Synop and OptiGrid's combined solution helps fleet operators deploy faster, cut energy costs and manage vehicles and charging infrastructure from a single platform.
KANSAS CITY, Kan., (April 30)-- OptiGrid, a provider of battery-integrated DC fast charging solutions, and Synop, an AI-powered energy and EV fleet charging management software company, today announced a strategic partnership for commercial fleet operators. The combined platform gives operators a faster path to DC fast charging, deployable in weeks, not months, along with AI-powered tools to manage energy costs, charge scheduling, and vehicle performance from a single dashboard.
Fleet electrification stalls for two reasons: infrastructure bottlenecks and operational complexity. OptiGrid eliminates the first by deploying battery-integrated DC fast chargers at sites with limited grid capacity, bypassing the costly and time-consuming utility upgrades that delay most charging projects. Synop eliminates the second, operational complexity, with anAI-powered platform that automates energy management, optimizes charge scheduling, and delivers real-time visibility into vehicles, chargers and energy costs across every depot.
Together, the two platforms give operators a turnkey path from site readiness to ongoing operational efficiency.
For fleet operators managing mixed fleets and complex energy needs across multiple sites, the combined solution delivers measurable impact, including:
The Synop integration is available by request for new and existing OptiGrid customers.
Synop & Weavegrid partnership lays the groundwork for more coordination between utilities and fleet operators and charging providers.
San Francisco, CA — March 24, 2026 — WeaveGrid, a leading provider of distribution-level grid orchestration software for distributed energy resources, and Synop, a leading commercial energy and EV charging management provider, today announced a new partnership to support a more resilient, reliable electric grid. The collaboration will connect Synop’s AI-enabled platform with WeaveGrid’s DISCO (Distribution-Integrated System Capacity Orchestration) software to provide utilities with greater visibility into commercial charging and new tools to enable flexible load control at the grid edge.
The partnership builds on WeaveGrid’s expansion of DISCO beyond residential EV charging to integrate commercial charging infrastructure and other distributed energy resources (DERs). By connecting directly with a leading EMS and CMS provider like Synop, WeaveGrid aims to help utilities better manage growing EV load while accelerating transportation electrification.
“As commercial fleets electrify and complex charging sites are developed, utilities need more granular visibility and control at the distribution level,” said John Taggart, President and Co-Founder of WeaveGrid. “Partnering with Synop allows us to extend DISCO’s capabilities to commercial charging environments while leveraging the expertise of CMS providers in meeting the specific and verified needs of fleets and charging site owners.”
For Synop, the collaboration builds on its expanding energy management and grid edge capabilities, including SynopLink™, a site-level controller that coordinates EV chargers alongside behind-the-meter battery energy storage systems (BESS), generators, and other distributed energy resources –- even in the absence of connectivity. SynopLink’s interoperability with diverse energy assets also provides precise, granular data from complex fleet deployments.
“Synop’s AI-enabled software helps fleet and charge point operators optimize their energy assets to reduce costs and avoid utility interconnection and infrastructure upgrade wait times,” said Synop CEO and Co-founder Gagan Dhillon. “Additionally, working with WeaveGrid helps our customers engage more directly with utility programs to unlock additional grid services revenue and ensure charging growth happens in alignment with grid needs.”
As commercial EV adoption accelerates across workplaces, depots, and fleet operations, utilities face increasing challenges forecasting load and managing localized grid constraints. Through this partnership, utilities will gain:
WeaveGrid’s DISCO platform specializes in distribution-level management, optimizing load for real feeders and transformers. Applied to commercial charging, DISCO can enable more efficient, reliable, and secure utilization of the grid. Synop’s EMS enables EV customers to participate in vehicle-to-grid opportunities and optimize charging around utility tariff programs such as time-of-use and demand response pricing, as well as capacity and grid services markets.
The partnership also strengthens engagement with local utilities while expanding pathways for monetizing flexibility. Together, WeaveGrid and Synop will:
Synop’s trusted relationships with fleet and site owners, combined with WeaveGrid’s utility integrations and grid expertise, will create a seamless interface between charging operators and utilities, generating value for both.
By combining utility-grade orchestration with commercial charging expertise, WeaveGrid and Synop are laying the groundwork for a more coordinated, flexible, and scalable approach to commercial EV charging.
About WeaveGrid
WeaveGrid is the grid orchestration software that enables utilities to serve growing load reliably and affordably by aligning electric demand with grid capacity from the bottom up. Through Distribution-Integrated System Capacity Orchestration (DISCO), WeaveGrid provides asset-level visibility and device-level control, optimizing EVs, batteries, and other flexible loads exactly where constraints hit, from transformers up to the bulk system. WeaveGrid operates VPPs with hundreds of megawatts of flexibility for dozens of utilities across the country.
About Synop
Synop is the leading enterprise software platform for commercial EV charging and energy management, with 800 depots and 10,000 assets under management. Synop’s AI-powered, hardware-agnostic platform manages EV and energy assets to keep fleets ready for duty while reducing energy costs. Active across North America and Europe, Synop supports fleets across light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicle classes. Synop meets customers where they are, whether that's exploring initial EV deployments or managing complex battery or microgrid deployments across multiple sites.
Shana Patadia recently joined Smart Grid Observer's Energy Insight podcast to talk about what it really takes to scale EV fleet charging — from why automation becomes essential as fleets grow to the infrastructure questions raised by the proliferation of autonomous vehicles.
Originally posted on SGO Insight.
In this episode of Energy Insight, Shana Patadia, head of business development at Synop, shares her thoughts on the role of interoperability, automation, and power management in scaling EV fleets. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.
SGO
For listeners who may not be familiar, could you briefly describe the work Synop does in this field?
Shana
Synop is a fleet charging management platform. What that means is that we are able to do energy management, charging management, and all of that for electric vehicle fleets. We really focus on interoperability because we know how important that is to fleets to have a single place to be able to look to as opposed to having to switch between things. And so we’re interoperable with all hardware. And we also try to be interoperable with as much software as is relevant, like telematics or other platforms that our customers may use. So it’s really all about helping a fleet’s operations be as smooth as possible, specifically from the charging perspective, but in as many ways as we can help.
SGO
You were recently involved in Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s autonomous shuttle program. What do you see as the future of autonomous fleets and their impact on the charging network?
