Five New Year’s Resolutions Every CPO Should Make in 2026

Overview

2025 was the year EV charging stopped being a side project and became core infrastructure. Networks grew fast, but so did complexity: tougher tenders, higher utilisation expectations, and more scrutiny on where every new charger goes. In 2026, Charge Point Operators that win will be those that turn noise into decisions.

To make that shift concrete, here are five New Year’s resolutions many CPOs are already writing down for themselves and putting into practice in their teams.

Resolution #1: I will be more data‑driven in my decisions

Most CPOs would say they are already using data. The problem is fragmentation: a bit of demographics here, a traffic count there, internal performance in another tool, and none of it truly aligned on the same map or decision.

In 2026, being data‑driven means seeing the full context for every location decision:

• Demographics and income profiles for the catchment.
• Retail locations, POIs and dwell‑time anchors.
• Competitor locations and their performance.
• Traffic flows and EV registrations over time.

Modern decision platforms now bring 50+ data sources into a single interface and let business users, not data scientists, control the assumptions. Dodona, for example, overlays market, grid and demand data in one zoomable environment so CPOs can move beyond gut‑feel to repeatable logic.

Resolution #2: I will win more EV infrastructure tenders

Tender pipelines are getting bigger, but the turnaround expectations are getting shorter. Many teams still attempt to score hundreds of sites in spreadsheets, with different models living in different folders, and no single transparent view of why a site was recommended.

A more sustainable approach in 2026 is:

• Define one scoring framework that reflects your strategy.
• Use transparent, configurable models instead of black‑box scoring.
• Generate utilisation forecasts or simple red‑amber‑green scores at scale.
• Apply the same logic to every site in a tender, in seconds.

This turns tender responses from a last‑minute scramble into a process. Dodona’s customers routinely run their own assumptions through a scoring engine across hundreds of candidates to see which sites they should prioritise and which to leave to competitors, with a clear audit trail to defend those decisions internally and to partners.

Resolution #3: I will easily find 1,000s of charging sites that fit our strategy

The old way of finding sites: zooming around maps, bookmarking promising corners, and emailing landlords one by one, does not scale to 2026 rollout targets. At some point, trial‑and‑error becomes a constraint on growth.

A better resolution is to treat site finding as a repeatable pipeline:

• Define what “good” means for your network: traffic, grid, access, amenities, policies.
• Translate those criteria into filters and rules.
• Let software generate 100+ candidates at a time that meet those rules.
• Hand business development a structured lead list, not a vague region.

This is where platforms like Dodona are increasingly used: scanning entire cities or regions for locations that match a CPO’s strategy, rather than just “where there is space”. The result is more at‑bats in the right places and more opportunities where a single landlord controls multiple viable sites.

Resolution #4: I will find a way to manage all projects in one place

As networks grow, the limiting factor is rarely ideas; it is coordination. Projects live in twelve spreadsheets, updates are buried in email threads, and nobody is entirely sure which version is current when a site moves from sales to planning to construction.

In 2026, CPOs are resolving to:

• Maintain a portfolio view of all sites in the funnel, with clear statuses.
• Filter by “in planning”, “ready to build”, “awaiting grid”, or “on hold”.
• Give sales, planning, and delivery a shared workspace, not separate trackers.
• Keep project dashboards as the single reference point in meetings.

Dodona’s project workspaces are built exactly for this: a portfolio view that lets teams drill down from network‑wide status to a single site’s details, without losing context. That means handovers are smoother, fewer things fall through the cracks, and rollout conversations start from the same source of truth.

Resolution #5: I will be more efficient by managing all site details in one place

Even when the “where” and “when” are clear, execution often stumbles on fragmented information. Key details live in emails, PDF attachments, side spreadsheets, or personal notes, from charger configurations and civil works costs to checklists and photos.

A more efficient 2026 looks like this:

• Every site has a single home for configuration, costs, documents, and notes.
• Checklists, statuses, and labels are updated live as work progresses.
• AI‑assisted tools generate draft site layouts and designs in seconds.
• Anyone in the team can see what has been done, by whom, and what is next.

This is where a “site workspace” concept matters. Dodona combines practical tools for charger setups, cost inputs, labels, and status flows, with AI‑driven design generation, so teams spend less time chasing information and more time getting chargers in the ground.

Turning resolutions into routine

Resolutions only matter if they turn into weekly habits. For CPOs, that means:

• Reviewing the network pipeline in one shared view.
• Using data layers as a standard part of every location decision.
• Running tenders and site searches through the same scoring logic.
• Keeping site and project information in one live workspace, not scattered tools.

Dodona was built around exactly these routines: helping leading CPOs answer three questions: 

1. Could we deploy?

2. Should we invest?

3. How do we deliver at scale?

with data and AI, rather than guesswork.

If even one of these resolutions is on your list for 2026, the next step is simple:

• Watch a 30‑second demos of how this looks in practice, and
• Book a session with us  to see it on top of your own network and pipeline.

Either way, 2026 does not have to be “more of the same, but faster”. It can be the year your rollout feels deliberate, defendable, and scalable.

Visit: https://thedodona.com/

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