Much of this investment will go to securing financial transactions and end-to-end communication for the EV recharging infrastructure, according to Pike Research's study Electric Vehicle Cyber Security. The EV cybersecurity market is predicted to jump from $26 million in 2011 to $144 million by 2015.
“The IT and communications infrastructure supporting charging equipment will need to be resilient and secure in order to mitigate risks associated with financial transactions and the threat of hacking that is posed by the addition of these new endpoints. A malicious attack on the EV cyber infrastructure could potentially result in brownouts or stranded vehicles, and any failure in smart charging systems could strike a huge blow to utilities as well as consumer confidence in the reliability and viability of electric vehicles as a preferred mode of transportation”, noted Pike Research senior analyst Bob Lockhart.
The report predicted that cybersecurity investment will also strengthen protections for customer information management systems and enable new forms of data analytics.
At the same time, Pike Research’s research indicates that the EV cybersecurity market is still nascent and is hampered in the near term by a lack of cybersecurity standards and regulations related to these issues. Lockhart said that the lack of a common approach is likely to make cybersecurity for EV infrastructure more expensive and complex than it needs to be over the next several years.