Shana
Yeah, we’re really excited about autonomous fleets. As you look at the trends in the past year, the numbers have been small, but they have been trending upward very quickly, which is exciting. I think autonomy is going to bring some new opportunities and challenges to this space. If we just think in a very basic sense, if you look at where the autonomous vehicle pilots are right now, all of them are in city centers. They’re not starting out in some more rural area. They’re starting right in the middle of Vegas, right in the middle of San Francisco. And autonomy, because of all of these extra loads of cameras and lidar and all the other things on the vehicle, tends to be very, very inefficient from a vehicle/fuel usage or battery usage perspective. And so all of that adds up to meaning you need to charge these autonomous vehicles in the city center. You don’t want it driving way out and coming back in. And as folks may be aware, the power grid can be really constrained in city centers. That’s a really interesting thorny problem we’re going to have to face as we see more autonomous vehicles because they’re bringing this really exciting experience and opportunity for people. I think there are a lot of benefits, but I think there’s going to be an infrastructure challenge in how we meet their needs. And as a result, I think we’re increasingly going to see that there’s just not physical space and power for everybody to have their own dedicated depot. So we’re going to see increased sharing. And of course, all of these things require really thoughtful hardware and software planning to make them work.
SGO
With Synop increasingly integrating vehicle-level data and becoming more embedded across charging hardware and fleet software, how do you decide which, if any, charging decisions are safe to automate? Does that threshold change as fleets scale up?
Shana
First I want to make sure we frame the word “safe” properly. In the case of charging management software there’s really no true kind of safety issue as the word is typically used. The issue that may exist is more around readiness, ease and peace of mind. If we think about the life cycle of a fleet, it’s really interesting because when a fleet is small, they don’t seem to need a CMS. If you’ve got two vehicles or three vehicles, I could imagine you’re looking at your parking lot and saying, “I can see them from here. I know they’re plugged in. What’s the big deal?” And then as you start getting that fifth and sixth and tenth and fiftieth vehicle, all of a sudden it’s really not manageable anymore. It’s hard for you to know whether or not that vehicle got plugged in. Will it be ready on time? Was there a fault? Did it look like it got plugged in, but the plug didn’t actually click in? Are you going to spike energy and get a really high utility bill? All of these questions start to arise. Most fleets start with a pilot, they start with two or three and they start in this phase of saying, I don’t think I need this. And then very quickly they realize, wow, I really, really need it.
So I would say that as the fleets grow, automation becomes more important because there’s just too many things to monitor and deal with. Optimizing the charging management schedule can absolutely be automated, especially with the kind of approach that Synop takes, which is interoperability. When we have your telematics data, we have your charging data, we have the vehicle profile and information, with automation we can send the most optimal schedule to your vehicle, or to each vehicle in your fleet to make sure every single one is ready. Maybe you have one that’s just constantly running around the yard and you need that thing charged right away, but maybe you have a box truck that doesn’t need to be ready till the morning. The automation in the background can take all of those variables, take into account the site level peaks and then spit that all out.
So you might think that when you have two to three chargers, two to three vehicles, you don’t need CMS. But I would argue you do. And the reason that you do is that you need to be able to learn, test out the solution, and be prepared for when you scale up. You don’t want to wait until there’s an emergency and suddenly you need software and automation to get it. The best time to do it is when you’re piloting, even though it’s easy enough for you to manage so you can figure out what the right tools are for when you scale.
SGO
Interoperability is a core part of your service. But your messaging emphasizes that interoperability goes beyond just being able to plug a given vehicle into a charger. Can you elaborate on that?
Shana
In one sense, if everybody’s using OCPP, everything should just work. And I think that’s a very nice vision and a vision that would be lovely if it were completely true. The reality is that there are different kinds of implementations and uses of OCPP. Sometimes people are adhering really closely. sometimes not so much. And so one of the things we have held really fundamental is even just for OCPP, even just for charging basics, we make sure that when we say we’re interoperable with a charger, with an OEM, we have brought in a charger from them into our physical lab or had one in the field repointed to us and run through a battery of testing.
This testing is really a range of things. There are things that you may not think of as a fleet, but that are really important. For example, certain chargers, if you bring them down to one kilowatt, they’ll just end the charging session and then there’s no way to start it remotely. So we try to make sure we test for things like that. What is that low threshold, what are the ways that it ramps? What are some of the other quirks on how it responds to energy management? We work through those issues with the charger OEMs before our customers are deploying them so that when you deploy them, things just work really smoothly. We want that initial period to just work.
And I will say I got to experience that firsthand. I had a customer who requested that I go to their site for onboarding, which was an unusual request, given everything kind of happens on a computer. But I said, sure. And I showed up and it was an amazing experience; literally 10 minutes from start to finish, we repointed that charger and demonstrated a test session and energy management. So when the interoperability goes right, it just makes everybody’s life so easy and streamlined and it makes it feel very plug and play.
Interoperability is a lot broader than that though -- that’s just charging, and that may be the most obvious thing people talk about, but there’s telematics. We are integrated with several telematics players -- Samsara, Zonar, Geotab... And again, what that means is if you’re using any of those things or some of the other names I haven’t mentioned here, when you onboard with us, all that data can be ingested immediately and work seamlessly. We can show where those vehicles are. We don’t expect our fleet managers to think through all these details. That’s our job. But the benefits really come to those fleet managers.
As a simple example: if I’m a fleet manager, I just switched to EV and I’m kind of stressed about this. How is this going to work? Is everything going to run smoothly? I’m thinking as I lie in bed, did I plug that vehicle in? Is it going to be ready in the morning? That’s where the advantage of interoperability comes in. Because now if we have the charger information, because we’re OCPP compatible and interoperable with whatever charger you’ve got, and we have the telematics information, we know where your vehicle is its state of charge. We can send you an alert to let you know, hey, that vehicle was at your depot for an hour, but it didn’t get plugged in. So all of a sudden that stress is off of you and you have that peace of mind to just know things worked. That’s really what interoperability is about; making sure all of those pieces connect to give you this actionable information that you need and peace of mind.
SGO
What are Synop’s biggest strategic challenges in accelerating commercial fleet electrification? For example, utility relationships, regulatory environments, customer adoption?
Shana
I’m sure plenty of people are talking about the political environment and other things that impact the current moment, so I’ll set those aside. I’ve felt for years that the biggest challenge in this space is education. When we think about fleets, when they’re using a traditional fuel they put fuel in the vehicle, they park the vehicle, and they know the fuel’s in there because they put it in. Now we’re in this new paradigm where you plug in the vehicle, and unless there’s some way of monitoring or verifying the schedule, you don’t know. So it becomes really important to educate customers as to how EV is different, not worse, than traditional fuels. There are a lot of benefits to it, but it’s just different and you need to make sure you deal with it appropriately. I think educating them on that is really important. And educating them on the fact that making sure that you have software as another line item. You might think to yourself, why do I need to purchase one more thing? This whole EV program is already pretty expensive. Well, if you’re not purchasing that software, guess what, you might spike a utility bill that’s 10x what the cost of that software was. Customers have all these problems that they’ve never experienced before and we need to make sure that they understand them before they have to deal with them.
