Major Automakers Advocate for Blockchain-based Standard for Measuring EV Batteries' Carbon Output

Top-tier automobile manufacturers want the creation of blockchain-based standards that would be used to measure carbon outputs from electric vehicle batteries. Batteries account for about half the CO2 generated in the production of electric vehicle. The car manufacturer desires to encourage more effective management of batteries that would positively impact the environment.

According to a report by Nikkei Asia, the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI), which counts Ford Motor, Honda Motor and Japanese trading house Itochu among its members, will lead the development of the standard. Japanese auto parts maker Denso, Amazon Web Services and IBM will also participate.

MOBI would likely make use of a two-dimensional barcode and sensors that would monitor data in the blockchain process. The data that is gathered at each stage will be looked into by MOBI including transportation, procurement, and production.

About 20 million vehicles are produced under the umbrella of MOBI group of four vehicle manufacturers. This number accounts for about 20 % of the total car market production. Another automobile manufacturer Ford is looking to adopt the development to standardize the car industry.

The new development follows the announcement from the executive arm of the European Commission that will set regulations for the use of batteries in 2024. Battery productions that require carbon dioxide will be monitored at production, distribution, use, and disposal processes.

Launched in 2018, MOBI was created by consortium of reputable companies ranging from automakers like BMW to tech giants like IBM. The group is poised to explore blockchain for use in a new digital mobility ecosystem that could make transportation safer, more affordable, and more widely accessible.

Last year in October, MOBI's member-led Electric Vehicle Grid Integration (EVGI) Working Group created and launched the automotive industry's first global standard incorporating blockchain technology into a decentralized vehicle charging system.

MOBI Launches Industry's 1st Global Standard Incorporating Blockchain Tech for EV Charging System

The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI)'s member-led Electric Vehicle Grid Integration (EVGI) Working Group created and launched the automotive industry's first global standard incorporating blockchain technology into a decentralized vehicle charging system.

The EVGI Working Group released its first technical design specification, which covers the system designs and data schemas required for three core use case areas: Vehicle to Grid Integration (V2G), Tokenized Carbon Credits (TCC), and Peer to Peer (P2P) applications. While MOBI's EVGI Standard does not prescribe any particular application or underlying distributed ledger technology (DLT), it ensures that pertinent data attributes and functionalities of each use case are available for organizations to utilize in creating their own applications.

"Implementing the EVGI Standard will provide a variety of benefits for players on all sides of the electric vehicle and charging ecosystem," said Tram Vo, MOBI's COO and Founder. "Electric vehicles, chargers, and electricity producers can have a secure identity, communicate with a standard messaging format, and automatically record transactions such as charging, generation, and exchange on a distributed ledger."

Created by a group of global automotive leaders, startups, and large technology companies, the EVGI Standard is a foundational step toward solving some of the most pressing climate and mobility challenges. MOBI's EVGI Working Group is chaired by Honda and General Motors (GM), with support from Accenture, CPChain, IBM, the IOTA Foundation, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), Politecnico di Torino, and R3.

"Today's energy markets are undergoing a massive transition from centralized power generation in big power plants, towards more distributed and volatile power generation. Decentralization and the concept of direct P2P interaction is set to become a key factor in leveraging this new market and building meaningful tools for energy-conscious end customers. The goal is to enable scalable, user-centric energy communities. The EVGI Standard represents one of the first essential building blocks for founding such an ecosystem," said Christian Köbel, Senior Project Engineer at Honda R&D Europe.

MOBI's EVGI Standard enables a set of core network data services that will provide significant value to EV owners, charging infrastructure and grid operators by enabling secure, decentralized communication and immutable recordkeeping between data generating peers. This supports data transparency, trust, coordination, and automation among mobility service providers, consumers, utilities, and government stakeholders.

"Bringing together organizations from all sectors of the mobility industry to align on what the future of electric vehicles and their interaction with the grid looks like is no small feat. The work done by MOBI and the EVGI working group is a promising step, laying a strong foundation for the intersecting industries to align around and build on to accelerate the future of sustainable mobility and energy," said Mathew Yarger, Head of Mobility and Automotive at the IOTA Foundation.

In addition to the working group, formal verification experts thoroughly reviewed the EVGI Standard, assuring developers that their implementations adhere to the best practices in cyber security. MOBI hopes that applications enabled by this Standard will ultimately help lower carbon emissions, improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion, and support a host of other socially and environmentally beneficial outcomes.

About MOBI

MOBI is a nonprofit alliance of many of the world's largest automakers, along with many startups, NGOs, transit agencies, insurers, toll road providers, smart city leaders, and technology companies working to accelerate adoption and promote standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers, and related technologies.

