Oregon-based Chargeway came to our attention back in 2017,when it introduced a handy system that uses colors and numbers to identify different types of EV charging plugs in order to make selecting the appropriate EV charger easier for drivers.
Now the company has launched its Chargeway Plus connected EV features in North America, allowing EV drivers in the US and Canada to connect their vehicles to the Chargeway mobile app for access to real-time battery info, charging status and more.
Chargeway Plus subscribers can see battery levels (in percent and miles), charging status, and estimates of charging time at public chargers, all in real time on their smartphones. Chargeway Plus is available for over 20 brands and hundreds of EV models, and most models also allow users to start and stop charging within the app. Chargeway Plus is available for both iOS and Android, and the connected features are free for the first 30 days.
Planned future features include locking and unlocking capabilities, real-time pricing at major charging networks, and session activation and payment.
“We have been gathering driver feedback from our soft launch with Austin Energy, and look forward to offering these features to more drivers,” says Matt Teske, founder of Chargeway. “Our goal has always been to create the most intuitive and intelligent experience for all drivers from every lifestyle. With Chargeway Plus we can now offer a connected experience with real-time data for both the vehicle and charging, as well as expand to new real-time features in the future for Chargeway Plus users.”
Filtration specialist Donaldson makes a range of battery venting systems—safety systems designed to allow gases to escape from an EV battery pack during an emergency situation.
Launched at the recent Battery Show in Germany, the company’s Dual-Stage Jet is a new design that provides enhanced pressure equalization and ingress protection under normal operating conditions to allow gases to escape at rates of approximately 100 liters/second at 100 mbar when necessary. According to Donaldson, the new system is so efficient, it can reduce the number of vents required on a battery pack by up to 90%.
“Customers were telling us that they needed even higher degassing rates than what was available on the market, so the Donaldson Vehicle Electrification Development engineering team came up with a unique, creative design where the poppet and cap can be jettisoned to instantly produce a much larger opening for gas to escape and help mitigate thermal runaway,” explains Shane Campbell, Product Manager for Vehicle Electrification at Donaldson. “The pressure then rapidly decreases inside the pack, greatly reducing the risk of damage to additional cells and giving occupants extra time to escape from the vehicle.”
Dual-Stage Jet is available in two distinct configurations—screw-in/bolt-on or with quarter-turn bayonet fittings. Agricultural and other heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers are likely to choose the former, which can offer more flexibility for use in bulkier battery packs, whereas the lighter bayonet fittings are suitable for the automotive sector, and provide clear haptic feedback of proper installation.
“The option of multiple attachment methods is important to our customers, who want something that integrates really easily with their existing pack, and with application engineers all over the globe, we’re located near the OEM wherever they may be,” says Matt Goode, Engineering Manager for Vehicle Electrification Development at Donaldson.
Vehicle manufacturers can customize the design to their precise needs in partnership with Donaldson’s application engineers. “Our customers often have different thicknesses of aluminum for their battery pack housing, but it’s easy for us to make an almost identical part that has a small change in the leg length when required,” says Goode.
The vent is designed to offer a simple solution to the tricky problem of performing a leak test on a product expressly designed to provide effective ventilation. Temporarily sealing the vent using the supplied leak-check cap is all that is required for manufacturers to carry out tests themselves.
“Quality and reliability are top of our customers’ agenda, and our new vent really fits the bill,” says Shane Campbell. “Dual-Stage Jet enables us to serve more of the global EV market by offering our customers even greater choice to match their specific applications. Our Dual-Stage Burst design is still available, with a high opening pressure (25 liters/second at 300 mbar), while Dual-Stage Jet occupies the medium-pressure section of our portfolio.”
MOL, a Belgian manufacturer of port handling equipment, and Volvo Penta, a marine and industrial engine manufacturer, have announced a partnership to conduct trials of the RME225, an electric 4X4 RoRo tractor, at the Port of Ghent, in collaboration with the port’s operator, logistics firm DFDS.
The three partners aim to demonstrate a move away from the diesel-powered vehicles that are currently used in port logistics in order to reduce air pollution, vibration and noise.
The RME225 features a Volvo Penta driveline that includes three battery packs with a capacity of 270 kWh, an EPT802 gearbox, two 200 kW propulsion motors and a separate 50 kW motor to power the hydraulic system and the fifth wheel. The tractor is designed to operate for a full shift without requiring recharging.
The electric RoRo tractor is meant to demonstrate the increased productivity for fleet owners and terminal operators that electrification could offer, Volvo Penta said. DFDS recently ordered 100 electric trucks from Volvo Trucks, a move that brings DFDS’s total electric truck fleet size to 225.
“As part of this trial, MOL is conducting range tests on the RME225 to fine-tune vehicle performance and driveability,” said Conrad Verplancke, a Sales Engineer at MOL. “These tests are crucial for ensuring the vehicle can handle heavy loads and operate efficiently under the demanding schedules typical of port operations.”
US power management company Eaton has been selected by an unnamed EV manufacturer to supply its ELocker differential system for use on a new plug-in hybrid SUV.
The new model uses an electric motor to power the rear wheels and an electric motor or optional ICE to drive the front wheels, in contrast to a traditional PHEV, which uses an electric motor and ICE to power all the drive wheels.
The ELocker is an electronic locking differential that features net-forged gears to provide the durability required for off-road driving. Eaton says its electronic controls provide driver-selectable operation as well as greater reliability than similar air-controlled products. The press of a dash switch sends all available torque equally to the left and right wheels for maximum traction on difficult terrain.
“The ELocker had to be designed to be compatible with fluid in an electric drive, which is lighter and has a lower viscosity than axle and transmission oils,” said Mark Kramer, Business Unit Director, ePowertrain, Eaton’s Mobility Group. “To meet this challenge, Eaton engineers made adjustments to traditional ELocker designs by utilizing premium designs, materials and coatings.”
US-based Factorial Energy, which is developing solid-state battery technology for EVs, has delivered B-samples of its 106+ Ah lithium-metal solid-state battery cells to Mercedes-Benz as part of the companies’ ongoing joint development agreement.
The cells use Factorial’s Factorial Electrolyte System Technology (FEST) platform, which includes a lithium metal anode and delivers specific energy of 391 Wh/kg. Factorial’s batteries are manufactured using existing equipment from lithium-ion battery production, requiring minimal modifications to transition to producing solid-state batteries. This approach can streamline the manufacturing validation process and significantly reduce long-term operating costs.
Factorial has shipped over 1,000 100+ Ah solid-state battery cells to Mercedes-Benz as part of the A-sample phase. The B-samples will be integrated into modules and battery packs for testing and optimization. This phase involves validating the module and pack designs against Mercedes-Benz’s performance specifications.
“These B-sample batteries give us the opportunity to further validate this next-generation battery technology with the goal of enhancing range and performance, reducing overall vehicle costs, and offering the most desirable electric vehicles to our customers,” said Markus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer at Mercedes-Benz.
Switzerland-based Neural Concept, which is developing an engineering intelligence using 3D deep learning for product design, has raised $27 million in a Series B funding round.
The round was led by Forestay Capital. Investment and technology development firm D. E. Shaw and existing investors Alven, CNB Capital, HTGF and Aster Group also participated.