SGO
Do you have any final thoughts on what to expect in 2026 in this industry? What should we be looking out for?
Shana
Between autonomous, between other fleets, between the rise of data centers, I think we’re going to see a lot of power constraints and grid constraints. So I think there’s going to be a really big trend this year of battery energy storage systems, of microgrid solutions, just kind of creative solutions around sharing charging infrastructure and other things, just to make sure that programs that are already in motion or that are continuing to grow have a way to keep moving forward. And I think utilities are going to be even more central to this as we look to the future. Innovation from utilities, programs like Flex Connect are going to be really critical to taking a creative approach to getting that power to where it’s needed, when it’s needed. And there are really cool programs like EPRI’s GridFAST and other things like that that are going to help people navigate that utility interface and experience better. That’s what I think the year is going to be centered around, the power challenges and the ways that people are addressing them.
Our Synop-built OCPP gateway is a great example of the kind of behind-the-scenes work that directly improves customer experience without customers ever being aware it’s happening.
At Synop, we don’t usually talk about all the work happening behind the scenes. Most of the time, what matters is the outcome: fleets that are charged, managed, and ready to roll without anyone needing to babysit chargers, chase down logs, or worry about whether systems will hold up when things scale.
But there’s a core piece of our platform that’s worth highlighting because it’s one of those hidden but powerful engineering innovations that directly improves day-to-day fleet operations: our Synop-built OCPP gateway.
We’ve worked hard to continually make the platform stronger, easier to use, and faster to evolve. We’ve now transitioned all chargers on our platform to our own OCPP infrastructure that transforms how we scale, operate, and deliver capabilities to customers.
Below is a look at why having our own OCPP gateway is so powerful—and how it translates into a better charging experience.
OCPP is the communication layer between chargers and the software that manages them. When it’s working well, it’s invisible. When it isn’t, everything gets harder: charger commands fail, logs lag, and diagnosing issues becomes a time sink.
Our goal is simple: customers should have total confidence their fleets will be route-ready when needed. The OCPP gateway is one of the most important foundations for making that possible at scale, because it influences nearly everything that happens between “the charger’s installed” and “the vehicle is ready.”
Charging networks don’t stand still. Fleets and depots expand, demand grows, and what works for a small deployment can start to fracture under the realities of large, complex operations.
Our gateway is built on a modern foundation specifically designed to handle that growth without compromising performance or stability:
As customer networks grow, OCPP traffic grows with it: more chargers mean more sessions, more events, and more commands. Our architecture is built to support limitless fleet/depot scale and complexity, growing with real-world demand while maintaining consistent performance for mission-critical operations.
One of the hardest parts of operating critical infrastructure is deploying improvements quickly and without introducing instability.
The gateway supports continuous remote software updates to ensure we can smoothly cut over charger traffic and maintain predictability of system load. This helps reduce risk and avoids the “big switch” moments that can cause operational surprises.
A charging platform only works if chargers stay connected and responsive. The gateway is built with high availability as a core assumption, ensuring chargers remain online, connected, and operational.
This matters in the real world where connectivity can be imperfect (e.g., from cloud or grid interruptions) and where downtime isn’t just inconvenient but can affect routes and service commitments.
Imperfect connectivity is why Synop supports both cloud gateway deployments and on-premise SynopLink devices. Having a unified OCPP technology powering both means we can deliver improvements faster and more consistently in both cloud and on-site instances.
Instead of maintaining separate stacks and feature paths, we can make one improvement and bring it everywhere. That’s how you move faster without fragmenting the platform.
Scaling and resilience are important, but the gateway also enables features that make daily operations and maintenance smoother, especially when it comes to interoperability and diagnostics:
The gateway supports OCPP 2.0.1, keeping Synop aligned with the latest standard while maintaining interoperability with existing OCPP 1.6 chargers. For fleets operating mixed hardware environments, this matters: standards evolve, but real-world deployments rarely upgrade overnight.
In the real world, chargers can go offline for a variety of reasons. A common pain point across charging operations is what happens to commands during those offline moments. With our gateway, commands sent while a charger is offline are safely stored and automatically delivered once the charger reconnects.
That means fewer manual retries, fewer “did it go through?” moments, and fewer operational workflows built around connectivity blips.
Operations and maintenance can be painful in EV charging, especially when diagnosing intermittent issues. Logs are often delayed, hard to search, or incomplete. And when troubleshooting mission-critical deployments depends on finding the right needle in a haystack, every minute matters.
With our gateway, logs:
We also built our own log service to support deep analysis: it can retain logs indefinitely and handle messages of essentially unlimited length, which removes constraints that often limit visibility in other systems.
Our clean and accessible log stream is paired with an AI-driven log viewer/analyzer that makes it faster and easier to understand what happened, why, and what to do about it, providing quicker troubleshooting for customers.
All of these improvements support a few things customers care about every day:
We don’t always call attention to platform foundations. But the Synop-built OCPP gateway is a great example of the kind of behind-the-scenes work that directly improves customer experience without customers ever being aware it’s happening.
It strengthens the core of our platform, makes us scalable and reliable, and keeps our cloud and on-premise deployments aligned so we can continue supporting larger, more complex charging networks as the industry evolves.
And most importantly, it helps deliver what matters most to our customers: peace of mind that fleets will be ready when they’re needed.
Jacksonville, FL – November 12, 2025 — Synop, the energy and charge management platform for commercial electric and autonomous fleets, Urban SDK, a leader in smart city data platforms, and Miller Electric Company have collaborated to deploy and power the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s (JTA) state-of-the-art NAVI program. This deployment supports one of the first and largest public-sector autonomous shuttle projects in the United States, setting a national precedent for how electrified, autonomous transit systems can be intelligently orchestrated.
The successful launch of the U2C program this summer marked a major milestone, introducing autonomous shuttles into daily fare service across Jacksonville’s downtown corridor. Synop’s software helps JTA and its partners, including Miller Electric Company, manage multi-vendor charging while offering open data sharing and a hardware-agnostic platform for real-time decision-making.
Urban planners and mobility leaders increasingly seek to understand not only where electric and autonomous vehicles travel, but how they behave within energy systems. This first-of-its-kind integration combines transportation analytics from Urban SDK’s city-managed data lake with Synop’s real-time energy optimization. This type of integration can enable dynamic routing and charging schedules that minimize operating costs by charging when energy prices are lowest and ensure shuttle readiness across the network.
