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Orange EV Startup OptiGrid Brings Quick Charging To EV Truck Fleets

Orange EV battery electric terminal trucks. Orange EV Growing impatience with the speed, red tape and cost of expanding the power grid has fleet operators looking for quicker and less expensive ways to keep their electric vehicles energized. That's the problem a new company created by class eight EV truck manufacturer Orange EV aims to solve. It's called OptiGrid. The Kansas City, Kansas-based company builds quickly-installed units that store energy from the grid, or a renewable source, which is then used to recharge battery-electric trucks. 'It came about because fleets are coming to market and they have nothing to charge with. Basically, there's no there's no infrastructure,' said OptiGrid CEO Tyler Phillipi, in an interview. The units draw, and store in a battery, power from the grid or a renewable source—up to 180 kilowatt hours. Output is 200 kilowatts but is variable as needed. It's a concept called battery-integrated DC fast charging. Installed in just a few hours by wiring it into its power source and securing to the ground with eight bolts on a base designed to accommodate forklifts that can move the units if necessary, they're constantly re-energized as their power is drawn. 'What we do is the same thing a water tower would do or a reservoir,' explained Phillipi. 'We build up kilowatt hours of storage. Then whenever the vehicles that need it come by, we dump it in, and then we slowly fill it back up. Think of it as a water hose in and a fire hose out.' Parent company Orange EV created OptiGrid to solve the problem of finding adequate power to recharge its vehicles. The original concept was developed by a company called FreeWire Technologies, which eventually folded after some business missteps. But as Phillipi related, trucking industry veteran Wayne Hoovestol recognized the value of FreeWire's technology and acquired its assets, including its intellectual property and engineering team. He teamed up with Orange EV's founders and created OptiGrid. The relationship between the two companies began just this past April. 'We've seen firsthand how infrastructure delays can slow down fleet electrification efforts,' said Kurt Neutgens, founder and president at Orange EV, in a statement. 'OptiGrid gives us a turnkey, fleet-ready system with low cost of ownership and the flexibility of optional leasing to reduce capital barriers.' The quest to bring EV charging power more quickly and less expensively to where it's not currently available, is being tackled by a number of other companies in addition to OptiGrid. Some of those companies include: L-Charge provides EV fleet charging power with its transportable power stations doing business with a charge-as-a-service model. Beam Global's EV ARC system uses solar power to energize its movable charging stations. They require zero construction or connection to the power grid. ION Dynamics Energy has created robots that can find their way to vehicles in need of a charge in confined spaces such as parking garages. Voltpost planned to retrofit streetlights in cities such as New York, Chicago and Detroit with public level two EV chargers. Mountain View, California-based DC Grid is offering modular, direct current power generators using energy sources such as solar, renewable natural gas and biogas. OptiGrid is making its first round of sales through Orange EV to fleets and ports, according to Phillipi. 'There's two types of buyers. There's people who are buying it, and it's a capital expenditure that they're depreciating all of it in a year,' explained Phillipi. 'Then there's the capital light buyer, so that people want to lease it. We're having conversations with both. We're even having conversations with port and rail, which want a lease to own.' But he sees a future where the company's technology could be useful in solving EV charging needs beyond fleets and ports. 'Multifamily housing has a major power supply problem, and then dropping in a unit like this really, really unlocks the building's ability to support the growing number of customers who have this need for charging on site.'