The round follows the company’s $9-million Series A round in March 2022 and $2-million seed round in 2020. The company plans to use the funds raised in the latest round to develop its technology and accelerate its global recruitment and growth to meet customer demand across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the US.
The AI-based platform combines Neural Concept’s technology with data analysis, machine learning operations (MLOps) and application deployment capabilities to reduce product development times, accelerate product simulation and improve product characteristics—including efficiency, safety, speed, and aerodynamics—by up to 30%, according to the company.
The platform is used by product engineering teams in the automotive, micro-electronics, aerospace and energy industries, including at more than 60 OEMs such as Airbus, Bosch, General Electric and Subaru.
“Neural Concept can be a powerful accelerant for product engineering teams bringing products to market,” said Jean Nations, Senior VP at D. E. Shaw.
Ford’s commercial division, Ford Pro, is offering its Smart Charging Bundle to Ford Pro Charging software subscribers enrolled in the Clean Peak Energy Standard (CPS) program of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. The CPS is designed to encourage the use of clean energy technologies that can supply or reduce demand during peak periods.
The Smart Charging Bundle includes a free 48 A commercial-grade Ford Pro charger for either home or worksite use or an 80 A charger for worksite use. Ford Pro Charging, which currently has more than 1,000 commercial worksite charging depots, offers EV consulting and integrated charging hardware and software products.
“Our team is focused on easing the transition to electric for business and government customers,” said Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis. “Through this program, Ford Pro customers essentially get their own virtual ‘charging manager,’ as we will do the heavy lifting, such as providing no-cost charging hardware, managing the charging schedule and avoiding peak rates.”
Power electronics manufacturer Shenzhen Kehua has developed a 40 kW silicon carbide high-efficiency, low-noise charging module, which is intended to serve as a core component of a high-power EV charger.
The new module, which Kehua showed off at the recent Intersolar Europe exhibition in Munich, complies with CE and UL certifications, and meets EMC Class B standards. It is suitable for both European and American standard DC chargers.
Output voltage ranges from 150 to 1,000 VDC, and standby power consumption is less than 7.5 W. The module is capable of reporting operating time, enabling intelligent operation and maintenance.
The new charging module boasts a full load efficiency of ≥96% and a peak efficiency of ≥97%. Compared to traditional Si device designs, it improves efficiency by 1%, according to the company, allowing a single module to save as much as 1,226 kWh of electricity annually for a charging station operator.
The power module uses intelligent fan speed control technology to reduce noise—the fan speed is automatically adjusted depending on the inlet temperature, AC input voltage, DC output voltage and output current. The module supports three levels of Silent Mode, so users can set the appropriate level of noise reduction based on working conditions, application sites and environmental factors. At the highest level of Silent Mode, noise across the entire output voltage range can be reduced by as much as 65 dB.
Operating temperature range is -40° to 75° C, and Kehua says the module offers stable performance in both extremely cold and extremely hot environments. Even in temperatures as low as -40° C, the charging module can output full power without additional heaters. At extremely high temperatures (55-75° C), the module can still operate with linear derating, and it can still achieve half-load output at 75° C.
The module features low output current ripple: a peak-to-peak value of less than 3 A when ten modules are paralleled. According to the company, this ensures more stable charging and reduces cell heating.
Kehua has five manufacturing bases with a combined annual production capacity of 2 million units. The company is IATF 16949, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 certified.
Swiss electrical and electronic components manufacturer SCHURTER has released the DKUH-1, a new current-compensated choke designed for currents from 50 A to 100 A and high voltage of 800 VDC, making it suitable for EV fast charging stations, battery storage, photovoltaics and energy converters.
The choke is designed to integrate filter elements into printed circuit boards to reduce interference in compact electronic devices. The bifilar winding and nanocrystalline cores enable very high currents in relatively compact dimensions.
The new standard variants of the DKUH-1 are available in small quantities from stock, and larger quantities are available on request.
The Volkswagen Group will invest up to $5 billion in US EV maker Rivian in a complex deal under which the two companies will form an equally controlled joint venture to share EV architecture and software.
As reported by Reuters, Volkswagen will immediately invest $1 billion in Rivian through a convertible note, and also pledges to invest $2 billion more in Rivian stock—a billion each in 2025 and 2026—subject to the startup hitting certain milestones, and to provide a $1-billion loan in 2026.
Further details of the deal aren’t quite clear at this point, but this is how we understand it: Volkswagen will also invest $1 billion in the new JV, and Rivian will license its existing intellectual property to the JV. Rivian’s upcoming R2 will be the first vehicle to use software from the JV. EVs from Volkswagen brands, including Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini and Bentley, will follow.
The deal appears to play to each company’s strengths: Rivian (like most startups) needs cash, and Volkswagen (like most legacy automakers) is struggling with the software aspects of electrification.
The investment will provide Rivian funding it needs to launch its less expensive and smaller R2 SUV in 2026, and to develop its new R3 crossovers, CEO R.J. Scaringe told Reuters. He added that the partnership will enable Rivian to cut costs by taking advantage of Volkswagen’s economies of scale with chip and component suppliers.
Rivian has been slashing costs, redesigning its manufacturing process and starting to build some parts in-house, but it’s still burning through cash (Reuters reports that the company’s cash and short-term investments fell by about $1.5 billion in the first quarter to just under $8 billion).
“Any cash infusion like that is huge,” said Vitaly Golomb, Managing Partner at Mavka Capital, a Rivian investor, told Reuters. “Getting the support of Volkswagen Group certainly strengthens their story toward Europe and toward Asia eventually.”
VW’s software division, Cariad, has been struggling to integrate software from a range of suppliers (in contrast to the unified software architecture used by Tesla and other EV brands), and this has delayed the launch of important new EV models, Reuters tells us.
Volkswagen says the Rivian software will also be used by its off-road EV brand Scout, which is building a plant in South Carolina to assemble pickups and SUVs that could be seen as Rivian competitors.
Wall Street appears to like the plan—Rivian stock, which has lost around half its value so far this year, jumped in after-hours trading following the announcement.
Scaringe tweeted that he’s excited about “the formation of a joint venture between our two companies. This partnership brings Rivian’s software and zonal electronics platform to a broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach and scale, while providing an expected $5 billion of capital to Rivian as we bring R2 and our next generation of vehicles to market!”
Japanese automotive manufacturers Honda Motor and Mitsubishi have announced plans to establish a new 50/50 joint venture (JV) company called ALTNA in July 2024.
The new JV is based on an agreement the two companies signed in October 2023 to collaborate on new EV businesses.
ALTNA will combine Honda’s control and connected technologies for EVs and batteries and Mitsubishi’s power-generation knowledge, which includes battery storage systems and smart charging operations.
The company will operate three lines of business—battery leasing, battery repurposing and smart charging.
ALTNA will work with Honda and Mitsubishi’s leasing businesses to sell lease plans for EVs starting with the Honda N-VAN e:, a new commercial mini-EV that Honda is planning to launch in October 2024. When a customer leases a vehicle, ALTNA will retain ownership of the battery and monitor usage during the lease period. The company will then recover end-of-life EV batteries based on data obtained through the long-term monitoring. After the end of their automotive use, the batteries will be used for ALTNA’s grid storage battery business.
