Multi-year agreement in place with Southern Company to create comprehensive and efficient fleet electrification strategies
SAN FRANCISCO – Volta Inc., an industry-leading electric vehicle (“EV”) charging network powering vehicles and commerce, today announced the launch of PredictEV® Fleet, the second product within its suite of machine learning and artificial intelligence (“AI”) solutions for infrastructure planning, with a multi-year commitment from Southern Company (NYSE: SO), the second-largest utility company in the United States.
Volta’s PredictEV® product suite is utilized by multiple government agencies, utilities, retailers, real estate developers, municipalities, and more to inform intelligent EV infrastructure expansion and investment.
“Nearly one in every five vehicles in the U.S. is owned by a company, making fleet electrification an important business opportunity and a critical component to a carbon-free transportation future for all,” said Drew Bennett, Executive Vice President of Network Operations at Volta. “Our fleet product enables data-driven electrification planning for both fleet operators and the utilities that serve them to ensure strategies are future-proof and efficient.”
Using advanced AI and analytics, PredictEV Fleet analyzes data on existing vehicle fleets and premises and provides customers with critical insights to build fleet electrification plans, including:
- A range of recommended EVs to replace internal combustion engine vehicles with similar specifications;
- Optimal Volta-provided or other EV supply equipment (“EVSE”) to serve the fleet’s charging needs;
- Estimated costs and savings with a calculation of total cost of ownership;
- Integration of applicable rebates and incentives, such as federal, state, and utility programs offered by Georgia Power and other Southern Company-owned utilities;
- Carbon mitigation by shifting to EVs.
Additionally, the product establishes data-sharing relationships between fleets and utilities to inform the grid strategies required to support the increased demand for electricity.
In 2020, Southern Company announced an internal fleet electrification goal to convert 50 percent of its electric companies’ light-duty vehicles and equipment to electric by 2030. Southern Company is a founding partner of the venture capital firm Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and collaborates with EIP portfolio companies to bring technology and business model innovation, like PredictEV Fleet, to life for the benefit of our customers, communities, and family of businesses.
“We’re talking to customers everyday about future electric transportation needs and the ‘why’ is usually clear – customers see electric transportation as a way to lower costs and achieve their sustainability objectives. But there’s still some uncertainty around the ‘how, what, and when.’ We see PredictEV Fleet, and our partnership with Volta, as a tool for our customers to start answering those questions,” said Chris Cummiskey, Chief Commercial and Customer Solutions Officer at Southern Company. “This is one of several investments in innovation we are making to bring sustainability solutions to our customers – and to our own businesses.”
