Electrifying a fleet of vehicles is a problem with chickens and eggs in the 21st century. Where do you spend your money first on your vehicle or charging infrastructure?
Believe it or not, that question is not always thought. Joshua Aviv, founder and CEO of Kirika Chachar Charge, approached him with the fleet, saying, “Hey, the cars are here. They’re sitting a lot. We have no way to serve them, there’s no way to charge. Can you help us?” he told TechCrunch.
Some companies are a little ready and will provide Aviv with a weekly notification. However, given the pitch of Aviv, that’s not entirely surprising. Buy the vehicle first and leave it to us to charge it.
This was a bit of a pivot from the startup’s first offering, and was mobile EV charging. For example, the company partnered with Allstate to support Stranded EV drivers. Currently, Shine offers what is called “recharge as a service.” The fleet signs a contract with the startup, buys electricity to buy kilowatt-hour electricity, and Shine charges it.
The startup has expanded and continues to expand to all 50 states, Canada and Mexico, raising $15.5 million in the Series A-1 round led by Monte’s FAM with participation from Cleveland Avenue, Collaboration Capital, Elemental Impact, Marcipen and non-Cibiventures.
In addition to the equity round, Killute has secured a $15 million venture loan from Horizon Technology Finance Corporation.
Aviv founded Shinki in 2018 as waves of electric vehicles began to form. Outside of Tesla, there was a shortage of fast charging infrastructure. However, companies were beginning to invest in electrification for a compelling financial outlook. The EV not only saved fuel costs, but also promised maintenance.
Over the next seven years, fast charging has improved dramatically, but is not evenly distributed.
“There’s a lot of fleets like, ‘Hey, I’m in the middle of America. Hey, I’m in different parts of the coast,'” Aviv said. Often these customers have a large number of EVs moving through facilities that need to be charged daily. This includes ports, railheads, or car manufacturers.
“These operations are usually open 24/7,” Aviv said. “They want to charge these cars, but they’re back on the road.”
Even in areas with lots of fast chargers, many fleets want to control their own control of when they charge. However, charging building depots is expensive and can be delayed by long grid interconnect queues.
“Essentially, we can serve all vehicles and charge every vehicle. They don’t have to worry about grid delays, connections.
In many cases, the glow transforms into a mobile charger with a battery or generator, and Aviv said it can run with propane, natural gas or hydrogen. Startups can offer “white gloves” services that handle all aspects of charging, such as unloading equipment and having customers handle charging or incorporating billing. As customer operations grow, the company will help its transition to permanent charging infrastructure. So far, 95% of Shine customers have used off-grid chargers, Aviv said.
The cost depends on the size of the customer and fleet, he said, but it usually runs between 35 cents and 60 cents per kilowatt-hour. This competes with many public fast chargers.
“If the fleet uses 1,000 kilowatt hours, we only pay 1,000 kilowatt hours. If we use only 5 kilowatt hours, we only pay 5 kilowatt hours,” he said. “The fleet can really be agile and flexible in how the cars are charging. If they see a big rise, it’s okay, right? They’re covered.