ALTNA also will offer EV charging plans that optimize electricity costs for EV users by using energy-control technologies to avoid charging EVs during peak demand hours and automatically charge when electricity prices are lowest. The company will also look to offer vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services with a view to opening the electricity market in the future.
“Honda is working toward the establishment of a vertically integrated EV value chain that includes all aspects of EV business, from the procurement of raw materials to the production of finished EVs, as well as the repurposing and recycling of EV batteries,” said Toshihiro Mibe, Director, President and Representative Executive Officer of Honda. “Starting with N-VAN e:, we will take a proactive approach to establish a sustainable business foundation not only for the sales of EVs as mobility products, but also to create an optimal EV business environment including full utilization of batteries.”
Engineered Materials Solutions (EMS), a Wickeder Group company that produces functional clad metals for the Li-ion battery, electrical distribution, thermal control, consumer electronics and automotive markets, has acquired Colorado-based Thin Metal Parts, a provider of micro-components to the defense, aerospace, medical and audio industries.
TMP uses its photochemical etching, electroforming and laser cutting technologies, combined with rapid prototyping services, to supply high-precision parts to its customers.
“Thin Metal Parts has been a leader in the manufacturing of high-precision micro-components for over 20 years,” said President Stephen Trahey. “By joining forces with EMS and becoming part of the Wickeder Group of companies, we will be able to tap into a deep pool of resources, positioning us to better meet our customers’ evolving needs.”
Paul Duffy, CEO of Engineered Materials Solutions noted that the Wickeder Group’s portfolio already includes three companies in Europe that produce micro-components. TMP complements that portfolio perfectly, and the acquisition should expand market opportunities in the North American market. “This acquisition expands the breadth of products and markets served by EMS and aligns with the Wickeder Group’s capabilities in the micro-components industry,” said he. “We look forward to helping TMP expand their global reach, enhance their production technologies, and build broader relationships with their key customers.”
Fast charging network operator Atlante and shopping center operator Groupe Duval have announced plans to deploy new 130 fast and ultra-fast charging stations as part of their long-term partnership.
The announcement was made as the first site—located in Saint-Chamond in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Central France—was powered on. That site now offers 188 fast charging ports.
The two companies aim to have all 130 sites, with a total of 1,200 charging ports, up and running by 2025.
The new stations are accessible to those with disabilities and are open 24 hours a day. The companies said that the stations are compatible with all charging standards, are available on all major electric mobility applications, and accept direct credit card payments.
“Our day-to-day objective is to facilitate the use of electric vehicles in France and Europe, and that means having a dense network and a high-quality service environment,” said the CEO of Atlante France, Jacques Galvani.
Lithium Australia’s subsidiary Envirostream Australia has signed an exclusive agreement with Volvo Group Australia’s bus division to recycle end-of-life lithium-ion batteries from its electric and hybrid fleet.
Volvo manufactures and supplies electric and hybrid buses to customers across Australia, including Public Transport Authority in Western Australia and Transdev in Queensland.
The agreement has an initial three-year term, and Volvo expects it to drive an increase in collection volumes of hybrid batteries from buses reaching their end of life, and of larger-format batteries used in its electric chassis platform.
“We are excited by the exclusive recycling agreement signed with Volvo, a leading manufacturer of electric buses in Australia. The agreement validates our strategy to target large-scale OEMs and ESS manufacturers to grow our share of the high-margin, large-format battery collection volumes,” said Lithium Australia CEO and Managing Director Simon Linge.
Omron Electronic Components Europe has announced a new high-capacity DC relay for use in household electricity storage systems, bidirectional EV chargers and UPS systems.
The G9K8-F general-purpose relay offers a maximum voltage of 800 VDC and maximum current of 100 A. It is suitable for battery applications within the 15 to 40 kW range and, unlike conventional sealed relay designs, it uses no hydrogen gas, which results in improved safety, according to the company.
The new relay has the same dimensions and weight as the company’s standard 9KB series, and offers 33% higher maximum switching voltage and 50% higher current handling capability. This allows designers to specify fewer relays per system.
The G9KB-E also features bidirectional DC switching capabilities. This enables the use of a single general-purpose relay to be used in place of two unidirectional relays. The unit, Omron said, also harnesses arc cut-off technology to combat contact arcing.
The new design in this model achieves a low-rated contact resistance of 5 milliohms. This results in less heat generation which in turn results in more efficient performance, according to Omron.
Netherlands-based Nexperia’s 650 V, 10 A silicon carbide (SiC) Schottky diode is now automotive-qualified (PSC1065H-Q) and available in real-two-pin (R2P) DPAK (TO-252-2) packaging, making it suitable for various applications in EVs and other automobiles.
The diode is designed to address the challenges of demanding high voltage and high current applications including switched-mode power supplies, AC-DC and DC-DC converters, battery charging infrastructure, motor drives and uninterruptible power supplies as well as photovoltaic inverters.
The diode’s merged PiN Schottky (MPS) structure makes it robust against surge currents, removing the need for additional protection circuitry. This reduces system complexity and enables hardware designers to achieve higher efficiency with smaller form factors in rugged high-power applications.
Nexperia’s “thin SiC” technology delivers a substrate that is one-third of its original thickness, which reduces the thermal resistance from the junction to the back-side metal. This results in lower operating temperature, higher reliability and device lifetime, higher surge current capability, and lower forward voltage drop, according to the company.
“The superior reverse recovery of these diodes translates to high efficiency in real-world use,” said Katrin Feurle, Senior Director and Head of Product Group SiC Diodes & FETs at Nexperia. “We are particularly excited that this is our first automotive-qualified product, and it is already recognized by major automotive players for its performance and reliability.”
South Korean steel manufacturer POSCO Holdings and Chinese battery precursor producer CNGR have started construction of nickel and precursor production plants for secondary batteries in Pohang, South Korea.
The companies will invest approximately KRW 1.5 trillion ($1.09 billion) to build the plants, and mass production is scheduled to begin in 2026.
POSCO CNGR Nickel Solution, a nickel refining joint venture (JV) with a 60:40 equity split between POSCO and CNGR, will process nickel matte with approximately 70% purity from CNGR’s nickel smelting subsidiary into 50,000 tons of 99.9% high-purity nickel annually, to be used as precursor material for batteries sufficient for 1.2 million EVs.
CNP New Material Technology, a precursor production JV with an 80:20 equity split between CNGR and POSCO Future M, will use high-purity nickel from POSCO CNGR Nickel Solution to produce 110,000 tons of high-purity nickel precursors annually. POSCO Future M plans to use these precursors to manufacture cathode materials, optimizing its internal supply chain.
Precursors determine the capacity and lifespan of secondary batteries and account for about 60% of the cost of cathode materials, but only 26% of South Korean demand was met by local production as of 2021.
“POSCO Group and CNGR will establish a stable supply chain for rechargeable battery materials based on business know-how and technological prowess and will continue to enhance business synergies,” said Jun-hyung Kim, Head of Rechargeable Battery Materials at POSCO Holdings.
Xendee, provider of a design and operation platform for distributed energy systems and EV fast charging infrastructure, has released the findings of its 2024 Commercial EV Charging Market Survey, the second in a series of annual research studies.
