How Charger Simulators Are Transforming EV Infrastructure Testing

Why Simulators Matter

Simulators provide clear value for both business leaders and technical teams.

For the business

Simulators reduce costs, accelerate development, and shorten release cycles by removing the dependency on physical hardware and enabling faster, safer testing workflows.

For technical teams

Simulators improve software quality, catch errors early in development, and help teams validate complex scenarios long before they interact with physical chargers.

How EV Charger Simulators Are Used in Practice

Simulators help teams solve common challenges in the development, testing, and operation of EV charging infrastructure. They provide a safe, scalable, and hardware independent environment to validate charger behavior.

Key use cases:

1. Continuous backend testing during development
   Validate OCPP communication, command handling, and transaction flows from the earliest development stages without waiting for physical hardware or preparing a dedicated lab.
2. Load and performance validation
   Launch hundreds or thousands of virtual chargers to understand how your backend behaves under realistic or extreme load and to identify bottlenecks before deployment.
3. Remote and distributed testing
   Teams can work from anywhere. No lab setup, no equipment maintenance, and no dependency on physical chargers.
4. Pre commissioning and configuration checks
   Integrators can validate configuration logic, backend settings, and custom workflows before real chargers arrive on site, reducing deployment time and errors.
5. Safe training and customer demos
   Simulators allow product teams to demonstrate features, train support engineers, and replicate field scenarios without access to real hardware.

Typical Technical Scenarios

Companies use simulators daily to validate specific OCPP and backend behaviors such as:

• checking OCPP commands (Start, Stop, Remote Lock, Firmware Update)
• testing charging session and transaction logic
• simulating charger states like Available, Preparing, Charging, Suspended, Faulted
• reproducing rare errors and debugging backend logic
• performing large scale load and stress tests
• running automated QA suites with predictable device behavior
• verifying integrations with billing, monitoring, EMS platforms, and fleet systems
• safely testing firmware or backend changes before pushing updates to production

It is also increasingly common to include simulation directly into CI pipelines, where virtual chargers automatically spin up during each build to validate workflows and catch regressions early.

How To Use Simulators With TimeTick

With TimeTick you can simulate chargers on your backend in just a few minutes. Simply log in at app.timetick.io, choose the scenario “Simulate Chargers on Your Backend” on the dashboard, and follow the guided workflow.

You can configure a simulator using built-in templates or create a custom configuration. Add your backend URL, choose the simulation mode, adjust parameters, and start the simulator. No advanced technical skills required.

TimeTick also includes built-in simulators for different charger manufacturers, replicating the behavior of their real devices.

You can scale testing from a single simulated charger to tens of thousands of devices and manage all sessions directly from the platform interface.

 

Additional capabilities inside TimeTick:

• real time message viewer for OCPP communication
• adjustable power levels, delays, and error states
• support for both AC and DC charger models
• quick cloning of simulators for large scale tests
• API access for CI pipelines, automation, or load generationability to connect real chargers to the TimeTick backend for hybrid testing setups

These features make it easy to replicate realistic field conditions, debug tricky issues, and perform regression testing without physical infrastructure.

About TimeTick

TimeTick is a comprehensive diagnostics platform for EV charging hardware and software. It allows you to run virtual chargers, connect real chargers to the TimeTick backend, validate backend logic, perform stress tests, and monitor device behavior in one environment.