MOBI is creating simple blockchain-based standards to identify cars, people, and businesses in order to securely exchange and monetize data, and pay for mobility services, with the goal of making transportation more efficient, affordable, greener, safer, and less congested. MOBI itself is technology and ledger agnostic. For additional information about joining MOBI, please reach out to Griffin Haskins (griffin@dlt.mobi) or visit www.dlt.mobi.

Introducing MOBI - A Latest Blockchain Consortium By Major Automakers, Startups, Tech Firms

MOBI, the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, is a newly created by consortium of reputable companies ranging from automakers like BMW to tech giants like IBM. The group is poised to explore blockchain for use in a new digital mobility ecosystem that could make transportation safer, more affordable, and more widely accessible.

With this new initiative, automobiles across the globe could see blockchain in action including the handling of vehicle ID numbers and collision histories to the complex supply chains that lead to assembly lines and dealerships.

MOBI is actively working with companies accounting for over 70% of global vehicle production in terms of market share. MOBI and partners, including, BMW, Bosch, Ford, General Motors, Groupe Renault, ZF, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Services USA and others seek to foster an ecosystem where businesses and consumers have security and sovereignty over their driving data, manage ride-share and car-share transactions, and store vehicle identity and usage information.

Further, MOBI will accelerate adoption and to promote standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers, and related technologies for the benefit of the mobility industry, consumers, and communities. MOBI and our partners are creating simple, standard and digital ways of identifying cars, people, and trips, of paying for mobility services, and securely exchanging and monetizing data in ways that preserve property rights and privacy.

MOBI is working with most of the world’s large automakers and many mobility ecosystem players, along with many start-ups, non-profits, governments, transit agencies, and technology companies.

Initially, MOBI will be working with its partners on projects related to:

• Vehicle identity, history and data tracking


• Supply chain tracking, transparency, and efficiency


• Autonomous machine and vehicle payments


• Secure mobility ecosystem commerce


• Data markets for autonomous and human driving


• Car sharing and ride hailing


• Usage-based mobility pricing and payments for vehicles, insurance, energy, congestion, pollution, infrastructure, etc.

MOBI’s partners announcing today include: Accenture, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Services USA, Beyond Protocol Inc, BigchainDB, Blockchain at Berkeley, BMW, Bosch, Chronicled, ConsenSys Systems, Context Labs, Crypto Valley Association, Dashride, Deon Digital AG, Digital Twin Labs, DOVU, Fetch.ai, FOAM, Ford, General Motors, Hyperledger, IBM, the IOTA Foundation, Luxoft, MotionWerk, NuCypher, Oaken Innovations, Ocean Protocol, Outlier Ventures, Groupe Renault, Ride Austin, Shareing, Shift, Spherical Analytics, the Trusted IoT Alliance, VeChain, Xain, and ZF Friedrichshafen AG.

Notably, no automobile company from Indian subcontinent is part of MOBI to date. Not even Mahindra & Mahindra, whose chairman Anand Mahindra is touted in India as one of most tech savvy businessmen of the country, especially when post Facebook-Cambridge Analytica controversy he invited companies to find an Indian alternative of Facebook which unlike social media giant will be regulated by laws. In India, Mahindra is also leading the race of electric mobility.

Coming back to blockchain, the technology operates by distributing information to a network of independent computers, ensuring that transactions are secure and data privacy, ownership rights, and integrity are protected. Working in a consortium allows MOBI and partners to create transparency and trust among users, reduce risk of fraud, and reduce frictions and transaction costs in mobility, such as fees or surcharges applied by third-parties.

Chris Ballinger, former Chief Financial Officer and Director of Mobility Services at Toyota Research Institute, is joining MOBI as Chairman and CEO to coordinate this initiative and create a more open platform where users, owners, mobility service companies, and infrastructure providers can better control and monetize their assets, including their data.

“Blockchain and related trust enhancing technologies are poised to redefine the automotive industry and how consumers purchase, insure and use vehicles,” said Ballinger. “By bringing together automakers, suppliers, startups, and government agencies, we can accelerate adoption for the benefit of businesses, consumers and communities.”

Through an open-source approach to blockchain software tools and standards, the MOBI consortium hopes to stimulate more rapid and scalable adoption of the technology by other companies developing autonomous vehicle and mobility services. MOBI is pleased to connect global mobility providers with blockchain innovators as well as government and non-government agencies, and institutions to collaborate on the development of blockchain-enabled vehicle data and mobility services applications.

MOBI’s approach to ecosystem development is open and inclusive, inviting stakeholders from across the entire mobility value chain to establish a “minimum viable network”. This includes automakers, public transportation and toll road providers, other forms of transportation, technology firms, blockchain firms, academic institutions, startup innovators, and regulatory bodies across the globe.

Via - MOBI | Top Image - MOBI@Twitter