Why Odoo is the ideal ERP for EV companies

EV companies struggle to find a niche-specific ERP

The idea behind an EV business is simple: plug in, charge, drive on.

But the reality behind the scenes is more complex and often disconnected.

Specific industry requirements mean that EV companies often struggle to find a system that can fit all their processes. 

For example, some companies may use software to measure electricity consumed or stored over time. Others might need to track and maintain their products, be they charging points or rental vehicles. 

Regardless of their specific operations, all EV companies need a system that links their niche demands with the rest of the business.

If they deal with hardware like charging ports, they need to connect to manufacturing to schedule maintenance and track spare parts.

If they manage energy supply, data has to link to sales and accounting, so customers are billed correctly based on usage.

In short, they need their equipment maintained, their customers supported, and their finances in order.

Odoo solves common challenges that EV businesses face

Odoo serves as a single point of truth for EV companies. Its modular design covers essentials like sales, accounting, and manufacturing, while its open-source nature makes it easy to adapt to and integrate with industry-specific demands.

See how real EV companies use Odoo to connect their unique requirements with day-to-day business and keep things running smoothly.

B2C: Handling complex subscription models for e-charging 

In B2C, generally, an EV charging provider operates stations across the city, directly to the customer.

Customers can subscribe to a specific area or pay on a one-off basis whenever they need, and this creates a wide mix of billing scenarios.

Some users pay fixed fees, others only use the service occasionally, and all consumption data must be collected from external electricity software.

How a monthly subscription to an EV charging plan can look like after it’s sent to the customer in Odoo.

The challenge

This variety of subscription models makes billing more complex than a standard flat-rate setup.

To handle usage-based plans, the company needs to pull consumption data from a third-party electricity tracking tool.

At the same time, charging stations across the city can break or malfunction, which adds pressure on operations to monitor and service equipment quickly.

Managing all of this across disconnected systems creates gaps between subscription logic, usage tracking, and maintenance.

The company needs one platform that brings everything together, from billing models to usage data to financial records.

The Odoo solution

Odoo covers many of these needs out of the box, with integrated apps that handle billing, payments, and operations in one system:

• The Subscriptions app manages recurring contracts and different pricing models
• Sales and Accounting handle invoicing and payment tracking based on the subscriptions
• Manufacturing and Maintenance monitor charging points and trigger repairs when needed.

Since Odoo is open-source, it means that it also connects easily to external electricity usage software via API. This is critical to bill customers correctly.

Once the integration is in place, consumption data flows automatically into the Sales and Accounting processes, ensuring accurate, timely invoicing for every type of customer.

B2B: Creating surveys for complex quotations to sell charging points

For EV infrastructure providers on a B2B scale, selling charging points often requires gathering detailed technical information before creating a quote.

Each customer setup is different: some need specific charging ports, installation on-site or power capacity to meet government requirements. 

This complexity turns quotations into a manual, time-intensive process.

To make this scalable, companies need a way to structure their gathering of pre-sales information and a way to tie it directly into their sales flow.

The challenge

Before even sending a quotation, teams need to collect highly specific data from prospects. 

Without a system in place, this means back-and-forth emails, spreadsheets, or survey apps. This can lead to hours of manual entry just to prepare a single quote.

That was the case for our customer, simplee AG, a company offering EV charging infrastructure.

Before Odoo, their sales team was spending nearly 10 days each month on manual quotation prep.

They also struggled with conversion rates due to long turnaround times and disjointed processes.

The Odoo solution

Odoo brings together the key apps needed to automate complex quotations:

• The Survey app collects detailed technical input from customers (a survey link can be shared with customers via email or a landing page on the website)
• The Sales app generates quotations directly from the data collected in the surveys 
• The Website app guides prospects through the process and lets them track their requests via a customer portal
• The CRM app helps sales teams to follow up on leads captured through the survey.

This is exactly what we implemented for our customer, simplee AG.

How a Sale Order looks for simplee AG, after integrating their entire survey-based quotation process in Odoo

EV operations need to link production, quality & maintenance

EV providers that manufacture and maintain their own charging hardware need to connect production processes with their products on the ground. 

That means linking factory processes, quality checks, and repairs with industry-specific software that they may use.

The challenge 

EV providers need full traceability from component sourcing to long-term product performance.

If a charging station malfunctions, the team needs to identify the root cause, whether it's a supplier issue, a specific component batch, or something else. 

But without a connected system, production data, quality records, and maintenance workflows remain siloed.

This slows down investigation, delays repairs, and increases the risk of repeated failures.

The Odoo solution

Odoo brings together all the tools that EV companies need to connect production, quality, maintenance, and procurement in one system:

• Complex production support and traceability: Odoo supports complex, multi-level BOMs (bills of materials) for different charger types and production flows. Each component, semi-finished good or finished unit is assigned a serial or lot number, making it fully traceable across production, delivery, and long-term operation
  
  
• Quality checks: EV companies can define quality checks at any stage of the production process. Each result is logged and linked to the relevant batch or component.  This enables root-cause analysis and helps teams detect recurring issues over time
  
  
• Procurement & replenishment of components: Component availability is managed through automated procurement rules and replenishment strategies. These can be based on lead times, minimum stock levels, or forecasted demand, making sure that production can continue without delays
  
  
• External integrations for immediate insights: Industry-specific software like Charge Point Management Systems can easily connect to Odoo via API. Insights or performance alerts from charging stations, like overheating or connection issues, are automatically matched to serial numbers and synced back to relevant production batches in Odoo
  
  
• Automatically triggered repairs: Maintenance and service actions can be triggered automatically based on incoming alerts or production issues. All maintenance work is tracked in connection with the affected product, which allows for preventive planning and full product lifecycle visibility
  
  
• Unified reporting & KPI tracking: Odoo helps teams track all their data from manufacturing, quality, maintenance, and procurement with standard reporting. Teams can monitor failure rates, supplier performance, or service frequency in every app, but they can also gather data in the Dashboards app for a greater overview. This makes it easier to improve both product quality and internal processes.
  
  

This setup gives EV companies full visibility and ensures that production, maintenance, and operations stay connected through the entire process.

Odoo supports the core business processes of an EV company 

Beyond customer-facing flows, EV providers often deal with supply chain challenges, scattered accounting processes, and ongoing service needs. 

These are typical for manufacturing and maintenance-driven companies, and Odoo supports them through a fully integrated system.

Some EV businesses are already using Odoo

Odoo gives EV providers the flexibility to manage everything from subscriptions and quotations to stock, service, and finance, all in one place.

Some of our customers have made this shift to connect their specialised processes with standard operations in a single system.