2023 has been a pivotal year for us at Synop. Our mission to accelerate the electrification of commercial fleets has never been more vibrant. Throughout the year, we’ve made remarkable strides in enhancing our solutions and streamlining the shift to commercial EVs for fleets of all sizes. It's an exciting time for us as we reflect on the progress made towards a cleaner, greener transport sector.
We want to take the opportunity to thank each and every one of you who worked alongside us, supported us, and shared our ultimate objective of decarbonizing global transport through electrification.
Here are some of the achievements that we’re most proud of this year.
We partnered with industry heavyweights to supercharge our EV transition goals
As we reflect on what we’ve achieved this year, one thing is clear: we couldn’t have done any of it alone. We’re thrilled to have had some of the biggest names in the automotive, mobility, and utility industries join us on our mission to expedite the electrification of commercial fleets.
In February, we started our new partnership with Geotab, the global leader in fleet tracking and management, serving over 50,000 customers in 160 countries. Over the year, we became the first EV charging management company to reach the Standard Partner Tier on the Geotab Marketplace. By trusting in us, Geotab has provided its customers with unparalleled data-driven insights addressing the biggest pain points in EV fleet management.
As more commercial fleets transition away from ICE vehicles, they face new hurdles that are unique to EV fleet management, such as electricity price fluctuations, multiple charging requirements, and prolonged charge cycles. Our solution, now integrated with Geotab’s telematics platform, overcomes these challenges by giving fleet operators full overview of fleet charge, expenses, energy efficiency, and more.
We opened a state-of-the-art innovation lab in New York
In October, we proudly unveiled The Synop Charge Lab, our interactive testing facility located in Brooklyn, New York. The Synop Charge Lab serves as an epicenter for R&D, providing a platform for interoperability testing spanning all chargers, telematics, and vehicles. Accessible to both Synop's team and collaborative partners, the lab offers an environment conducive to rapid product prototyping and live simulations of EV charging in authentic scenarios.
The location of the lab was strategically chosen due to the abundant talent in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and the opportunity to collaborate with local companies in the thriving regional ecosystem. The new space will also serve as a headquarters office for our operations in New York.
We ramped up V2G capabilities in EV fleets
The effects of climate change are now being felt more than ever before, with each year bringing record-breaking heatwaves and cold snaps. These extreme weather events cause spikes in energy demand which place enormous strain on the grid and increase the risk of power outages.
EVs — particularly heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses — are uniquely positioned to ease the strain on power systems by serving as back-up generators that deliver electricity back to the grid during peak demand periods through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.
This year, we’ve partnered with EnergyHub, the utility industry’s most experienced provider of distributed energy resource management systems (DERMS), and BorgWarner, America’s leading automotive and e-mobility provider, to enable V2G capabilities in commercial EV fleets.
Thanks to these partnerships, fleet operators using our platform can now generate additional revenue via V2G by selling electricity back to the grid when prices are higher. This also enables utilities to stabilize excess power flow to the grid and better prepare for severe weather events.
We tackled hardware-software compatibility issues
In the commercial EV space, fleet operators need to be able to mix and match their providers to best meet their various business needs. But so far, issues with hardware-software interoperability have been a massive pain point and has prevented operators from accessing vital data insights that allow them to reduce costs and maximize uptime.
In response to this, we launched Works with Synop™, a program paving the way towards seamless hardware-software compatibility, with initial partnerships including industry heavyweights BorgWarner, Thomas Built Buses, Power Electronics, and Zerova.
Works with Synop™ provides our customers with a curated list of hardware options that all work with Synop’s software platform to remove friction and frustration from the EV charger selection process. The program lets fleets have their pick of a variety of charging providers, rather than tying themselves to one brand because of compatibility concerns, with the assurance that Synop's software will seamlessly work with the hardware they select.
We facilitated the electrification of drayage routes
Under new regulations outlined by the Biden administration, a quarter of new heavy-duty trucks sold in the United States must be all-electric by 2032 (the figure currently stands at just 2%).
The transition to EV in the commercial sector will take time, sustained effort and coordination among multiple stakeholders, but introducing electrification via certain entry points can promote wider EV adoption in this carbon footprint heavy industry. Drayage is one such area that we’ve been focusing our attention on this year.
Since drayage routes are relatively short, they are an ideal testing ground for electrification because charging infrastructure can easily be located on-site at the home base. Transitioning to EV drayage fleets also improves air quality in disadvantaged communities, since drayage routes tend to run through highly populated and lower-income neighborhoods.
Our platform facilitates the electrification of drayage trucks by empowering fleet operators to optimize charging according to both their unique operational requirements and the demands of the grid, ultimately reducing costs.
We enhanced charging forecasting with AI
Our platform offers real-time insights to energy usage patterns of EV fleets. Over the past year, we’ve focused on enhancing our product’s forecasting capabilities by integrating AI technology. These tools provide utilities with accurate predictions of future energy demand, allowing them to optimize their resource planning and grid operations, and adjust energy distribution accordingly.
We were the talk of the town
We’re honored to share that some of our biggest achievements in 2023 were covered by top media publications. We were featured in the New York Times in an article covering our partnership with Highland Fleets to enable V2G capabilities in electric school buses.
School buses are ideal for V2G since they have large batteries, predictable schedules and spend much of the day idle. Our platform helps optimize the interaction between Highland Fleets’ electric school buses, chargers and the power grid, enabling fleet operators to sell back electricity to the grid during peak demand periods and thus earning additional revenue for school districts.
We were also covered in two of the commercial vehicle industry’s leading publications, FreightWaves and Fleet Owner. In the FreightWaves piece, our CEO Gagan Dhillon discussed why he sees drayage as a crucial gateway for wider EV adoption in the logistic space, and the work we’re doing to facilitate this shift. The Fleet Owner article covered our partnership with EV manufacturer Lion Electric.
To our entire community, thank you very much for being part of this exciting journey with us. We can’t wait to see what 2024 brings! We wish you a happy holiday season and new year, from all of us at Synop.