Xendee asked leaders in the EV charging industry about challenges and potential solutions related to commercial EV charging. The survey revealed several key themes: some 75% of respondents said electric utility grid limitations were a “significant roadblock to the rollout of EV charging infrastructure for commercial EV usage,” and 63% cited the total cost of charging infrastructure as a significant roadblock.
For the second year in a row, survey respondents said DERs and microgrids co-located with EV charging infrastructure were the most important game-changing technology for stimulating the transition to commercial EVs and fleets, and to avoid overloading highly burdened electric grids. (See our recent webinar about DER design and operation.)
The report indicates that the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are starting to deliver results. More than 80% of respondents said their organizations would develop at least one EV charging infrastructure project within the next five years because of the BIL and/or IRA incentives. Respondents called the incentives an important factor in overcoming the hurdle of high costs to develop and bring EV charging infrastructure into operation.
Xendee plans to use the survey findings to guide further development of its SaaS platform. You can download the 2024 Market Survey Report here.
Shell has deployed a self-developed megawatt charger for dual use by both electric trucks and waterborne vessels at the company’s Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam (ETCA), a facility where the oil giant demonstrates current energy technologies.
The charging station uses the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), a standard for charging heavy-duty EVs that was developed by CharIN. MCS is theoretically capable of delivering up to 3.75 megawatts of power—Shell says its new charger delivers about one megawatt.
Shell’s new MCS charging station is equipped with two separate charging arms. One rotatable arm is dedicated to electric vessels, and the other serves electric trucks and buses. Each charging arm also includes a CCS2 plug. Shell says the charger is ready for use, and vehicles and vessels with megawatt charging capability can visit by appointment.
The megawatt charger is connected to ETCA’s microgrid, which demonstrates integration among energy supply, energy storage and energy demand. The ETCA microgrid includes 3,600 rooftop solar panels, stationary battery storage, 119 EV chargers and a hydrogen electrolyser.
“We want to help decarbonize our customers in the logistics sector,” says Hilmar van den Dool, General Manager eMobility at Shell. “In addition to our investments in biofuels and LNG, we also invest in electric mobility. There are not that many electric trucks and vessels yet [sic], so with this we’re investing ahead of the market that is growing quickly.”
“We believe this solution will be helpful for shipping companies that control and operate logistics businesses across the supply chain, and often have facilities that serve both waterside and landside,” said Melissa Williams, President of Shell Marine. “The megawatt charger also offers the flexibility to charge a wide range of inland and port vessels such as barges, tugboats, service vessels and ferries.”
UK-based electric bulk haulage provider Voltloader has used transport and logistics company Welch Group’s heavy goods vehicle (HGV) charging infrastructure to complete a long-haul delivery, as part of Welch’s push to create a collaborative HGV network across the UK.
Voltloader would not have otherwise been able to complete the critical job with an electric HGV owing to range limitations, the company said, highlighting the importance of collaboration within the industry.
“Charging here at Welch’s marks our first collaborative charge. As an all-electric haulage business, having a shared network of high-powered chargers is crucial. This collaboration, along with our mission of opening more of our own shared charging sites, supports each other and the broader rollout of electric vehicles across the UK,” said Bertie Steggles, Head of Operations at Voltloader. “Currently, public charge points often lack the capacity or suitable locations for heavy goods vehicles, making such partnerships vital for extending range and efficiency and providing a reliable service to our customers.”
US-based Navitas Semiconductor has introduced a new portfolio of Gen-3 Fast (G3F) 650 V and 1,200 V silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFETs optimized for fastest switching speed, highest efficiency, and increased power density for applications such as on-board chargers and fast EV chargers.
The portfolio range covers industry-standard packages from D2PAK-7 to TO-247-4, designed for demanding, high-power, high-reliability applications.
The G3F family is optimized for high-speed switching performance. The G3F GeneSiC MOSFETs use “trench-assisted planar” technology and offer better-than-trench MOSFET performance, enabling up to 25° C lower case temperature, and up to three times longer life than other SiC products, the company claims.
The enables a low drain-source on resistance (RDS(ON)) increase versus temperature, which results in the lowest power losses across the operating range and offers up to 20% lower RDS(ON) under real-life operation at high temperatures compared to competition.
For the EV market, 1,200 V/34 mOhm (G3F34MT12K) G3F FETs enable Navitas’ new 22 kW, 800 V bidirectional OBC and 3 kW DC-DC converter to achieve power density of 3.5 kW/L and a peak efficiency of 95.5%.
“G3F sets a new standard for efficient, cool-running SiC performance, coupled with high reliability and robustness for high-power, high-stress systems,” said Sid Sundaresan, SVP of SiC Technology and Operations at Navitas. “We’re pushing the boundaries of SiC, with up to 600 kHz switching speeds, and hard-switching figures-of-merit up to 40% better than competition.”
Japanese automaker Honda Motor will start sales in Japan of a new commercial mini-EV, the N-VAN e:, in October.
The N-VAN e: is a commercial mini-EV model developed by adding EV features to the gasoline-powered N-VAN, such as a power output function and a quiet cabin (and adding a colon to the name). It maintains N-VAN features including a flat, low floor and high ceiling creating a large cargo space and a large opening on the passenger side made possible by eliminating the center pillar.
The N-VAN e: has a large-capacity battery, downsized eAxle and a centralized layout of high-voltage components to provide sufficient practical range and large cargo space for commercial use. The van has a range of up to 152 miles (WLTC), and it features a battery cooling and heating system designed to inhibit degradation in battery performance caused by high or low temperatures.
Honda will offer four variants of the N-VAN e: for commercial and personal uses.
The e: L4 is the standard four-seater model. Based on the e: L4, the e: FUN version is styled for hobbies and leisure activities.
The e: G is designed for commercial application, and has no passenger seat. The passenger side dashboard is shaped to enable long items to fit in the space. The interior is 95 mm longer than the gasoline-powered N-VAN and the floor height is 120 mm lower than the four-seater e: L4 and e: FUN.
The e: L2 features a front/rear tandem configuration of seats on the driver’s side. The vacant space without seats and the large opening without a pillar on the passenger side are designed to make it easier for loading and unloading.
The e: G and e: L2 versions are only available for lease sales through the Honda Fleet Sales Division and Honda ON, Honda’s new online store.
UK-based battery management software developer Eatron Technologies has introduced a new battery management system-on-chip with US-based edge artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company Syntiant for light mobility, industrial and consumer electronics applications.
The new AI-BMS-on-chip chip integrates Eatron’s Intelligent Software Layer into Syntiant’s low-power NDP120 Neural Decision Processor. The jointly-developed chip uses the processing power of Syntiant’s NDP120 to operate on the edge, where it can deliver real-time analysis and decision-making directly on the device without needing to rely on cloud infrastructure that would otherwise introduce cost, latency and power consumption issues.
The AI-BMS-on-chip can unlock 10% additional capacity and increase battery lifespan by up to 25%, while reducing time-to-market, according to the companies. Applications include e-bikes, micro LCVs and forklifts. The chip can be customized for each application through a toolchain and existing BMS hardware can be upgraded with ease.