“As the city’s central data hub, Urban SDK integrates connected vehicle, traffic, and infrastructure datasets to inform real-time decisions,” said Justin Dennis, COO of Urban SDK. “By integrating with Synop, we enable local governments and transit agencies to see how electrified, autonomous fleets interact with both roads and the electric grid. This collaboration sets a new benchmark for how cities can manage mobility, sustainability, and infrastructure investments using shared, actionable data.”
"Synop has been a great partner and supported us throughout the design process. By mocking up the JTA environment using our employee chargers here at Miller Electric Company, we were able to prove the entire charging workflow and test the API integration with the Urban SDK data lake well before the completion of project construction,” said Craig Bowman, Director of Technology at Miller Electric Company, an implementation partner for the project. “They've been great to work with and we look forward to continued expansion of the system."
“Synop is proud to support JTA’s bold vision for an autonomous and electrified transit future,” said Gagan Dhillon, CEO at Synop. “We’re bridging a critical gap between transportation and grid operations. By connecting structured charging data with a centralized city data platform, Synop enables municipalities to align mobility services with grid readiness, curbside planning, and predictive maintenance, which minimizes costs and makes both transportation and energy systems more resilient.”
The JTA project represents a growing movement among cities to unify vehicle, energy, and infrastructure data into one operational framework. By leveraging predictive analytics and energy optimization, Jacksonville’s project will serve as a replicable model for other municipalities exploring electric, autonomous mobility.
**************
Phase I of the U2C project is anticipated to be the largest public-sector autonomous shuttle deployment in the United States.
According to a recent report from the US Energy Information Administration, though 2024 saw record-setting levels of energy consumption, demand isn’t slowing down anytime soon. This comes less than six months after a separate reportestimated the US grid would need to increase its capacity to generate and deliver electricity by 16 percent in the next four years to keep pace with growing energy needs.
Simply put, the country is currently writing energy checks that the grid can’t comfortably cash.
It should come as no surprise, then, that in states seeing high concentrations of data centers like Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee, utilities are coping by keeping coal plants open past original closure dates and making plans to build more natural gas plants. But these non-renewable energy sources also come with higher health and environmental risks.
Of course, renewable energy sources and battery storage solutions are also helping strengthen the grid. But considering the grid interconnectivity queue has become a major bottleneck to bringing these resources online, faster, more flexible options are needed.
.jpeg)
Electric School Buses (ESBs) are stepping up to the challenge. Thanks to Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology, where energy is pulled from the batteries of plugged-in EVs and brought back to the grid, ESBs are stabilizing the grid and helping create a stronger energy ecosystem.
Why Electric School Buses are ideal V2G candidates
Though an increasing number of EVs ranging from passenger to larger commercial vehicles are boasting bi-directional charging capabilities, the use cases for smaller batteries and/or less-predictable charging schedules are currently limited.
This is largely because utilities need just as much transparency into when the grid would hypothetically be receivingenergy, as they do when they know energy demands will be high (for example, during a summer heatwave). Unforeseen surges in energy in either direction — whether away from or toward the grid — can lead to brown- or blackouts.
Electric school buses, therefore, make excellent candidates for V2G programs as they have large battery capacity and predictable route schedules. More importantly, much of their downtime happens to coincide with peak demand hours, especially in hot summer months. In a V2G program in Vermont, for example, when power was being pulled from four ESBs, it saved the equivalent of taking 80 homes off the grid.
Conducting V2G orchestration in ESBs
Though the theory behind V2G technology sounds simple, the reality is much more complex. One of the greatest obstacles has been the ability of a utility to “see” what potential energy sources are connected to the grid at any given time and how much energy is available to be pulled from those sources.
Then there is the issue of communication and asking if that energy is up for sale. Though large commercial EVs have significantly sized batteries, they also depend on those batteries to complete their routes. No fleet operator is going to okay the use of their battery power if it comes at the expense of business running smoothly — especially if that business is ensuring children get home from school safely.
Luckily, software makes it possible to bring all these disparate data sources together, i.e., the power needs of the grid, the bi-directional chargers connected to vehicle batteries, and the future energy needs of those vehicles regarding their scheduled routes. Adaptive algorithms can then do the work of receiving an energy request for the utility, determining how much of that energy can be safely pulled from connected vehicles, and signaling chargers to execute on transferring that energy back to the grid.
Benefits of V2G for communities and schools
In addition to helping support the grid in times of strain, these kinds of V2G transactions hold immense potential to benefit schools and communities. To begin with, after switching from diesel-fueled buses to electric, both student health and attendance rates improve, not to mention lowering local CO2 emissions and improving air quality.
Moreover, the energy that is pulled from batteries back to the grid can generate revenue.
This is possible because of utility rates that align incentives with reducing peak demand through programs like demand response or through the wholesale market. When utilities buy energy back, fleet operators can make a profit because school buses are charged overnight when prices are at their lowest. In fact, a V2G project in Vermont that included four electric school buses generated over $16,600 in just two years.
Though the grid may be facing growing pains due to evolving electricity demands and the “new normal” of extreme weather events, V2G technology is not only serving as a critical stopgap, but also opening doors to further innovations within the energy ecosystem. V2G is creative problem-solving at its best — turning everyday school buses into energy heroes and bringing Ms. Frizzle’s Magic School Bus to life, right in your neighborhood.
Originally published on North American Clean Energy.
While some fleets operate with uniform models of electric vehicles and charging assets, it’s far more common - and even strategic - for fleet operators to be working with a variety of OEMs.
This kind of flexibility allows operators to choose the assets that best suit their day-to-day needs and real world use cases. It can also serve as a safeguard if a provider unexpectedly leaves the market.
One potential obstacle that may arise in this scenario, however, is a lack of interoperability between hardware and software. Synop is built to overcome this challenge by ensuring seamless compatibility across diverse charging hardware and telematics systems while actively collaborating with EVSE manufacturers and telematics providers to build robust, reliable connections.
This is, in part, why SparkCharge elected to work with Synop - to help deliver the type of cohesive performance expected from a vertically integrated system while preserving the operational freedom of choosing best-in-class vendors across the ecosystem. Synop and SparkCharge have quickly onboarded a diverse range of hardware providers while achieving this goal and wanted to share our experiences.
A single software solution for a variety of hardware providers
SparkCharge has been offering innovative charging solutions since 2017, most notably pioneering turnkey off-grid Charging-as-a-Service (CaaS) – ensuring EV fleets could be powered whenever and wherever needed. Today, SparkCharge is the world’s largest off-grid EV charging network. These mobile charging capabilities were recently showcased at the 2025 Masters Tournament, where over 300 mobile fast-charging sessions were completed.
With other service offerings including Mobile Battery Chargers, Off-Grid Power Hubs, and Permanent Infrastructure, the company’s vision is “a world where electric vehicle charging is seamless and effortlessly accessible.”
