EVOS: EV charging, made in Brisbane

EVOS, a start-up specialising in charging for electric vehicles (EVs), recently secured $1.7m in funding to design and manufacture its home and fleet charging equipment in Brisbane.

The investment will enable EVOS to commercialise its chargers and energy management software platform in Australia and export them to the world, with interest already expressed in its offerings abroad. One of the two major investors in EVOS is Autostrada, which has 30 years of manufacturing experience in the automotive sector in Australia. EVOS was founded by Marcelo Salgado, now its CEO and Chief Commercial Officer; Seshan Weeratunga, Chief Experience & Innovation Officer; and Chris Crossman, Chief Technology Officer. The founders have significant experience in the EV sector, having held senior positions at Tritium, one of the world’s leading EV DC charging manufacturers, based in Brisbane. Salgado and Weeratunga each held executive roles at the company, while Crossman was a founding member of Tritium’s engineering team and recently worked for Boeing. “We’re looking forward to using this investment to commercialise our products and deliver Australian businesses and the world an easy solution to their home and workplace charging needs,” says S algado. “Australia has an exceptional engineering and manufacturing track record, and EVs and charging offers the nation an opportunity to continue that tradition in a new sector. Our investors feel the same way, and we can’t wait to take our solutions to homes and fleets across Australia and into overseas markets.” The funding will be used to hire a further nine engineers to build out and finetune the company’s home and fleet chargers as well as its software platform. The EVOS Fleet Home 22 AC Charger and the dualcharge equivalent, the EVOS Twin, are designed and engineered in Australia and built to meet the requirements of homes and fleets, and to be easily installable at homes. Vehicles are stationary for most of the time and AC charging allows businesses and fleets to utilise idle time at night (up to ten hours) or during work hours to charge cars as economically as possible. The EVOS ecosystem manages the best time, speed and rate to charge vehicles, reducing demand on chargers and the cost of upgrading infrastructure. “It’s designed to be simple to install and uninstall, so even employees could uninstall a charger in their garage,” says Crossman. “It can withstand outdoor weather conditions, is IP65-rated and updates to the underlying software are delivered over the air via Wi-Fi. But more than that, it’s safe and it’s reliable for homes and fleets alike.”

The founders of EVOS: Chief Technology Officer Chris Crossman; Chief Experience & Innovation Officer Seshan Weeratunga; and CEO and Chief Commercial Officer Marcelo Salgado.

Each AC Charger will be manufactured in Brisbane through Circuit Solutions, Autostrada’s manufacturing arm. “Circuit Solutions’ manufacturing line is 100% powered by solar,” said Weeratunga. “As governments look to achieve net-zero targets, they should look towards EVs and ultimately EVOS to help them get there.” EVOS’ patent-pending Smart Start system provides a simple way of managing EV charging without the need for RFID tags, smartphone apps or fuel cards. Designed with fleets in mind, Smart Start allows EVOS and its customers to collect rich data from the driver, car, charger and grid, providing a 360-degree view of the energy used in electric fleets. It can also automatically authenticate the vehicle, with the following benefits: • Reduces cost by eliminating third-party authentication software. • Only allows authorised cars to utilise the asset. • Enables roaming on EV charging networks. • Allocates details of the energy used to a connected vehicle account for invoicing. • Can be used as a payment system on other networks. “We’ve had significant experience in this space and one of the biggest challenges we saw for everyday drivers and fleets alike is not only a lack of charging infrastructure in Australia, but the fact that using chargers can be overly complex,” says Weeratunga. “When a driver went to a charger, they might have to download a specific app simply to be invoiced. From a fleet perspective the hassle and time it can take to manage multiple accounts for its fleet was a significant hindrance to EV rollouts. “Our solution addresses those issues immediately. The additional benefit of our Smart Start platform is that it can be used to manage the payments on other charging networks; it’s not tied solely to managing EVOS chargers.” The NSW Government recently allocated $33m to transition the government fleet to EVs, while the Victorian Government has pledged to inject 400 EVs into its fleet by 2023. The South Australian government is aiming to have its fleet fully electric by 2030, as is Tasmania. While these purchases will prove a boon for auto dealers, the true benefit will be realised for the nation once those fleet vehicles are sold off and a resale market emerges. With that, EV adoption should accelerate exponentially, according to Salgado. “Once we have a true resale market, we’ll see the cost of an EV go down significantly for the everyday family, and with that we’ll need more purpose-built home chargers for those families to take advantage of one of the key benefits of owning an EV: charging at home,” he says. “There is an emerging market in Australia and our technology directly addresses the key hindrances holding it back.”

www.evos.com.au