“We are now running our latest AI models completely integrated on the edge in the Syntiant chip,” said Amedeo Bianchimano, Chief Product Delivery Officer at Eatron Technologies. “With AI-BMS-on-chip, we can ensure any battery-powered application can be deployed in the millions in complete safety while getting the most out of the battery.”
The analysis of lithium-ion battery cell degradation can be classified into invasive and non-invasive methods, with non-invasive analysis offering the following advantages:
Evidence of battery degradation can be retained in its entirety;
Minimizing the effect of external factors on the battery state and introduction of new variations;
Allowing for the identification of known battery parameters through specific measurement instruments and a systematic classification of battery aging mechanisms.
Therefore, whether used to evaluate battery material performance, select batteries, or study battery degradation, non-invasive analysis has seen wide adoption and is known to yield significant results.
The transition to electric school buses is well underway in California—school districts in the state had ordered over 2,000 electric buses as of late 2023.
In May, the Oakland Unified school district announced the conversion of its entire school bus fleet to EVs. (And none too soon—the American Lung Association recently reported that the Bay Area’s levels of particle pollution are the fifth-worst of any metro area in the US.)
Student transportation services company Zum (pronounced “zoom”) is handling the electrification project. With the help of grant money from the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program and the California Air Resources Board, Zum purchased 74 electric school buses and bidirectional chargers. Zum will manage charging through a V2G-capable platform that will deliver energy back to the grid as needed when the buses are parked.
Oakland-headquartered Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is supporting the project, and delivering the energy needed to charge the electric school bus fleet. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy reported that over 90% of Oakland’s energy comes from renewable sources.
Oakland’s fleet of 74 buses is comparatively small—there were some 450,000 school buses operating in the US in 2023. That number included over 1,000 electric units, and 5,000 more were in the pipeline.
Oakland isn’t the only community where Zum is active. Zum has deployed electric school buses in significantly larger districts, including San Francisco Unified and Los Angeles Unified, and is also electrifying buses in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Utah.
“This historic milestone is a win-win proposition,” said Zum founder and CEO Ritu Narayan. “Electric school buses with V2G provide students with cleaner, fume-free transportation and allow us to send untapped energy from the bus batteries back to the grid, creating an enormous impact on grid resilience. Zum is proud to have delivered on this ambitious project a year ahead of schedule.”
Engineering today is focused on developing better energy storage and fuel cell technologies. These advancements are crucial for progress in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and keeping the power grid stable. Battery Management Systems play a critcal role in monitoring and managing the performance of batteries. They ensure optimal performance by balancing cell charge, protecting against overcharge and over-discharge, and maintaining temperature within safe limits.
The Battery Management System and Hall Effect Current Sensors are the two key players. They work together to guarantee that energy storage systems function safely, reliably, and efficiently. In energy storage applications, a well-designed BMS can significantly enhance the lifespan and efficiency of battery packs, making them more reliable for both consumer and industrial applications.
US-based school transportation provider First Student has received $200 million in rebates from the third round of funding of the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program.
The new funding brings First Student’s total program awards to $401 million across the three funding rounds. This round will enable the company to deploy up to an additional 670 electric school buses in 45 school districts across the US, bringing the total from all three EPA rounds to over 1,200 buses.
The Clean School Bus Program allocates funds for school districts to help cover the cost of replacing fossil fuel school buses with zero-emission vehicles and associated charging infrastructure. First Student works directly with school districts on electrifying their bus fleets, collaborating with them on the applications to the EPA and then deploying and maintaining the vehicles once they are in service.
The company has deployed over 350 electric buses across North America and has also been awarded approximately $65 million through other federal, state and utility programs in the US and Canada to electrify school bus fleets.
“First Student electric school buses funded by this program are already creating safer and cleaner rides to and from school and these investments mean expanding that benefit to even more districts,” said First Student Head of Electrification Kevin Matthews. “School districts can put these awards to use right away, turning these rebates into much-needed fleet upgrades.”
Metals and mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto have announced plans to test large battery-electric haul truck technology in Australia’s Outback.
The two companies will collaborate with both Caterpillar and Komatsu to test the latter two’s battery-electric haul trucks in the rugged weather and terrain of the Pilbara, which has an arid and tropical climate where temperatures of 113° F (45° C) are not uncommon during the summer, making it an ideal test site for the battery-electric haul trucks.
The tests will assess the performance of batteries as well as static and dynamic charging systems in the harsh Pilbara environment.
The schedule calls for testing of two Cat 793 haul trucks in the second half of 2024 and two Komatsu 930 haul trucks starting in 2026, both at mine sites in the Pilbara.
Cable and connector specialist HUBER+SUHNER has been making significant investments in its in-house production capability, and has expanded its high-voltage portfolio to deliver complete cable assemblies to customers.
The company has launched a new purpose-built high-voltage modular cable assembly (mCAY). The solution has been designed to be simpler to assemble and to save development efforts and time for manufacturers of commercial EVs such as trucks, buses and specialty vehicles. End-of-line testing is included within the assembly process, so once the mCAY solution has been assembled and tested together, the customer can install it immediately in commercial EVs.
“Many vehicle manufacturers focus on the direct costs of their solutions, without paying enough attention to indirect production costs such as assembly, test and production equipment,” says the company. “These costs can be significantly reduced by considering requirements from production, and through the application of a modular approach, rather than a product-by-product approach.”
HUBER+SUHNER is also launching a product configurator that allows customers to tailor products to their exact specifications. The WEB enables users to mix and match cables, connectors and glands in just a few clicks. With options for numerous cable sizes and types (single-core, multi-core or flex), an mCAY can be customized through the configuration software.
HUBER+SUHNER’s modular cable assemblies have been designed to be fully compatible with other products in the company’s high-voltage portfolio, including RADOX cables, the modular High-Voltage Distribution Unit (mHVDU) and the RADOX EV-C connection system.
“Our partnerships with major connector manufacturers ensure our engineers remain up to date with the latest solutions. We then use our team’s experience with these technologies to deliver ready-to-use assemblies perfect for our customers’ requirements,” said Senior Product Manager Robert Weirauch. “As high-voltage cable and connector technologies grow in complexity, so too does the assembly process. If manufacturers lack the technical knowledge, experience, or tools required to assemble these critical parts, it could result in avoidable errors and a slow time to market for their EVs.”
Redwood Partners has announced a new partnership with Ultium Cells under which Redwood will recycle production scrap from two Ultium facilities.
Ultium Cells is a joint venture between GM and LG Energy Solutions that manufactures battery cells. The deal calls for Redwood to recycle production scrap from Ultium Cells manufacturing facilities in Warren, Ohio, and Spring Hill, Tennessee.
The agreement covers the recycling of cathode and anode material as well as cell scrap. Redwood remanufactures the scrap into battery components used in cell manufacturing.
Ultium Cells’ two 2.8-million-square-foot plants are each designed to produce over 80 GWh of battery cells per year. Redwood will receive the vast majority of the manufacturing scrap from these facilities.
“With this latest collaboration, Redwood now has contracts with most of North America’s battery cell manufacturers,” the company said.