To support them on their path to making that vision a reality, Synop recently onboarded 50 mobile charging ports from varying manufacturers, including brands such as Wallbox and ABB. The integration work was completed quickly and while providing enhanced controls including:
“At SparkCharge, our mission has always been to make EV charging as accessible and seamless as possible—no matter where the vehicle is or what solution is being used," said SparkCharge Founder and CEO Joshua Aviv.
“Partnering with Synop has allowed us to scale faster, streamline operations, and maintain the flexibility our customers rely on. Their platform delivers the interoperability and insights we need to keep leading the mobile charging space.”
Gagan Dhillon, CEO of Synop shared, “SparkCharge has been an incredible partner to work with. Their team is forward-thinking, collaborative, and always ready to experiment with new ways to optimize their operations. It’s been exciting to support their growth and see them take full advantage of what the Synop platform can offer.”
Despite working with a variety of hardware providers, SparkCharge is able to access and manage all onboarded mobile charging units through Synop. Behind the scenes, this requires deep integration with OCPP protocols and precise firmware controls. SparkCharge is also leveraging Synop’s built-in reporting and payment tools to streamline energy management and billing.
SparkCharge is especially excited about Synop’s Nodes feature, which enables them to manage subgroups of chargers within a site. Synop and SparkCharge are collaboratively working to define new functionality which supports this unique use case of mobile units, a variety of hardware types, as well as complex reporting and management structures. Synop’s added layer of control will allow for smarter energy distribution and more efficient deployment of mobile chargers.
We look forward to innovating with partners like SparkCharge around commercial electrification and mobile charging!
About SparkCharge
SparkCharge is the leader in the EV charging industry, operating the world’s largest EV charging network. Through innovative Charging-as-a-Service (CaaS) platforms, SparkCharge delivers fast, flexible, and convenient EV charging built specifically for fleets. With zero setup costs, guaranteed uptime, and multiple solutions—including a Mobile Battery Charger, Off-Grid Power Hub, and Permanent Infrastructure—you get the freedom to choose a solution that fits your operations. Whether you prefer white-glove service, a self-managed or hybrid approach, SparkCharge handles the charging so you can focus on running your business. Powered by mobile solutions, intelligent software, and unmatched customer support, SparkCharge is accelerating EV adoption by making charging effortless, scalable, and ready when you are.
About Synop
Synop provides a comprehensive EV software platform meticulously designed to expedite EV adoption by seamlessly managing charging operations for commercial EV fleets. Synop’s suite includes vehicle management, charging management, V2G energy management, and payment management. By integrating vehicle telematics and EV charging station solutions from various vendors, Synop employs AI-driven forecasting tools to optimize charging schedules, ensuring commercial EV fleets maximize uptime and minimize costs. For further information, please visit https://synop.ai.
Summary:
Prem Patel hosted Vartan Badalian, Director of U.S. Transportation Programs at the Center for Sustainable Energy, to discuss EV market trends and challenges. They highlighted the importance of dealer education through programs like Electrify IQ to boost EV sales, addressed price volatility and the rise of EV leases, and explored barriers to medium and heavy-duty fleet electrification in the Northeast. Innovations like electrified trailers and the high uptime of commercial depots were noted as solutions, while misconceptions about EVs, such as their suitability for long-distance travel, were dispelled. The conversation reflected optimism about increasing EV adoption and market growth.
Transcript:
0:10–
Prem: Hey everyone, and welcome to Episode 5 of Charging into the Future with Synop. I'm your host Prem Patel, and today we're thrilled to have Vartan Badalian as our guest. Vartan is the Director of U.S. Transportation Programs at the Center for Sustainable Energy, and previously he held a key role at the Trellis Group. We're super excited to have him today. Let's get plugged in.
Prem: Vartan, thanks for joining us today, man. How are you doing?
Vartan: Doing great. Thanks for having me, Prem.
Prem: Of course. And so I'd love to get an idea of your background for the audience. How did you find yourself in this kind of EV and transportation industry?
0:44–
Vartan: Yeah, of course. I started out always knowing I wanted to be in sustainability in some form or another. So I went to undergrad focused on sustainable energy. At that time, renewable energy was kind of becoming what the EV industry is right now. They're looking around 2013, 2015. When I graduated or upon graduation, I kind of knew I wanted to get a more advanced degree, just didn't know what. So I chose to go to law school, chose to become an attorney. For reasons I didn't understand then, but I kind of know now what led me down that path. And it was during law school that I saw what was happening in transportation happened in renewables when I was an undergrad. So transportation was just becoming something to talk about for emission reduction. Tesla had just launched a Model S after the roadster, and it was really starting to grow. And I saw the road ahead. And after that moment, I fully committed myself to transportation decarbonization. And really upon graduating law school, having some very clerkships and opportunities and just working in the space, I kind of wove through really exciting positions, really brought in my opportunities beyond transportation or beyond electrification and transportation in some form for some roles with all the industry. But now I find myself back in electrification in my current role.
1:54–
Prem: Awesome. What is your current role?
1:56–
Vartan: I'm at the Center for Sustainable Energy as a Director of U.S. Transportation Programs on the East Coast, where I lead all the state-based programs And for those who don't know CSC, it is a nonprofit that really drives the mission of decarbonization at its core. It really works with states to help administer, set up, administer, and roll out EV incentive programs and solar programs. I focus on the transportation industry on the East Coast, as I said. But we also have various other mechanisms and tools as well. Like I run, for example, a dealership certification program called Electrify IQ, which is super key. A dive into that more because dealerships as we know in this industry can be a potential unlocker of EV sales, but also can be a hurdle or a blocker of EV sales. So really find myself enjoying that work.
2:45–
Prem: Let's dig into the dealership section because I've seen a lot of dealers and hearing a lot of dealers going through this electrification process and there's some mystery around it as well. So maybe can you break down what are you seeing in the dealership area right now in terms of electrification?
3:01–
Vartan: Yeah. Happening, especially now, I think more so than years before. Obviously there are some pockets of the U.S. That are more advanced than others, and that equates to dealerships being more advanced in their knowledge and education about EVs. Various OEMs are more advanced than others, which incentivizes their dealers to become more educated. But generally speaking, there's still opportunity for dealers to get more educated and feel more comfortable about talking about EVs, because historically, as we're seeing until this day, I think we still see certain dealerships incentivize buys or push what they've always sold, which is internal combustion engine vehicles, easier to sell that. Even though electric vehicles now are comparable with gas vehicles and there are good opportunities to sell, to sell vehicles, the right range is there, and the right charging infrastructure is around at this point already. So the opportunity is there for dealers to sell. I think they're not comfortable enough, which is what we decided to do. So we partnered with NADA, the National Dealers Association, and we kind of built this software tool from the ground up called Electric By IQ, which is designed 90 minutes entirely online, super quick and easy to really educate dealers. I actually took it myself to see what it's all about. And I learned a few things given being in the industry this long. So it's definitely useful. And we're seeing as dealerships roll through that certification and get certified, we're seeing testimonials come back that it's helped them sell EVs faster, giving them just overall confidence to sell, which I think is the key here. If you don't feel confident talking about something, you're not going to... The person receiving that information is not going to be confident in the product itself. So it's definitely been a change-maker, but there's more room to be done even in Electrify IQ. So we have a ways to go until we educate dealerships. Yeah.
