AI in Automotive - #503 - Mike Kent, GridBeyond and Alex Iriondo, Monta

“what we have seen with early adopters is that there is a focus on the vehicle, how we are going to get additional power to the site, the chargepoints, etc. they might not fully understand the electricity and energy system because they are used to hedging diesel. they are learning and adapting.”

If you are a fleet manager responsible for electrifying your fleet, prepare for your world to be rocked. The fleet manager’s decision-making approach and framework for a traditional ICE fleet is well-established. It has been in use for decades, and typically takes into consideration the acquisition cost and operating cost of vehicles to calculate total cost of ownership. It then compares that with the revenue generated by the vehicle over its lifetime, and helps fleet managers make informed decisions about their fleet.

With EV fleets, the whole process and its associated tools are going to be upended. Not only are acquisition and operating costs for EVs vastly different from ICE vehicles, fleet managers must take into consideration a variety of other factors into their decision-making. For instance, setting up charging infrastructure at your depots. You need to consider the cost of setting up the infrastructure, the constraints of your power connection and the time and cost of upgrading your grid connection, should that be required. 

And this is just the beginning. Where things get really exciting is on the revenue side. Unlike an ICE, an EV can generate value for your fleet even when it is not on the road, but plugged into a charger.

How, you ask? I invited Mike Kent from GridBeyond and Alex Iriondo from Monta to join me on the AI in Automotive Podcast, and share with us exactly how. GridBeyond is a smart energy company that offers AI-powered energy services, connecting and automating energy demand to balance the grid. Monta, on the other hand, develops and deploys software solutions for the EV charging industry. Together, GridBeyond and Monta are on a journey to help fleet owners and operators maximise the value they derive from their fleet assets, for instance, when they are hooked up to a charger.

Fleet electrification can appear intimidating, but after this chat with Mike and Alex, I couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities that electrified fleets hold. We are just scratching the surface at this point in time, using fleet assets to deliver flexibility and grid services. But as the ecosystem matures, the sky is the limit - fleet assets aggregated as a Virtual Power Plant, vehicle to grid and vehicle to building - all of this is coming in the near future, and promises to revolutionise how fleets are acquired, operated and managed. 

If you are a fleet owner or operator, or just curious about the opportunities that exist as fleets electrify, you want to spend 40 mins listening to this fantastic conversation with Mike and Alex. If you do enjoy it and know someone who works with fleets, go ahead and share this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast with them.