Portuguese EV charging solutions provider i-charging has announced that its blueberry fast charging family has received an ETL certification update from Intertek for the NACS plug standard (now more properly known as SAE J3400). (The company’s products were already ETL-certified for CCS-1 and CHAdeMO plugs.)
The ETL certification process involves extensive assessments of the design, construction and safety of charging stations, including evaluations for electrical safety, performance, and compliance with US and Canadian industry standards. This certification confirms that i-charging’s blueberry charging stations meet the highest safety and quality standards, according to the company.
“i-charging’s commitment to serve its North American customers with the flexibility to charge vehicles with any of the standards most used in the US and Canada is now certified for safety with the addition of the SAE J3400 (NACS) plug option,” said Pedro Moreira da Silva, CEO of i-charging. “This is a big step in our strategy for this region.”
i-charging’s blueberry charging products include an all-in-one unit with outputs ranging from 50 to 150 kW, and a scalable solution with dispensers and Power Units offering outputs from 100 to 900 kW. These larger units can also be configured with up to 4 outputs, enabling simultaneous and sequential charging of 4 vehicles.
The entire blueberry family features dynamic power allocation, a 32-inch screen for multimedia content, an automatic cable management system, and customizable outputs compatible with CCS, CHAdeMO and NACS standards.
EVSE installation specialist Qmerit has launched a new suite of residential electrification installation and integration services.
The new PowerHouse by Qmerit service is designed to streamline the complex process of deploying residential electrification equipment such as bidirectional EV chargers (which enable vehicle-to-home emergency power), solar panels, energy storage, load centers, heat pumps and other related components.
The PowerHouse by Qmerit service “helps homeowners and builders select the best-suited electrification products for the project. It then handles implementation and systems integration using Qmerit’s trusted network of licensed and certified electricians.”
Qmerit scans pricing from thousands of electrification projects across North America to provide quotes that are within regional market ranges. It also identifies applicable federal, state and local incentives, as well as savings or income-generating opportunities with local utilities.
“With the launch of PowerHouse by Qmerit, consumers can make informed decisions at any stage in their electrification journey, whether starting with a single component like EV charging or solar panels or pursuing integrated systems that provide new forms of energy management, such as emergency backup power and the ability to direct energy flows to rooms and appliances,” says the company. “Homeowners can even send excess energy to the utility via bidirectional technology.”
“America has arrived at an inflection point in which all of the technical, policy, and financial elements are in place to support a societal shift toward whole-home electrification,” said Qmerit CEO Tracy K. Price. “Now what’s needed is a comprehensive way to assemble these complex elements into a simple, financeable, home-energy retrofit that makes it easier to implement.”
Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging North America, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Group and MN8 Energy, is moving ahead with its planned $1-billion investment in public EV charging.
As part of this investment, Mercedes-Benz HPC announced plans to deploy Alpitronic’s Hypercharger 400 throughout its network.
Manufactured in Wisconsin, the Hypercharger 400 offers charging power levels up to 400 kW, and support for a wide range of output voltages. Mercedes plans to make both CCS and NACS (J3400) cables available to drivers.
Each charging site utilizes 100% carbon-neutral renewable energy sources, the company said.
The addition of Hypercharger 400 chargers will unlock the “next era of charging,” said Andrew Cornelia, President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz HPC.
The future is electric. Indeed, the electrification of products, systems, and processes is happening at an accelerated pace in countless industrial and consumer settings. These changes are driven by advanced electronic technologies in lieu of conventional methods such as hydraulics and pneumatics.
Nowhere else is the acceleration of electrification more evident than in the transportation industry. The number of vehicles loaded with cutting-edge functionality and fully electric powertrains is growing at a record pace.
In addition to the rapid emergence of all-electric powertrains by replacing the long-serving internal combustion engine (ICE), the electric content on a typical vehicle has also grown significantly. Case in point, many critical systems that were previously mechanical are now using electronics to improve safety and reliability. Braking assist and steering (electronic power-assisted steering – EPAS) are just two examples. And more recently, solutions supporting Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are progressing rapidly through defined levels toward the holy grail of fully autonomous driving.
More Choice and Better Performance Equals Faster EV Adoption
In the last several years, the number of electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) has increased globally, with predictions accounting for 20% of new car sales in 2025.
The number and diversity – from compact cars to large pick-up trucks – of different EV & HEV models available has risen significantly in the global market. In addition, evolving battery, power management, and regenerative systems are resulting in longer ranges on a single charge, bringing the travel distance possible between ‘refueling’ closer to those of gasoline-fueled vehicles. With the range of an EV increasing, range anxiety is decreasing the apprehension that has slowed adoption in the past. And, as the network of charging stations expands and rapid-charging becomes more prevalent, the ‘gap’ between the EV and ICE-powered vehicles will reduce further, with EVs potentially taking the lead.
Challenges to Electrifying Vehicles
Despite all of its promise, barriers remain to vehicle electrification. What challenges are automotive manufacturers facing to get their share of a market forecasted at USD236.3 billion, with a CAGR of 10.6%?
According to the recent “Electrification Innovation in Automotive” survey conducted by Molex and third-party research firm, Dimensional Research, concerns are real and present, with 92% of respondents indicating that their design teams are facing additional challenges as they work on supporting increase electrification.
Getting in the Zone
Consumers are demanding more than just a source of transportation from their vehicles. Making them safer, comfortable, convenient, and packed with infotainment functionality, is a priority for automakers. Today’s functionality can make contemporary vehicles feel like an extension of our working and living spaces. But a plethora of electronic systems and modules create considerable challenges in terms of the electrical architecture of a typical vehicle.
To meet consumer demands, the design of high-end vehicles can have over 100 electronic control units (ECUs). More ECUs in vehicles bring challenges in how to connect, package, and manage these systems that transport command-and-control specific functions that are vital to the vehicle. With incumbent architectures reaching limits of scalability, this is where zonal architecture comes in. By segmenting the vehicle into zones, each zone has assigned functionality and then passes information between the zones as necessary. Zonal architecture affords not only the overall volume of wiring to be optimized and reduced, but also the ECUs to be consolidated. In addition to gaining topology that is better suited to the increasing number of electronic systems in the vehicle, zonal architectures can result in a weight savings that translates into increased efficiency and improved range on each charge. Successful implementation of zonal architectures requires high data speed data connections that are flawless, robust, and can keep data flowing securely.
According to the survey referenced above, 84% of respondents agreed that adopting zonal architecture is the future and will help address concerns as traditional approaches reach their limits. Molex has many solutions that facilitates the transition from the existing traditional approach, through all the intermediate phases and ultimately a variety of exceptional industry leading flexible products to support a true zonal architecture.
Feeling the Heat
With the strong uptick in electronics being designed into vehicles – both ICE vehicles and EVs – comes the challenge of thermal management. What happens when an electronic device such as a computer or a mobile device gets too hot? It shuts down – not an option for a vehicle traveling down the road at highway speeds. So, how do you design for a vehicle that now has more than 100 ECUs and exponentially more electronics? This combination creates design complexities that require innovation in connector miniaturization due to space constraints, which effectively impacts temperature levels that must be addressed with clever and innovative design solutions and advanced predictive modeling.