4:36–
Vartan: And education is one piece, you know, in the news in the past six, eight months, there have been talks about just volatility in prices of electric vehicles, you know, seeing what happened with Tesla. Is that a fear for dealerships as well, that they're going to get vehicles on their lot and next thing you know, the price you're going to drop and they're now stuck in a financial situation that doesn't make sense for them? I certainly think that's probably a thought on their perspectives. But at the end of the day, also, if they're getting the vehicles from their OEMs to their lots, then that's a secondary thought, right? Because the vehicles are coming, and they can sell them. If you hold onto them for too long, then that becomes a problem. Better interest to sell them quickly and get them off the lots so people can have them in their hands. The secondary used vehicle market is a whole different conversation for EVs. And we've seen volatility there. The price dropped, as you just mentioned. Bringing down the used vehicle market. But I think then we're seeing data around how leases, EV leases are up significantly to that exact point as well. So dealerships should incentivize and work on EV leases then because we've seen a huge skyrocket there. And also leases still can take advantage of the EV tax credits that exist at the federal level and some state levels. So it's a win-win-win for the consumer. It's a win for the dealership and a win for the OEM just to get vehicles The used vehicle market can take care of the rest for itself like that.
5:51–
Prem: So you cover the Northeast transportation sector. What are you seeing in some trends right now, specifically with commercial transportation in the Northeast and maybe overall across the country in commercial transportation right now?
6:02 —
Vartan: Generally speaking, I think we're seeing that the fleet space is both slowing down from the EV adoption, and becoming more cautious. But I think it's a stronger value proposition than for the individual consumer because you depot charging infrastructure, if you're talking about medium and heavy-duty, more reliable charging infrastructure experiences, you can control the entire ownership experience for the vehicle. And as we're seeing now, more options are coming up for medium and heavy-duty fleets. Light duty has always been great for some time now, the adoption, sales vehicles, pharmaceutical vehicles, those are all light duty sedans and trucks and those have never been better before than right now. So we're seeing a lot of adoption there, I think, but the medium and heavy duty has been slower, but we're picking up because of what I just said. It's just making sense. Now just the financials have to square out, meaning the ownership experience has to just be right. And sometimes with the vehicle's range that currently exists for some trucks being 250 or 300 miles, you really can't have just a vehicle that does just one battery route because it's not practical from an economics perspective. So, and then charging. I've spoken to a lot of fleets generally in my career who have said, that while the vehicle technology is right, we actually cannot justify incorporating charging dwell times into the business model because that is just too much of an economic hit. Even if we bake into drivers taking their rest and so forth, it's just not a financial move right now that they can adopt. So I think we're seeing a lot of kind of interest is there to decarbonize fleets, but the financials have to align, which I think is one thing I want to kind of bring up, which came to my mind I think that is where we're entering into the space for fleet adoption and electrification, is that financials become the first conversation point and sustainability is a secondary effect of it. And one example of that is range energy. I think they've popped up in a lot of people's focus. They are basically electrifying trailers for trucks in a very intelligent way. Their CEO and founder is a former Tesla employee who launched the Model 3, so he's very much engineering electrification focus. And that business model, I think speaks to what the industry needs to have more of, which is the financials of electrifying the trailer reduces the drag weight of the trailer, which reduces the fuel costs and the fuel needs, which in turn is better for sustainability as well. But the financial mechanism is the primary reason why someone would adopt an electrified trailer, but it has a benefit to the environment. So I think that's where we're heading as we kind of wait for medium heavy-duty trucks to really pick up traction.
8:33–
Prem: Yep. Dollars and cents and the overall total cost of ownership for these vehicles. Outside of upfitting trailers, do you think we're going to get to a point where prices of vehicles are going to come down, prices of chargers are going to get down, and you're going to see a faster TCO reduction compared to the internal combustion and diesel counterparts in the space today? I think we have to.
8:54–
Vartan: It's inevitable for technology adoption to bring down those costs. It's just a matter of when it's going to happen. But if it happens, as for sure, in my perspective, I think everyone. We're seeing it on light duty. I think we're inching closer and closer to, I believe it was 100-kilowatt battery capacity. That was like the comparison between ICE vehicles and electric vehicles for sedans and trucks. That same evolution will come to the medium and heavy-duty space. It'll just take a little bit longer because we started out a little bit later for trucks, but it's going to happen. And once the vehicle's price is as comparable to a diesel or gasoline vehicle, sticker on paper from the beginning, then the TCOs are even far greater in the ownership experience because then you have significantly fewer maintenance costs, less fuel costs, so it just becomes way more practical of a solution and option to have, which is around now driving down the cost as much as we can. And I think a lot of the incentives will help in that space. We're seeing a lot of government announcements come out to help support electrification. The one problem I have right now is that I think everyone focusing on California and fewer investments happening in other parts of the US to decarbonize trucks. But even there, I think we're now seeing some people kind of speaking about, well, what about everywhere else besides California and to incentivize EV truck adoption there. So it's just a matter of the journey ahead. We're losing time from a client perspective, but we're making progress. If I look back half a year or two a year ago, we're definitely further ahead now than we ever were.
10:24–
Prem: Yeah. We're seeing LCFS programs that are really well known in California and the West Coast start making their way to the Northeast over time. And then you layer on certain things like smart charging, of course, carbon credits, of course, incentives like the IRA and policy to really start lowering the TCO. I think we're heading in the right direction. Fleets are starting to recognize that. Let's take also your background and just see what's happening on the residential public side and see what's happening on the commercial side. I want to talk about charging. And there's a Bloomberg article that came out two months ago that One in five public chargers are usually down. And that's not a good sign for this industry, especially when you look at uptime and this idea of uptime. I know there are many definitions of uptime. And now let's take a look at a commercial depot. A commercial depot is usually around 98% uptime. And so there's a stark difference between the public charging infrastructure uptime and the commercial depot uptime. What's your take on what's happening in the public sector right now when it comes to charging and making sure that a consumer can go to a charger and it's ready and available and ready to charge your vehicle successfully?
