EV start-ups and charging companies are helping fleet owners navigate the challenges of ordering electric vehicles. This is part of the strategies to decarbonize over the ensuing years. Though, converting to EVs is not as simple as swapping out gas pumps for chargers.
EV Start-Ups and Transition to Electric
There has been a transition that requires financing heavy upfront costs. Plus optimizing vehicle routes and schedules, installing and also maintaining hardware and training operators. As well as then to work with energy providers to then understand how much electricity is available. It would be at a charging location and then determine how rates fluctuate throughout the day. Also, how is this transition is going to happen for millions of vehicles? It would be for more than 8 million vehicles including trucks that were in the U.S. and part of a fleet in 2020.
Mobility House
The Mobility House is a company that is working to provide smart management tools for EV fleet charging. The company was founding in Munich in 2009 and then it expanding to the U.S. in 2014 with an office in Silicon Valley.
Mobility House’s ChargePilot system manages energy use and then charges for fleets. It does this by monitoring utility rates and vehicle schedules. Therefore the platform, which works across charging hardware from different manufacturers, does help fleet owners plan out EV infrastructure. Plus handle vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and stationary storage projects in Europe. Moreover, the ChargePilot “starter kit” costs about $2,230.
The Mobility House says its system can reduce the operational charging costs by 30% which is comparing with managing charging by avoiding peak-hour utility prices. Using these tools can also help limit up-front expenses by decreasing the amount of charging infrastructure necessary to support an EV fleet.
Fleet Electrification
Actually, when The Mobility House did first enter the US market, the team actually identify public transit and the school buses as a key opportunity for fleet electrification. Then, six years later, the company did begin working with St. Louis Metro Transit on charging infrastructure for 22 electric businesses that the city did plan to add to its fleet.
