An Australian tech startup has landed $23.7 million (US$15 million) in funding for its AI-driven electric vehicle fleet management service.
Founded in Australia in 2016 by CEO Daniel Hilson, also the founder of EVenergi, BetterFleet is a subscription-based software platform that uses AI to create a ‘digital twin’ of a fleet operator’s vehicles, energy infrastructure, and routes.
“If I’m a fleet manager and I have a bus fleet with 200 vehicles, and I need to decide what buses to buy, what chargers to buy, what routes to send them on, and how that’s all going to work, it’s a much more complicated decision than people estimate,” said Hilson.
Using this platform, operators can optimise the selection of charging stations, vehicles, and equipment without having to overbuild infrastructure to support an electricity-dependent fleet.
“We take the digital twin, we know the hills, we know the topography, we know the climate, and we test different scenarios,” said Hilson.
In addition to this planning tool, the platform can also manage a fleet in real time, keeping an eye on locations of vehicles, charge remaining, the time needed for a vehicle to recharge and reenter service, and so on.
Hilson said the tool can be used for bus operators, emergency vehicles, delivery vehicles, and other time-critical fleets as the transport sector transitions to electrified energy.
The company cut its teeth working with state governments in Australia, including South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales and the ACT.
BetterFleet says it can work with fleets of up to 20,000 vehicles across thousands of depots, and is already working with over 80 fleets in Australia and 200 globally.
The electrification of vehicle fleets in Australia and beyond has been hampered by a number of complications, including the high initial capital costs, limited charging infrastructure in certain areas, as well as range anxiety among drivers and company heads, and maintenance and repair, which must be done by specialists.
Electrifying vehicle fleets is a core priority of both state and Federal governments. The Federal government aims for 75 per cent of its new fleet purchases to be low-emissions vehicles from this year, and the ACT has committed to electrifying 100 per cent of its passenger fleet.
Hilson said he was optimistic EV fleet expansion would take off as early as this year.
“When I left Australia to expand overseas the market was really just getting started,” he said. “The number of available EV models was still relatively constrained, the upfront costs of buying EVs were quite high, and our tech platform was still in its early stages.
“Now all those factors have changed. I think we are about to see an explosion in EV uptake among Australia’s fleet managers because the advantages of running an electrified fleet using cutting edge tech are now undeniable.
“Run efficiently, an EV fleet requires far less maintenance and if you manage your charging schedule through clever tech you can keep your fleet running for a tiny fraction of the cost of a traditional fleet.”