One way to charge a company car, wherever it plugs in.

The problem to solve

Commercial fleets were moving to electric, and they were a new target segment for vaylens with large growth potential.

For fleet managers, the transition is a big operational change. They suddenly have charging infrastructure to run at their own sites, alongside vehicles charging on public networks and at drivers’ homes. Charging data sits in different places, so there is no single view of what the fleet is costing, how it is being charged or how the move to electric is progressing. Reconciling costs and reporting on the transition is slow and manual.

Many fleets were also going electric for the first time. They needed more than a charging card. They needed a partner they could trust to run their charging infrastructure and guide them through the transition.

Drivers feel it too. They charge at work, on the road and at home, often paying out of their own pocket and claiming the cost back.

The decision

As product manager, I shaped a dedicated Fleet Charging module around one idea: be the partner a fleet manager needs through the whole transition, not just a way to manage infrastructure and pay for charging.

That meant four things:

• Infrastructure. Managing their own chargers through our charge point management system.
• Access everywhere. A wide charging network, extended through integrations with other mobility service providers, so drivers could use a large number of chargers on the road.
• One view. Charging data from work, the road and home in one place, with reporting that made costs and progress transparent.
• Strategy support. Helping each company shape its infrastructure and vehicle strategy, especially fleets early in their move to electric.

For drivers, it meant one way to charge everywhere, public charging billed centrally, and home charging reimbursed automatically.

How I approached it

One app or card, everywhere. Company car drivers charge at work, on the road and at home through one app or RFID card.

No public charging claims. Acting as the mobility service provider (MSP), vaylens handles payment for public charging and bills the employer on a fixed schedule, so drivers don’t need reimbursing for it.

Home charging, the employer’s choice. vaylens either reimburses the home charging cost directly to the driver’s energy supplier, or passes the charging data to the employer to handle it.

Automatic reimbursement in the UK. We partnered with Rightcharge to offer fully automatic home charging reimbursement to UK drivers. vaylens records each home charging session, and Rightcharge calculates what’s owed at the driver’s home tariff and pays their energy supplier directly.

Market by market. We launched in Germany first, followed by the UK, France and Austria.

What changed

• A new segment for vaylens. Fleet Charging gave vaylens a product for commercial fleets as they transition to electric, launched in four European markets. It opened two revenue streams: charge point management for the fleets’ own infrastructure, and acting as the MSP for their public charging.
• One way to charge. Drivers charge at work, on the road and at home with one app or card, with no expense claims for public charging.
• Home charging reimbursed automatically. In the UK, the Rightcharge partnership pays drivers’ home charging costs straight to their energy supplier, at their real home tariff.

“The challenge is making reimbursement work across hundreds or thousands of vehicles.”

— Russell Olive, UK Director, vaylens, on the Rightcharge partnership (EV Infrastructure News)