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In Today's Email:

• 📞 Fleet Got Questions? Pritchard EV Got Answers

• ⚡ AirBnB...nCharge

• 🛸 UFODRIVE Secures the Bag From Hertz

• 🗒️ Three Nuggets

—Riz Nwosu

Fleet Got Questions? Pritchard EV Got Answers

The state of Iowa has a long history with the automobile. Did you know that William Morrison from Des Moines, Iowa, created the first successful electric vehicle in the US in 1889. Fast-forward 132 years and Iowa is again at it. This time it's a company called Pritchard EV that's doing the history-making.

To commemorate the Swedish marvel that is the Polestar 2, Pritchard EV decided to prove that they "understood the assignment", by solving the problems that need to be solved around commercial EV adoption.

To achieve this monumental undertaking, Pritchard EV knew it could not do this on its own. So they put out the Bat-signal for partners and stakeholders - Polestar, Winnabego, Chargepoint, Alliant Energy, the Clear Lake Iowa Chamber of Commerce, and Cake Bikes, and answered the call and stepped up to the plate, snow shoes and all.

Let's set the scene here. Imagine the coldest winter, too cold for even the White Walker, a frozen lake in the middle of Iowa, and 100+ brand spanking new Polestar 2's ready for battle. While on the other side stand all the challenges that commercial EV adoption faces. No need to imagine, I've got receipts:

Sorry wrong image 🤣 here you go:

Fun Fact: This is the largest number of Polestars ever assembled in one place in the US.

Now everyone knows it's rude to show up to the barbecue without a side dish and so all partners came prepared to lend their core competence to this demonstration and played an integral part in it's success as follows:

Polestar: Inventory

Just like in a barbecue, Polestar provided the main course - the "meat" of the operation. As an official Polestar dealer (and the #1 seller of Polestar's in North America), Pritchard EV was able to pull from its extensive fleet of Polestar 2 in order to stage this operation. At the same time, Pritchard EV proved that they can move EV units at a massive scale both literally and figuratively.

Winnabego:  Staging

Location, location, location. Everyone knows that the wrong location can absolutely kill the vibe and in this case, a location without charging will kill the batteries. So Pritchard EV reached out to their partners at Winnabego in order to make use of the Winnebago Industries’ Rally Grounds Activity Complex which has electrical hookups for over 1,300 RV’s space to accommodate several hundred more.

You can't maintain a fleet of EVs without access to charging at scale, and 1300 electrical hookups although not L2 charging, is adequate enough to provide the minimal state of charge that in needed in order to effectively dispatch EV's to customers at scale. 

Chargepoint: Charging

Keeping in line with the snow theme, Chargepoint provided Level 3 DCFC mobile charging stations on snow skids, allowing for mobile and immediate fleet charging infrastructure delivery, no matter the location or temperature. 

Alliant Energy: Utility

In order to stand-up and deliver enough voltage to power a Level 3 Fast Charger, you need to work with utility companies to provide transformer access and hookup to the power grid. Alliant Energy was an instrumental partner, providing support for utility and energy grid-related needs. Having a strong utility partner and getting them involved at the early stages of any commercial EV endeavor is absolutely critical.

Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce: Community

It's no secret that Iowa has a long history of prioritizing environmental initiatives and Clear Lake is no exception. Case in point, The Clear Lake Earth Day committee raises funds every year to support green initiatives like purchasing water-bottle filling stations and providing recycling containers for its city parks. So it was part of Clear Lake's DNA to lend a helping hand to such a project especially when it's in their backyard.

"Electrifying Clear Lake will build upon Clear Lake’s commitment to being a good steward of natural resources we’ve been blessed with in North Iowa."

It seems they provided more than just the frozen lake 🤣 

Cake Bikes: The Icing on the Cake

E-bikes are just cool. Adding them into the mix is always a good idea. Beyond the cool factor that they brought to the project, Cake Bikes are also another example of Swedish design and it's addition allowed Pritchard EV to demonstrate a multi-modal approach to electrification.

Let's face it, electric cars and vans are cannot be the only solution to all transportation needs. And as vehicle delivery times continue to get longer, consumers have begun looking to alternative and cheaper solutions for their transportation needs.

Fun Fact:  E-bikes are outselling electric cars in the US🤯

TLDR

This was a major flex by Pritchard EV. They took it upon themselves to identify all the issues surrounding commercial and fleet electrification, and set out to A. Create a blueprint, and B. Execute said blueprint by demonstrating their own solutions in 4K. In essence, what they are saying is that if we can do it in cold ass Iowa an extremely cold temperature region, we can do it anywhere.

So dealers and fleets, you no longer have an excuse. The climate needs you to take action and you can start by contacting Pritchard EV. I have a feeling we will be hearing more about Pritchard EV. So keep watching this space📺

AirBnB...nCharge

In what I consider to be the ultimate baller move for a hospitality business, Airbnb just dropped a press release stating that it now has hundreds of thousands of listings that have EV charging capability, 850,000 listings to be exact - no big deal.

As a Tesla owner, having onsite charging is a requirement for me when it comes to booking any a stay away from home that requires me driving and according to Airbnb, I'm not alone here. Airbnb's expanding number of chargers offered by listings is a direct reflection of the growing demand demonstrated by potential tenants.

Between June and December of last year, Airbnb recorded over 500,000 unique searches for EV chargers by the end of Q4 2021, half of which were from my wife🤣. This is also why we no longer use VRBO because it doesn't offer an EV charger search filter. Step your game up VRBO!

UFODRIVE Secures the Bag From Hertz

When I initially saw this, I thoughts Hertz (of all companies), has discovered a new type of propulsion system called UFODRIVE, or at the very least they thad begun renting our UFO's - either way I wan pumped.

So imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be just a new startup with an interesting name that Hertz has invested in. The company touts itself as the first completely digital, EV-only rental service that enables you to simply "arrive and drive" without having to deal with waiting lines and rental staff. Someone needs to tell them about Envoy!

Unless you were knee-deep in Crypto these past few months, you probably heard about Hertz backing up the Brinks truck to Tesla HQ and driving off with 100,000 Tesla Model 3s. So I guess Hertz is looking to use UFODRIVE's "proprietary" tech to further streamline its service and improve EV operations.

Show me someone who associates the rental car experience with a pleasant feeling, and I will show you a sadist someone who probably also loves going to the DMV😡. So I guess anything that Hertz can do to improve the car rental experience is a plus in my book. 

Fun Fact: Elon Musk said Hertz paid full price for the 100,000 Model 3s, making the deal worth over $4 billion.

3 Nuggets

• First-ever Gas vs. EV Heavy Duty Truck Drag Race: It Was OVER From The Beginning! - [Read more here]

• California Regains The EV Freedom Trump Refused To Give - [Read more here]

• Europe's New Emissions Standards Are Accelerating The EV Race - [Read more here]

And one more gif for good measure... in case you needed a reminder as to which type of vehicle is more superior in every way 💪:

Consider yourself 80% charged. Why 80%? Well, according to legend, charging your battery to 100% repeatedly will damage it faster than you can say...[Insert clever saying here]. See ya tomorrow!

What'd you think about today's email?

• ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Fully charged

• ⚡⚡ Meh - was ok

• ⚡ Not even close

Written by Riz Nwosu

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