Why 'charging-as-a-service' are more than buzzwords

EV charging is easier said than done, and it’s one of the biggest hurdles to successful full-scale EV adoption. Now, imagine you own a fleet of electrified vehicles. If you don’t have the right infrastructure in place, your what-seemed-to-be solid EV investment is now one built on sand.

On the surface, it can seem like that EV infrastructure rests solely on your shoulders – but it doesn’t have to.

“Charging-as-a-service” is more than just industry buzzwords. It offers the opportunity for businesses with fleets of EVs to stay focused on their core business instead of being a “charging manager.” Though, this opens a new challenge – there are a lot of new names in the charging-as-a-service space. Voltera is one of those new names, and there’s no better way to kick the tires on a new service than to have a conversation. That’s why we connected with Matt Horton of CEO, Voltera. Voltera sites, builds, owns, and operates strategically located, fit-for-purpose charging facilities to enable EV deployment and operation at scale. But how do they work with fleets to meet specific application needs, and what advice do they have in the Wild West that is charging infrastructure equipment?

This is an audio-only version of our episode with Matt Horton, CEO of Voltera. Go ahead, you’re already here – take a listen! But if you’re looking for moving pictures, click here.

Collisions happen, and even when no one is hurt, they're a pain. Working with insurance, getting your car worked on, potentially being without a car for a while... none of it is fun. With an EV, this entire process can be even more problematic.

"I think [drivers] need to know that if they're involved in an accident in their EV, they need to have a whole different set of expectations around what's going to go on as it relates to repairing that vehicle and bringing it back to pre-loss condition," says Ryan Mandell, the director of claims performance at Mitchell. "We say all the time that these vehicles are not simply just an electrified version of the internal combustion engine vehicle. These are really something that are wholly different because of the complete re-engineering of all the propulsion systems and the way that power is managed, and that very significantly changes the requirements for collision repair. And, we can't simply just use the same kind of labor calculations to determine the number of days it's going to take to repair."