Siemens Introduces Depot360 Zero-Emission EV Fleet Management Services at the EV & Charging Expo

May 9, 2024

By Blake Marchand

At this year’s EV & Charging Expo, hosted by Electric Autonomy, Siemens made a significant announcement, introducing their zero-emission fleet management services, Depot360 Managed Services and Depot360 CaaS (Charging-as-a-Service).

Faisal Kazi, CEO of Siemens Canada and Theresa Cooke, Head of Global Customer Success, Managed Charging for Siemens took part in the announcement alongside Dave Tanel, Strategic Fleet EV Programs & Partnerships Manager for Geotab, who partnered on the initiative.

The Depot360 session was kicked off by Kazi, who framed the announcement with Siemens history of innovation beginning with the first telegraph line between North America and Europe.

“Since then,” Kazi said, “we have helped shape the technological landscape of our great country. We have been part of many first in the first long distance telephone network in the country. The first light rail system in the country, the first pantograph bus charger in North America, and the list can go on.”

The point Kazi was making with his introduction, was that Siemens has invested in technology and innovation that has an impact on progress, and a positive impact on society.

“We call it technology with progress. We want to use the power of technology, power of innovation to create a positive impact in society.”

Transportation makes up a significant portion of global emissions, and the commercial and heavy-duty EV sector isn’t as far along when it comes to adoption as passenger vehicles.

Cooke noted that 20% of passenger vehicle sales are electric, while the medium and heavy-duty side is at 1%.

“What can we do now to accelerate this area? Our customers have been sharing two major challenges with us: #1 the high costs of the charging infrastructure. And secondly, once they get into that operational phase, the cost of managing their new fuel, which is electricity,” explained Cooke.

Siemens’ Depot360 Managed Services and their Depot360 CaaS aims to optimize charging for EV fleets, to limit energy costs and take a strategic approach to charging using AI, and for the latter, mitigate the upfront costs of implementing and managing EV charging infrastructure.

Siemens is launching the Depot360 offering in Canada with plans to roll it out in the U.S. later this month followed by France, Germany, UK, and the Nordic countries.

“I’m particularly proud,” Cooke said, “and I know that our whole Siemens Canada team is proud to say that half of the software R&D used to create the platform that backs this innovation are jobs here in Canada.”

Cooke explained that with the Managed Services offering Siemens manages the charging operations to ensure that the vehicles are able to complete their routes while minimizing the cost of electricity using their AI platform and Geotab’s telematics.

The CaaS offering is end-to-end, Siemens manages the design, equipment, installation and it is financed as a monthly payment.

“We start by connecting to both vehicles through the telematics and the Chargers, and we connect that to our Depot 360 AI platform,” she explained, noting the much of the platform is managed here in Canada.

“We take that data, and we ingest the vehicles schedules. So, when are they arriving? When do they need to leave? And we ingest the electricity tariff, so we know the cost of energy at every point in time. Then we run our algorithms to understand and plan the charging schedule that minimizes the costs while still ensuring that the vehicles are charged to the level that they need to be. Not too much, not too little, to perform their routes.”

“A very important part of our platform is integrating with the vehicle telematics. That integration is what allows us to understand if the vehicle is on time and what its state of charge is, and I’m very pleased to share that we are partnered with Geotab for that telematics integration.”

Geotab is also based in Canada, and headquartered in Oakville, Ontario, not far from the Siemens Canada headquarters, which is part of the reason why it made sense to launch to services in Canada first.

EV charging infrastructure for fleets presents a significant upfront cost, which may be a barrier for some organizations that want and need to electrify their fleets. The CaaS services aims to make that more accessible. There are a number of complexities associated with EV charging for fleets, when it comes to design, installation, data management, grid connection, and maintenance. Siemens CaaS packages that expertise in “conjunction with Siemens Financial Services.”

Geotab is responsible for the telematics (vehicle and asset tracking) piece, which brings together data from charging infrastructure and operations with respect to people, routes, schedules, “and making it work in an economical and effective way, so that, ultimately these fleet operators have a seamless experience,” noted Tanel.

In their press release for the announcement, the company explains that using the platform and its algorithms, Siemens experts monitor and manage charging infrastructure and fleet performance, which allows them to proactively identify and resolve risks. They are able to mitigate energy costs by scheduling charging at off-peak hours (load-shifting), and schedule-based load management (peak-shaving). In the future, customers will also be able to provide their distributed energy resources (DERs) to wholesale markets.

Go HERE for more information on Depot360