Miniaturization and increased electrical content necessitate greater component density. Dissipating the same or more heat in a smaller space over the reduced surface area of miniaturized systems can create excessive heat risks that must be managed. Heat risks can increase if the electronics are in a sealed ECU and located in an area of the vehicle that sees extremes of ambient temperatures – such as under the hood. The harsh environment combined with high circuit density and small package size. requirements for next-generation connection systems can result in thermal challenges if not designed properly. Thermal issues in connectors can cause safety, reliability, and lifetime issues that must be addressed diligently at the design phase of a project. Molex executes high fidelity thermal simulation methods to drive design exploration and mitigate thermal issues before mass production. The traditional “build then test” approach of next generation connection systems is not efficient due to the cost and lead times of building test models. Thermal simulation provides immediate visibility, allowing for accelerated modification cycles, providing our customers with customized solutions to meet their needs from both a performance and longer-term production perspective.
Let’s (Not) Make Some Noise
With new technologies, comes new challenges. Traditionally, the internal combustion engine would dampen ambient noise generated from the road, tire, wind and vehicle structures. Without the engine to mask this noise, vehicle occupants can experience discomfort, decreased quality of conversations and drone-fatigue. Engineers can no longer rely on mechanical methods of noise dampening, such as sound deadening materials or lining the tires with foam, as these add cost and mass to a vehicle – which negatively effects energy consumption and range – two very critical parameters for EV’s.
Molex world-class noise cancellation sensors enable automakers to electronically control unwanted sound. Our accelerometer based Road Noise Cancellation sensor is strategically positioned on the vehicle chassis to monitor road noise, and in combination with intelligent algorithms, deliver a noise cancellation wave at the very moment the unwanted noise hits the occupants ears. Noise management technology is giving OEMs a wider range of noise reduction benefit – giving automakers a head-start in designing and deploying a lighter, higher-performing, more flexible, and more efficient solution for reducing unwanted noise.connectors can cause safety, reliability, and lifetime issues that must be addressed diligently at the design phase of a project. Molex executes high fidelity thermal simulation methods to drive design exploration and mitigate thermal issues before mass production. The traditional “build then test” approach of next generation connection systems is not efficient due to the cost and lead times of building test models. Thermal simulation provides immediate visibility, allowing for accelerated modification cycles, providing our customers with customized solutions to meet their needs from both a performance and longer-term production perspective.
The Road to Electrification is Bright
The continued increase of electrical content and the electrification of powertrains on vehicles is a positive and inevitable progression. It is important for experienced innovators, such as Molex, to support this megatrend by collaborating across the automotive ecosystems. To stay at the forefront of design requirements, reduce potential risks and develop solutions that fit the needs of this dynamic market. We are a leading supplier of electronics and connectivity solutions to most of the largest global OEMs and suppliers in the automotive industry. By ensuring our products, tools, and processes provide the automotive industry with dependable products. Providing guidance to allow our customers to design-in our solutions with confidence and helping to achieve a smooth and bright road to an electric future.
New Jersey-headquartered TOPDON USA, an EVSE and specialty equipment supplier, has partnered with Georgia-headquartered EV charging station contractor Electrify EVSE, which will serve as national distributor, installer and service provider for the TOPDON EVSE Charger Division.
TOPDON’s chargers include its PulseQ line of AC Level 2 chargers, which offers maximum power outputs ranging from 7.2 kW (32 A) to 11.6 kW (48 A). Its BoostQ SERIES of Level 3 DC fast chargers offers power outputs of 60 kW to 240 kW.
“TOPDON is answering the call to meet the demand for a more robust EV charging network across the country,” said Chad Schnitz, VP of TOPDON USA. “We found that Electrify EVSE shares our commitment. Their national team is a perfect match for our expectation to deliver a premium EV charging experience.”
By all accounts, electric school buses offer an ideal use case for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. Synop provides software that enables V2G for fleets, allowing local utilities to communicate with fleet operators and initiate V2G transactions.
V2G pilots abound, but Synop is one of the few firms that can claim to be doing V2G on a least a quasi-commercial basis—in 2023, the company enabled some 200 V2G transactions across 4 US states, sending some 30 MWh of energy back to the grid.
Synop CEO Gagan Dhillon believes that, at the moment, V2G makes sense only for a few use cases (school buses, drayage), and that the technology will need to mature before we see widespread deployment. Not all utilities are capable of feeding energy back to the grid, and the revenue and financial aspects of V2G are still largely undefined.
Q&A with Synop co-founder Gagan Dhillon
Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology is a hot topic—many EV industry execs say it has the potential to transform the transport and energy industries (we hear the term “game-changing” a lot). However, others have told Charged that they expect it to be more of a niche technology, useful only in certain applications. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that one of the most promising use cases for V2G is an electric school bus fleet.
The proliferation of electric school buses at school districts across the US is being driven by several factors. The iconic yellow buses travel regular routes that tend to be short, and they return to central depots where they have plenty of time to charge. School districts appreciate the savings on fuel and maintenance, and the idea of sparing schoolchildren from breathing diesel fumes tends to appeal to parents and other stakeholders, even those who might otherwise be unenthusiastic about EVs.
School buses’ typical duty cycles make them an ideal use case for V2G. They have large battery packs, they congregate in large numbers at depots and, at a typical school district, they sit parked during the evening hours and over the summer months—typically times of peak energy demand when utilities are most likely to need storage to relieve the grid.
All these factors combine to give electric school buses a shorter payback period than just about any other EV application—but V2G offers the potential not just to save costs, but to generate revenue—and that’s something our chronically underfunded schools can always use.
Of course, making V2G work requires software, and that’s where Synop comes in. The Brooklyn-based startup provides a platform designed to optimize energy management for EV fleet charging. Synop’s commercial charging and energy management software integrates with vehicles, chargers and utilities, enabling V2G transactions.
Here’s how it works: Synop’s system receives prompts from the local utility requesting a certain amount of storage for a specific time period. The software then verifies the fleet charging schedule to confirm excess capacity. Upon validation, the platform delivers the appropriate charging schedule to the chargers using the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), and the excess energy is discharged from the vehicle battery packs back to the grid.
This isn’t just hypothetical. During the summers of 2021 and 2022, Synop participated in a commercial V2G pilot for Massachusetts electric utility National Grid. School bus operator Highland Electric Fleets led the project, BorgWarner provided the DC fast charging system, Thomas Built Buses provided the vehicle, and the late Proterra provided the battery technology. Over 158 hours across both summers, a single bus discharged 10.78 MWh to the Massachusetts grid, generating $23,500 in revenue.
Charged recently spoke with Synop co-founder and CEO Gagan Dhillon.
Charged: What inspired you to start a company to develop fleet charging management software?
Gagan Dhillon: I was exposed to the world of commercial trucking through some projects I was doing with Volvo Trucks, and almost all their fleet customers were thinking about electrification. This was 2020, and co-founder Andrew Blejde and I didn’t think anybody was building charging, energy and vehicle management tools in an operational software system, so that a fleet operator could have all of that in one place. We landed our first customer in late 2021. That was Highland Electric—they’re a school bus operator, and they’re offering a turnkey solution for electric school buses.
We started providing charging management and energy management software for depot operators. Those operators have since started to develop tools for workplace charging, to open up those chargers for opportunity charging, so now we’re starting to manage that for them as well.
