eSpotlight: AMPLY Power

Welcome to this week’s edition of eSpotlight, where we give our Partners, Members, Clients, and Preferred Service Providers a chance to tell their story about their work with the California Mobility Center (CMC) and what they bring to the future mobility table. Being featured this week is AMPLY Power, one of our first commercial clients which we announced in late 2020. We hope you enjoy this guest post by Vic Shao, Founder & CEO of AMPLY Power!

AMPLY deploys and operates EV charging infrastructure the way data centers operate server blades – lots of them at a time, with high efficiency, low cost, and 99.99% uptime. AMPLY serves public sector and commercial businesses that own and operate fleets of vehicles – electric buses, trucks, and passenger fleets. The company uniquely takes on all components of zero-emissions charging through its scalable Charging-as-a-Service approach.

AMPLY has worked with several transit authorities, such as the Anaheim Transportation Network, Solano County Transit Authority, and Tri Delta Transit. Additionally, AMPLY has partnered with AECOM, a Fortune 500 company dedicated to sustainable infrastructure development, to further the company’s goal of decarbonizing the transportation sector. Last Spring, AMPLY secured $13.2 million in Series A funding from Soros Fund Management and Siemens to allow the company to further scale their Charging-as-a-Service offering for commercial fleets. Additionally, AMPLY previously received seed funding from Congruent Ventures, PeopleFund, and Obvious Ventures.

How the California Mobility Center is Filling the Connector Gap in the Mobility Sector

By Vic Shao, Founder and CEO of AMPLY Power

Urban planning departments across America are struggling to find solutions for the imminent electrification of their fleets. Unreliable and incompatible charging hardware and software platforms, under-built power infrastructure, and fragmented fleet management software represent the principal barriers to further electric vehicle (EV) adoption. The Biden administration has pledged to install 500,000 new public charging outlets in the U.S. by the end of 2030, and this means that there is no time to waste: cities must be ready to cross into the new era of cleantech.

The massive connector gap in the mobility sector has caused devastating misalignment between cutting-edge mobility products, services, policy, funding, and exposure. This gap is putting air bubbles in the momentum pipeline, which is slowing the advancement of smart charging solutions here in the U.S. With 23.3 percent of transportation contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, becoming a central connector in the EV revolution is no longer feel-good work–it’s mandatory in order to effect change.

I’m confident that the CMC will become the stopgap in the mobility industry by creating a unique, first-of-its-kind multi-tenant “co-charging” depot for individual vehicles and fleets, providing capital and engineering for the development of electric infrastructure, and becoming the go-to resource that early-stage companies seek out for mentorship, support, collaboration, and momentum. CMC’s industry-leading position as a much-needed connector between experts, legislators, thought leaders, and funding pipelines for companies working to make significant gains in the mobility sector will provide the entire mobility industry with a seat at the table.

Ecosystems thrive when grounded in two-way relationships that not only receive but give back. AMPLY looks forward to providing the CMC with our Command Center, a robust, secure, cloud-based charge management software built on a multi-tenant platform, including live, real-time displays of energy consumption, increasing communication, visibility, and control for fleet operators.

AMPLY will have a hand in project construction, ongoing monitoring, maintenance, operations of the charging depot, and lead demonstrations for those interested in learning more about charge management. Our thriving network of professionals with experience and industry knowledge will be able to serve as a forum for both active discussion and mentorship. This will enable us to personally propel real-world EV Charging-as-a-Service (software, hardware, grant funding, and operations) expertise that is the sherpa fleet operators need to move beyond pilots to fully zero-emission fleets.

By joining the CMC, AMPLY will be able to reach deeper and let even more leaders in the commercial fleet space know that help has arrived. The opportunity to tap the CMC infrastructure and accelerate ideas through networking with professionals equipped with the insight, knowledge, expertise, and decision-making power is a defining opportunity.

We also look forward to working with the CMC to support the California government in implementing policies surrounding emissions reduction and green technology through a hands-on demonstration of AMPLY’s technology to school districts, transit agencies, local fleet operators, and even individual commercial vehicle owners. All of these entities can stop by the charging depot and learn about charging management, especially the software designed to run it efficiently.

AMPLY will serve as an active contributor to high-impact narratives so that government officials can understand what challenges sustainability leaders are encountering at the forefront of the electric mobility effort. We look forward to becoming a unique voice among a community of industry leaders, helping companies within the mobility sector to cut a clear path from inception to commercialization. This will be achieved through advocacy, grassroots mobilization, networking, and the facilitating of critical partnerships that connect the dots between funding, clients, and infrastructure.

Establishing a prominent footprint in the mobility sector, by raising awareness around much-needed Charging Management Systems (CMS) that make-or-break fleet management success, both economically and operationally, is what it will take to move mobility forward. The CMC is helping AMPLY spread the word about cutting-edge charging solutions that are pioneering across hardware, software, managed services, and even vehicle-to-grid technology.

Throughout my career, I’ve learned to never underestimate the power of community and a collective voice within change. The CMC’s ability to curate a definitive community of subject matter experts that influence all areas of mobility, from engineering to consumer readiness, while proving the validity of a public-private partnership model that can influence collaborations in clean transportation, will ignite innovative economic development in support of a clean mobility future across the world.