Introducing Ford Pro Charging
Ford Pro announced the launch of Ford Pro Charging, a solution for commercial electric vehicle charging that delivers software and commercial hardware infrastructure to support charging and energy management.
“Customers are saying, ‘We want the E-Transit ® and F-150 Lightning™ Pro, but how are we going to charge and operate them efficiently once they’re in our fleet? They are depending on us to provide the electric vehicles and the integrated solutions designed for EVs that they need for charging and connectivity. Ford Pro Charging is an industry first solution that is focused on helping our customers plan for, operate and deploy charging solutions so they can reduce operating costs and improve efficiency.” – Ted Cannis, CEO of Ford Pro, a separate business within Ford focused on commercial customers of all sizes.
The software analyzes how each fleet operates and can precisely orchestrate charging management based on those behaviors. Most importantly, the technology solves meaningful problems for customers, such as determining the optimal times to charge based on energy rates.
“Our current fleet of connected vehicles allow us to learn from existing fleet behaviors so we can build the right infrastructure and the right charge management software. Let’s say the customer fleet returns around 10 p.m. planning to go back out starting at 5 a.m. You have a limited window for charging and have to make charging decisions in a highly dynamic environment. Does every vehicle need to be fully charged? Can we balance charge power against the available charging window to take advantage of low overnight energy rates? Ford Pro Charging accounts for a multitude of variables and controls each charge station precisely to optimize energy costs and ensure vehicle uptime.” – Muffi Ghadiali, head of Ford Pro Charging.
According to Ford, commercial customers turnover between 10 -15% of their fleet each year so many will manage a mixed fleet of vehicles for a long time.
Bottom Line: Ford Pro currently serves 125,000 active US customers; helping them operate their whole fleet and upfits as they add electric versions of the Transit and F-150 to their existing fleet. This includes small and medium businesses and local government customers that are often overlooked and underserved.