11:28–
Vartan: Yeah, that stark difference I think points to one obvious point, which is that the fleets have a financial interest to keep the chargers up and running constantly, which is why it's driving that huge success rate. The same needs to equate to the public infrastructure side where historically maybe there's been less investment in maintenance and ensuring stations are kind of operational through and through with high uptime and more interest in just the deploying and getting dots on a map to show growth of the industry. I think that same kind of fleet approach that we just said is what maybe Tesla has done for his entire lifetime with supercharger deployment, which historically has been very high on uptime and reliability and is known for that. I think they've dedicated financial dollars to ensure that stations are operational and running on a per site basis, because there's a financial interest, because they were locked for their just vehicles. So they had to have these stations for their vehicles to charge and a proprietary technology. Actually, I mean, this is a very, very personal point to me because I've dedicated a lot of my career to this because I think without adequate, reliable, e-fuel charging in a public setting, we won't actually see the adoption S-curve that we actually want in the timeline that we want it to. We're definitely seeing a lot of improvement. I actually just came back from BIRSCH24, the climate tech conference where ICF Climate Center and Center for Sustainable Energy and myself and Stacey Noble, co-hosted a charging workshop on improving uptime and reliability for the public network. We actually held the same workshop two years ago at Verge, and we did it again with the right folks, Tesla, the joint office of Android Interpretation, Electrify America was there, BMW, and so forth and so forth, to really talk about this issue and see what we've done. And a lot of it just comes down to, I mean, it's a whole host of things. I can't probably talk about it right now in one answer, so we can dive into it further, but it is really about ensuring redundancy, enough stations at a location to sure if one goes down, people could still charge. It's around just being thoughtful about putting dollars to maintenance as opposed to putting dollars to deployment of new stations. So all those things, but without adequately having stations up and running always, we won't see the S curve on adoption.
13:30–
Prem: You could have a whole episode speaking of uptime, even the definition of uptime and how people will define it. And how do you define uptime?
13:38–
Vartan: I mean, there's a whole host of ways to define it, right? I think depends on, I don't want to say what I believe is firmly right, but I think if you look at the entire site, personally, I think we need to have eight to 16 chargers per site for DC fast charging. You look at the whole site and then there should be an uptime measurement based off the entire location. So if you look at 97% is what you want to go for, then there should only be 3% on a per site basis that are down at any given point in time because that redundancy will protect it. Now that's a evolutionary point because I don't think we should be striving for on a per location basis to have certain charges is always broken. We should strive to have charges constantly up and running and we should be achieving 98%, 99%, even a hundred. But this is the real world and this is hardware that has to communicate with the vehicle. And there's obviously interplays here that are complex. So I think on a per site basis is probably smart for right now, but I know this, that varies from charging company to charging company, from standard to standard and from the joint office to others. So it is a rather complex problem. To address, but I think we have examples of successes that have been working for some time now. And I constantly point to initially Tesla and now Rivian, both have really strong uptime on their networks. Rivian is a much smaller network, but did it because Tesla did it and it worked well for them and they couldn't rely on the public network. There's a financial interest to keep these stations running, which historically has not been the case because charging companies have been given tax dollars and just general funding to deploy less interest on keeping decisions running. But I think we're seeing that change now happen. Nevi is a good solution there, driving that conversation forward, collecting data. Hopefully that data gets actually analyzed and reported out. And then companies that have not met the standard do not continue to receive funding. That is my hope that happens. But it is a complex one. Actually, one point that came to my mind just even at Birch that came up in conversation is that now that we're seeing such more adoption in EVs and more vehicles on the road, the financials actually penciling out for people of our companies, charging companies, to really ensuring maintenance of these stations, because now there's a financial interest to keep them going, which I think maybe two, three, four years ago wasn't the case because there were less EVs on the road. My personal opinion, charging companies should have maintained the stations as if they were vehicles on the road two, three, four years ago, because now we have a bad taste in our mouth, and to really curb that bad taste is going to take some time.
15:59–
Prem: There are a lot of “bad” tastes in people's mouths sometimes around EVs. That you see in the news, especially sometimes in the cold weather that, you know, I can't drive my EV in the cold weather. And you know, there are a lot of that's untrue as well. What are some common misconceptions? Maybe bring up one common misconception about the EV industry that you'd like to clear up here.
16:18–
Vartan: I think the biggest one is that people think they can't drive a vehicle long distance, or they think they can't go on a road trip with the vehicle. They really don't conceptualize, from the conversations that I have with individuals, that a vehicle right now today that you purchase, which has 250 to do 300 miles minimum is actually adequate enough for your daily commute and your potential road trip commute. That is actually not the case. Now it's a different experience depending on which vehicle you pick, where you charge, with which provider you charge, which is a little bit of a learning curve that people need to accept and learn if they want to. But the notion that the vehicle and the industry and the charging infrastructure is not built out enough right now for me to have my life is just not true anymore. For example, I mean, this constant gets mentioned, which is unfortunate, but the Tesla is the primary example people kind of leverage. But if you go down the Tesla route, it really is a far better driving experience than a internal combustion engine vehicle. It is actually mentally, in quote unquote, like brainless. It is really efficiently designed for you to just drive and get to where you need to go, plug it in charge. The same is being built out for a non Tesla vehicle in terms of route optimization and route navigation with charging spots in the route. So it really is actually a pretty simple and far better user experience than going to a gas station where historically you do not want to be at. In my prior role, this made me think about, I was actually writing at Greenbrace, which is now called Trellis Group. And one of the articles I wrote about, which is why are we holding on to the gas station experience? Why is that such a fond memory for Americans? Because historically, or even if you just look at the gas station experience, it is not a pleasant one.