Charged: Are you mainly focused on school buses?
Gagan Dhillon: No, actually, we have Class 8 electric trucks, we have last-mile delivery vans. The school bus stuff gets the most press for us, but I would say there are as many Class 8 trucks and delivery vans on our platform as there are school buses.
Charged: Everybody seems to agree that school buses are an ideal use case for vehicle-to-grid, but that at the moment V2G is pretty much in the pilot stage. But your pilot with Highland generated some serious cash, and you’ve since developed other projects—could we describe those as commercial?
Gagan Dhillon: I think vehicle-to-grid is still very much a nascent technology, and I do think that vehicle-to-grid is also a use case specific to the school bus world [at the moment]. We did about 200 vehicle-to-grid transactions in 2023, across probably 20 or 30 vehicles. We sent back 30 megawatt-hours of energy, which is the equivalent of powering 1,000 average US homes for a day. And we’ve done that across four different states.
I don’t think we’re ready to say that these are fully baked commercial opportunities, just because there’s so much that goes into executing one. The commercialization of them is still being defined, the revenue a vehicle operator generates is still being defined—it’s very case-by-case. It’s going to take a bit of time for everyone to get on the same page about what V2G can do from a revenue and financial standpoint. But from a use case standpoint, we demonstrated that this technology works, and that we can still maintain the uptime of a vehicle even if we drain its battery.
Charged: You have projects with several utilities across four different states.What are some of the differences among those projects?
Gagan Dhillon: The hardest part is always the connection between the charger and the vehicle. The thing that does not really matter as much is the locale, as long as the utility has the ability to pull energy off of a site. Typically, a utility will never go through setting us up if they can’t do that, so that’s a big barrier that gets solved before we ever show up. But being able to optimize the connection between a vehicle and a charger, and then being able to dispense energy and then repower the vehicle within a timely period for its duty cycle—that orchestration is the hard part.
Charged: So, the ability to feed electricity back to the grid is not something that a utility can just automatically do?
Gagan Dhillon: They need to have the ability to accept power on their end, and then they need to be able to have a view into the power available. That’s one of the things that we give utilities—they can come onto our platform and say, “I’ve got 10 kilowatt-hours of energy available at this site based on the energy that these vehicles currently have. I’m going to pull that power between 3:00 and 4:00 pm.” So those insights, that operational readiness, is what they’re relying on us for.
We’re working with a number of companies, including Highland Fleets, Lion Electric, and Prologis. We’re Prologis’s backend for all the fleet electrification work that they’re doing. Those are some of the ones I can name publicly.
Charged: Let’s say we want to set up a school bus V2G program. What are the pieces of the puzzle? What different kinds of companies have to work together?
Gagan Dhillon: That’s the easy part: it’s the school bus fleet operator and the utility. They need to be the ones that opt in. Then they need a software provider to enable that opt-in and enable the execution of the transaction, and that’s where we come in.
“It’s going to take a bit of time for everyone to get on the same page about what V2G can do from a revenue and financial standpoint. But from a use case standpoint, we demonstrated that this technology works.”
Charged: Some companies provide charging management software as part of a turnkey fleet management system. Might some of these turnkey infrastructure providers also be your customers?
Gagan Dhillon: We are just software—we believe that the software is going to be the key piece in this industry. A lot of the other stuff is going to become more and more commoditized, so we want to build best-in-class software for fleet operators.
Most of the turnkey infrastructure providers are customers of ours. We’ve got five of those customers. I am not at liberty to say which ones, because we provide a custom white-label solution to them, so if they introduce a software tool, it’s going to look and feel like their tool, and that’s the value proposition that we’re giving them.
Charged: What do you think about Proterra? I really thought that was a strong company, and I was pretty shocked when they crashed.
Gagan Dhillon: Yeah, I was probably equally shocked—we had good relationships with Proterra. We work with a lot of joint customers and a lot of their school buses are on our platform. I know that they’ve gone through an auction process and different parts of the business have been sold off, but I think that powertrain business needs to stay as part of our industry because of how many businesses rely on it.
They had a software that they developed called Valence. Some of their customers used Valence and some did not. We had the ability to onboard their hardware onto our system, so we had a partnership that allowed that in certain cases.
Charged: I’m seeing the development of a flexible ecosystem where a company might provide one piece of the puzzle, or several pieces, or they might offer a whole turnkey package. It gets confusing—we’ve got TaaS, CaaS, EaaS. How does all that stuff fit together, and how does somebody sort through that alphabet soup?
Gagan Dhillon: I think the more acronyms, the harder it gets for people, and I think this industry still has a lot of maturation that it has to go through. There are a lot of hardware players in this space, and I think there’s going to be consolidation there.I also believe that there is going to be a new set of standards that need to be developed for fleet operators, and these acronyms need to become a lot more defined.
My candid belief is that people are sometimes being sold solutions that are too complex for their needs. This is the natural cycle of an early-days industry—people are learning and operators are learning. I think in about a year or 18 months, solutions will start to become productized so you know what you’re buying every single time, and it’s the same tool set to solve the same use case. I think our industry really needs that if it’s going to take the next step to electrify all the assets people want to electrify.
Charged: What are some other compelling use cases for EVs at the moment?
Gagan Dhillon: Drayage, taking goods from ports, especially in California and other seaports, and then driving them to the initial warehouse. We have at least 10 customers in that space currently. And then of course there’s the last-mile delivery use case. Not at liberty to speak on this one yet, but we’ve got some substantial partners in last-mile package delivery.
Charged: Could these also be use cases for V2G?
Gagan Dhillon: Hypothetically, V2G could be applied to drayage and last-mile delivery, though predicting their duty cycles and dwell times—and matching these to the grid’s energy needs—is more challenging than with predictable electric school bus routes. A drayage truck has a substantial battery, and could power roughly 400 homes for an hour, possibly having a transformative impact on the grid.
Charged: From the software standpoint, would you say different use cases are pretty similar, or is there a lot of customization you need to do?
Gagan Dhillon: No, there’s not any customization, and it’s purposely built that way because it enables us to quickly scale with customers. Our big value proposition is that you can bring any type of vehicle that’s connected to telematics and any type of charger that has an OCPP connection. We will go through the interoperability testing, onboard that asset, and make sure that you can deploy it as quickly as possible. Typically, it takes a customer less than a day to get up and running on our platform.
Charged: Zooming out to the overall commercial EV industry, some of the players are fighting hard against electrification. Some of the trucking trade associations are supporting bills to try and roll it back, they’re suing everybody in sight. Do you think they’re going to succeed in slowing things down?
Gagan Dhillon: Man, I hope not, but never underestimate the power of people in force. I think what really has to happen is the cost of EVs has to become more realistic, so the use case makes a lot more sense for the operator and themselves. Right now it’s just unrealistic to expect anybody to pay nearly $400,000 for an electric truck. Even with the incentives, that’s a hard cost for somebody to stomach, and then you put in other hardware costs, so I think we’re going to continue to deal with headwinds for consumer adoption.
Charged: Well, that’s a good argument for focusing on things like school buses and drayage, right?
Gagan Dhillon: Yeah. And that’s why we think that those are the use cases that matter for the time being.
