Dive Brief:
- Circle K is now using electric vehicle charging and energy management software company Driivz to run its public EV charging network, according to a Wednesday press release.
- The new software will be used across the c-store chain’s more than 600 international public EV charging stations in North America and Europe, with the transition already complete in Norway, according to an email from a Driivz spokesperson.
- As Circle K looks to continue expanding its EV charging network, Driivz allows for international scalability and a focus on smooth and timely repairs for many charger issues.
Dive Insight:
Israel-based Driivz won Circle K’s bid due to its charging capabilities, the flexibility of its platform and “support for cross-border payments, multiple currencies and tariffs, complex reconciliations and international roaming,” according to the announcement.
Roaming, in this case, allows customers to easily find and use chargers even on other networks.
Circle K has tapped Driivz to handle many aspects of the EV charging ecosystem, from charging optimization to user management, billing and analytics. The package Circle K opted for also included solutions to manage power consumption across locations with multiple chargers. The software integrates not only with Circle K’s systems, but also energy distribution and transmission.
“We needed a future-proof, robust EV charging management solution with the scalability to handle our rapid growth and the flexibility to connect EV charging to the wider Circle K ecosystem,” said Johan Grönlund, product director of the New Global eMobility division of Circle K. “The partnership with Driivz will enable us to scale our business, capture synergies across countries and continents and help meet our customers’ expectations for availability, stability and a seamless charging experience.”
One notable aspect of Driivz’s system is that a majority of problems can be noted quickly through constant monitoring and addressed remotely and automatically with its “self-healing algorithms,” rather than dispatching a repair person to the station.
Driivz also supports Plug & Charge, in which a network can automatically recognize a car when it plugs into a charging port and begin charging immediately, instead of having to initiate at the kiosk or through an app.
Driivz is not new to the gas station universe, having partnered with Shell in fall of 2022 to accelerate the energy company’s electric charging network in 10 European countries.
