Q&A with David Cornish, Maintenance & EV Solutions Consultant

From fuel dispensers and store equipment to EV chargers, maintenance is what keeps sites running. Uptime and availability are becoming the real differentiators for revenue, customer trust, and brand loyalty.

What’s the problem you’re most energized to solve right now?

I come from the IT world, where uptime is everything. If your systems aren’t available, you’re not making money. That mindset applies directly to maintenance and EV charging: if you don’t have uptime, you don’t have anything. Just as important, uptime supports a positive customer experience.  

What led you here, and what’s your background in Maintenance & EV? 

I joined Titan Cloud through an acquisition and have spent 15 years in asset and maintenance management software, primarily supporting the fuel and convenience retail sector. I’ve worked across technical roles, product leadership, and solutions consulting. My early background was in power electronics, which gives me a real appreciation for what EV chargers do, that is, safely move huge amounts of power into consumer vehicles. 

What’s changed that makes EV maintenance an executive-level conversation now?

In the past few years, the switch to EV has accelerated in several markets, notably in Scandinavia and Benelux, while countries in Southeast Asia and South America are recording strong growth in EV sales. In Norway, for example, EV registrations have reached mainstream levels, and that means reliable public charging is essential.  

Drivers rely on it daily, and on major corridors your brand may be the only thing they associate with that charging experience. If the chargers are down or don’t work the way they should, people remember, and they’ll choose another provider next time.

You draw a line between “uptime” and “availability.” What’s the difference?

Uptime is what network operators and regulators often measure – whether the charger shows as being ‘up’ and not throwing major errors. But end users care about availability; can they charge successfully, and is the experience acceptable? A charger can be ‘up’ and yet not ‘available’ if it has a smashed screen, a damaged connector, or degraded charging performance. That’s why availability is the metric that matters when we think about the EV charging customer experience.

What are the top drivers of EV charger downtime?

Downtime usually comes down to three things: power, payments, and communications. If the charger can’t deliver stable power, accept payment, or maintain a reliable connection (cellular/SIM or backend) to authorise a session, it doesn’t matter how fast it could charge.

We also see that around 70% of breakdowns can be resolved remotely, while the remaining 30% require an on-site engineer – and those are often the slowest, most disruptive fixes. That’s why automating maintenance workflows is so valuable: it reduces manual triage, speeds up dispatch and repair, and gets chargers back to being available for drivers sooner.

How can operators move from reactive to proactive maintenance? 

Most operators are still very reactive. While EV hardware has fewer moving parts than many fuel assets, the industry has a long way to go to move from break/fix to planned execution. The quickest way to start is simple: get asset management right from day one. Log every key detail at purchase and install – make/model, serial number, location, install date, vendor, and warranty coverage. 

When that information is missing, teams waste time chasing basics, miss warranty claims, and often pay for repairs they shouldn’t – or send out unnecessary repeat visits. A clean asset record gives you control of the maintenance calendar and reduces avoidable truck rolls. 

Everyone asks for “more data.” What signals actually improve maintenance performance?

The goal isn’t more data; it’s the right data, so teams don’t drown. I’d focus on signals like contractor performance (are they doing the work on time?), repeat failures (to identify poorly performing assets), and customer-impacting events such as authorization failures. Tracking session analytics can also be an early warning sign of asset degradation. For example, a charger delivering consistently low power output may highlight a problem for investigation before a hard failure occurs.  

Where do maintenance programs break down most often? 

Process. A common issue for operators is the delay in getting new asset details into the system. We’ve known for this to sometimes take between 60 to 90 days. Ops teams may not be aware that an asset is still under warranty and so end up paying for repairs unnecessarily. The recommended fix is tightening the workflow, so that asset details are captured at the installation stage, not after invoicing.

What will separate the best-performing EV networks over the next few years?

Automation will be the competitive differentiator.  Charge point operators are often low-margin businesses, and many networks are running huge estates with very lean teams. Automation features, such as smart dispatch, triage and remote resets, help teams do more without increasing the operational headcount and allow them to focus their attention on the issues that require an on-site engineer. 

When you’re not thinking about uptime, how do you recharge? 

I get outdoors as often as I can, walking the dog, spending time with family, camping, and biking. The reset helps create space to think differently, and that’s often when the best ideas show up. 

For information on Titan Cloud Maintenance solutions, click here.