The transportation sector generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions, and the pressure to transition to e-Fleets is coming from all directions — from regulatory bodies to business operations. The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) will play an important role in minimizing the effects of climate change. Operationally, EVs have a lower cost of fuel per mile and significantly lower maintenance fees, while also being cleaner for the environment.
But the transition is not without its challenges. Experts agree that the increased demand in EV adoption will undoubtedly stress the grid. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average outage time of the grid doubled in the last five years. Adding one EV is the equivalent of adding a house to the electrical grid, while one DC fast charger can draw the equivalent of a whole neighborhood’s electricity needs all at once.
These factors will affect utility rates around peak demand, creating excessive demand charges for site hosts.
Even in scenarios where renewable energy is more prevalent, because of weather-driven variations in wind and solar generation, the grid still serves as a “backup battery” to these cleaner technologies. But according to the EIA, 61% of electricity generation is from fossil fuels, and many of the generators have 30-40 years of service life remaining.
Adding one EV is the equivalent of adding a house to the electrical grid, while one DC fast charger can draw the equivalent of a whole neighborhood’s electricity needs all at once.
What is needed is a transitional resource that reduces the stress on the grid created by the projected increase in EV adoption, while decreasing the reliance on fuel sources that produce significant amounts of GHG emissions.
e-Boost mobile DC fast charging enables vehicles to be charged while they are docked, reducing the need for multiple charging stops and maximizing the efficiency of electrified fleets. Battery-electric commercial trucks can be easily charged while loading and unloading at docks and distribution centers.
Less time spent at recharging stations means more time for transporting goods. Remote routes that lack EV charging infrastructure or grid stability will benefit from an instant off-grid EV charging solution. An off-grid EV pop-up charging station can be placed wherever it’s needed as your business dictates.
Businesses and utilities today are more concerned than ever about the adverse impacts of weather and impact on the grid. During extreme weather, blackouts, or brownouts, e-Boost can provide emergency charging independent of the grid and provide the back-up power that keeps businesses running and deliveries profitable. e-Boost provides the resiliency that businesses and utilities require by delivering the power for continuity in operations, and EV charging of their e-Fleet. More importantly, e-Boost allows utilities to focus on the highest priorities for disaster recovery in the community.
Avoid Infrastructure Delays with a Green Solution
The typical permitting process for EV infrastructure, when there is adequate power available at a location, is a minimum of six to eight months. If power to a site is inadequate, the addition of utility infrastructure, including a transformer upgrade to deliver the extra power, can take as long as two years.
Accelerating Market Deployment for e-Fleet Vehicle Manufacturers and Dealerships
Manufacturers of EVs for commercial fleets and their local distributors/dealerships need to accelerate adoption by demonstrating the capabilities of their battery-electric vans, trucks, and buses at their locations, during roadshows or customer events — locations that are not necessarily outfitted for EV charging. An e-Boost mobile charging unit can not only provide fast charging at their dealerships, but it can also be available at any EV demo location to ensure fast charging anytime and anywhere.
Fast-Tracking e-Fleet Adoption
e-Boost can fast-track EV adoption for e-Fleets. Fleet owner, fleet management companies, EV manufacturers, EV charging providers, and local utilities need to work together to deploy EVs at a business location. While the first four participants in this process are ready to move ahead, the utility may still require up to 24 months to perform the required site “make-ready.” With e-Boost, the site does not require any “make-ready” permits, and the needed charging infrastructure can be provided within six to eight weeks. Since e-Boost is a mobile solution, once a permanent, grid-connected infrastructure is installed, the e-Boost can be re-purposed as a backup, resilient, off-grid asset or easily relocated.
Optimizing Last-Mile Deliveries
Most last-mile EVs are designed to travel 70-mile delivery routes daily prior to returning to the depot to end the shift for the first-shift driver or to recharge the vehicle. If the business experiences a sudden spike in the delivery business, it is not easy to add a new EV to the fleet. There is always the associated capital cost for adding a new EV, as well as the current supply chain issues that affect EV availability and concerns of whether a business spike is just seasonal.
e-Boost helps address all these apprehensions with a simple solution. When your EV fleet experiences this, the driver for the second shift can be transported from the depot aboard the e-Boost GOAT or Mobile and met at an automatically coordinated, designated, safe location near the last delivery point. At this location, the driver shift change and recharge occurs in order to allow the EV to finish its remaining deliveries for the day with the second-shift driver. While the EV continues its deliveries with the second-shift driver, the e-Boost returns to the depot with the first-shift driver. e-Boost can do this for as many of the EVs in your fleet as needed and reduce the time for shift changes and recharging to less than 30 minutes.
The fleet can effectively extend the range of each EV and address the increased business/deliveries without having to expand the fleet. Additionally, on the days you experience a utility power outage (where the level 2 chargers in the depot are not functional), the e-Boost will provide high-speed charging at the depot to make sure all the EVs are ready for deliveries the next morning. Simultaneously, the e-Boost provides reliable, back-up power for the depot office.
Propane is Green Today
e-Boost is automatically refueled along any delivery route by local propane suppliers. Today, e-Boost is powered by propane because of its robustness in availability, storability, and transportability. Propane has a wide distribution network, is safe to transport, and does not degrade over time, making it the ideal choice for e-Boost.
Propane is one of the cleanest fuels available, offering the lowest in carbon emissions per million BTUs according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It does not contaminate the soil or groundwater because it’s non-toxic and non-poisonous. Propane’s environmentally friendly benefits don’t end there.
Propane also offers a pathway to net-zero emissions with the commercial-scale production of renewable liquid petroleum gas.
Propane also offers a pathway to net-zero emissions with the commercial-scale production of renewable liquid petroleum gas (RLPG) which began in early 2022, lowering its carbon intensity to 19%. Renewable dimethyl ether (RDME) is a fuel additive that further reduces propane’s carbon intensity to 0%. RDME is scheduled to go into production in late 2022. Both RLPG and RDME are derived from bio-feedstock that helps to reduce landfill waste, lowers your carbon footprint, and mitigates the negative impact of transportation emissions on the environment. Moreover, the use of RLPG and RDME requires no changes to e-Boost.
Why e-Boost, Why Now?
While high-speed EV charging is at the heart of what Pioneer Power Mobility and its e-Boost line of products do, we don’t stop there. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is accelerating EV adoption, but gaps are anticipated that will result in various inequities. These gaps include regulatory restrictions, geographical limitations, unplanned costs associated with utility upgrades, practical limitations in space availability, and inequities in EV charging distribution.
e-Boost can overcome these gaps through an affordable mobile solution that helps accelerate the broader trends towards a cleaner environment and provide EV charging, power, and connectivity to areas where electrical infrastructure is lacking in urban, suburban, semi-rural, and rural areas.
e-Boost units are serviced by Pioneer’s Critical Power Group, which has been servicing power generation assets for three decades with a nationwide network.
e-Boost is a product of Pioneer Power Mobility, a division of Pioneer Power Solutions, experienced providers of off-grid resiliency solutions such as distributed power and back-up power generation assets available throughout the U.S.
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