication interfaces, power stages, and sensitive analog circuits minimized electromagnetic interference while improving production yield.
Scalable Platform Design
One of the project's primary goals was creating a hardware platform that could support several EV charger models using the same PCB foundation.
Rather than developing independent designs for residential and commercial products, engineers created a common hardware platform with configurable options, allowing different product variants to share the same carrier board and software base.
This approach reduced engineering effort while simplifying manufacturing, testing, inventory management, and future product updates.
Development Results
The redesigned hardware platform delivered substantial improvements across development and production.
Key outcomes included:
Approximately 50% reduction in hardware development time.
Lower engineering risk through a modular embedded architecture.
Simplified PCB development and validation.
Reduced manufacturing costs.
Improved scalability for future product generations.
Faster product qualification and market introduction.
Common hardware platform supporting multiple EV charging station variants.
By combining efficient hardware architecture with optimized PCB layout practices, the engineering team successfully delivered a reliable, production-ready embedded platform capable of supporting both current and future EV charging applications.