17:56–
Vartan: You do not want to stay there more than four or five minutes because of the fumes. Just the ambiance is not great. It is not a pleasant experience to have. Whereas if you turn now to the charging experience, while the wait time is potentially 15 to 20 minutes, the experience is far greater. There is no fumes. The overall atmosphere of the space, while maybe sometimes simpler than a gas station, usually does have convenience stores, clean bathrooms and whatnot. And you do naturally just want to take time to rest. And it is just a far better resting experience. So I think this mentality people need to kind of get over, but they will not get over it unless they experience it for themselves. Word of mouth only can go so far. They need to actually be in an EV, take that trip, drive it, and see what it's really like, Completely agree. Really, really agree on that point. What do you think is the most exciting success story in EVs over the past two years? I think the fact that we have so many vehicle options now that are above 300 miles. I would say successes on the charging infrastructure side is great. I'm going to say two, charging and on the vehicle side. The vehicle side, we have a whole bunch of EVs now that exist that are in the 30 to $40,000 range. Pre incentives, post incentives, you're even pushing that further down that are just great for all types of consumers. And we have not had that. I remember when I first started my career, we were at 1% EV adoption or less than 1%. And now we're pushing 10, little bit past that potentially at this point. So the market is definitely growing and this notion that it's stalling or consumer sales are stalling is not true and there's data around that that can be seen. So adoption because the vehicles are there is great. On the charging side, I think having Tesla's charging standard open up to all of their OEMs and all of their vehicles is a tremendous opportunity now that we're going to see first with these adapters. If those of you who don't know, Tesla has rolled out their charging standard to other this year into next, it's really more about adapters and then come integration of the charging standard built into the vehicle. So no adapter, you just go to a supercharger, you plug in like any car, like any Tesla vehicle, and you start charging seamlessly. I think that's going to be huge. Now there's things that need to be squared away with like all vehicles having the port on the right side, the cables reaching, cars not taking up more than one spot, which right now is kind of happening for like Ford F-150s have to take up two spots, for example, and so for it. Once that all gets squared away, I think we're going to see a massive spike. Consumers will start realizing that they're getting access to this incredible charging network that has historically been incredible. And I think Tesla will continue to keep it the way that it has been. I think adoption is going to rise. I think that is a massive success story, which as we start seeing it kind of roll out, it's going to increase adoption.
Prem: Amazing. Vartan, if someone wants to speak with you about the Center for Sustainable Energy, how can they reach and what's the best way to do so?
Vartan: Find me on LinkedIn. I'm there. Type my name, shoot me a message, and we can chat.
At Synop we’re already looking forward to the big plans we have in store for 2025, but those wouldn’t be possible without all the incredible achievements we’ve seen in 2024. Before diving into year-end festivities, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all we’ve been able to achieve thanks to the hard work of our team, our partners, and our clients.
The year was chockfull of exciting announcements, each one a testament to how the Synop team is always looking for opportunities to innovate and meet the needs and challenges of our clients.
Just a few weeks into the year, we launched our EV Fleet Home Charging Reimbursement tool, which automates and simplifies EV charging reimbursements using data-agnostic tracking, making fleet management efficient and hassle-free, especially for those mixed-fuel fleets who are also managing fuel cards.
Shortly after, we announced SynopLink, making it possible to integrate onsite DERs with cloud-based technology for real-time management. With SynopLink, fleets can ensure continuous operation of commercial EV charging microgrids by preventing system overloads, automating fault recovery, and enabling sustainable energy use
Spring brought the debut of our Fleet Driver Mobile App and Managed Access Charging capabilities. With it, operators can equip their drivers with in-app RFID cards, making authorization and instant payments even easier. Additionally, drivers can use the app to discover chargers across their network, match available chargers based on needs, manage charging from the app, and save payment information. What’s even more exciting is that the app allows fleets to extend private charging depot access to commercial partners, setting their own energy prices and adding revenue through charger monetization.
This summer, we were proud to receive our SOC 2 Type 2 Certification, proving our ability to implement and maintain robust security measures continuously, and underscoring our dedication to safeguarding customer information and maintaining the integrity of our services.
We were also excited to share our V2G Summer Series, where we were able to bring our community regular updates on all the energy we were helping to bring back to the grid on the hot summer days. By the end of summer, we transacted 26 MWh back to the grid, or about enough to power over 21,000 homes for an hour. Though we’re expecting to see our final-year V2G numbers stay consistent with what we saw in 2023, we’re excited to share that in 2024 we added 5 more states, tested on 2 more EVSEs, and added 1 more vehicle OEM, so we are seeing this solution scale and anticipate much larger numbers in 2025 (stay tuned for more V2G updates from us in Q1!).
And finally, we ended the year on a high note, recently announcing our partnership with Bus2Grid. Together, we will be equipping 14 school districts across Illinois with electric buses and intelligent charging infrastructure that include onsite solar and battery storage integrations. Funding for this project has been made possible by a $15 million Renew America’s Schools Grant through the Department of Energy.
Industry events offer such important opportunities to learn, share, and network with the best in the business, and this year was no exception.
The spring brought the EV Charging Summit & Expo in Las Vegas, where our Head of Business Development, Shana Patadia, discussed the need for maximizing uptime across hardware and software components to ensure uninterrupted fleet operations. She advocated for standardization and seamless integration between software and hardware providers to simplify operations and enhance user experience.
Similarly, our CCO, Mark Braby, participated as a speaker at the Advanced Clean Transport (ACT) Expo on a panel addressing the transformative potential of AI-enabled charging software in the EV industry. After attending, he wrote up a blog post summarizing his key takeaways from the event.
Then in November, Shana once again hit the stage at the Fleet Forward Conference alongside Sawatch Labs and the City of Edmonton to discuss best practices for keeping fleets powered through cold weather.
We were also extremely excited to co-host the second annual Amped Up Affair: eMobility Happy Hour in Williamsburg during NY Climate Week along with some incredible partners – Curo, Obvious Ventures, Prologis, and Flash. We were also joined by Newlab, itselectric, Voltpost, and Streamline Capital, bringing together a stellar lineup of innovators and change-makers. With over 100 attendees, it was an evening of collaboration, inspiration, and acceleration toward the future of sustainable transportation.
Finally, we were honored to win the Global Innovation Award at EXPO2024 of STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play thanks to our work with ZF Group. By integrating our software into ZF’s cloud platform, SCALAR, over 350,000 customers are able to manage their vehicle operations from a single dashboard. This was a collaborative effort between our engineering and product teams, and we’re grateful for the recognition of the robust charging and energy management system we’ve built within SCALAR.
We’re always pushing ourselves to learn and grow at Synop, and sharing that knowledge means the industry as a whole learns and grows along with us. To that end, we’re proud of the work we’ve put behind the Charging into the Future Podcast, hosted by our Head of Marketing, Prem Patel and featuring experts from both within the Synop team and from trusted partners.
In the fall, we were excited to debut our Cost Savings Case Study, putting concrete numbers on the savings made possible through our energy management capabilities. If you haven’t already given it a read, you should, but spoiler alert, we were able to reduce energy costs for one European operator by 30% through smart charging automation based on real-time energy prices.
In other media highlights, Head of Business Development, Shana Patadia, wrote an op-ed for Smart Energy International exploring how a software-supported sharing economy can address the financial and logistical barriers to commercial EV adoption in the U.S.
We also saw interviews with our leadership team in several publications and podcasts including The Fully Charged Podcast, FreightWaves, Forbes, Hackernoon, and TechBrew, among others.
It’s amazing all that can happen in a year, and we’re excited to keep the momentum going in 2025. A massive thanks to our team, partners, and clients for their unwavering support and collaboration. Cheers to a great year and wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season!
.png)