Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and
Speaker 2: Tim Stenovek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm Carol Master along with Matt Miller in for Tim
Speaker 1: Stenevek on Bloomberg Business Week Daily on this Monday, actually
Speaker 1: here with us for a couple of days. And this
Speaker 1: is our gift to you. We know how much you
Speaker 1: love cars.
Speaker 2: Thank you, and the EV space, thank you.
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
Speaker 2: I really do you know what? I'm part of a
Speaker 2: convert now. Because I'm an old I don't have an
Speaker 2: EV yet.
Speaker 3: I'm a gear no.
Speaker 2: Because I'm a gearhead. I like to work on my
Speaker 2: cars myself. I like old American muscle. I like cars
Speaker 2: to be loud and smell like gasoline and vibrate a lot.
Speaker 2: But but lately I've been driving a ton of evs.
Speaker 2: I drive a new car every week for my podcast
Speaker 2: it's called Hot Pursuit with Hannah Elliott. And uh, just
Speaker 2: the acceleration, the handling has gotten so much better. There's
Speaker 2: so many more to choose from that it's not just boring.
Speaker 2: Look Tesla's with spartan interiors that it's become almost a
Speaker 2: preferred motor transportation for me. The one problem I have
Speaker 2: still charging. The charging network is so bad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we have a guest just got a front
Speaker 1: row seat to it. So let's bring them in. Josh
Speaker 1: Aviv is founder and CEO of spark Charge. He's out
Speaker 1: there in Massachusetts. Josh, good to have you here with Matt.
Speaker 1: Get ready for a grilling, because it is Matt Miller.
Speaker 3: We're ready, We're ready.
Speaker 1: Listen. Your company reminds us that it is the world's
Speaker 1: largest ev fleet charging network. Lay it out for us
Speaker 1: where it is, how many who's using it? Give us
Speaker 1: some size and scope.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, so, spark Charge is the world's largest off grade
Speaker 4: evy fleet charging network. We have operations across all fifty
Speaker 4: states and recently just launched in Canada and Mexico. What
Speaker 4: makes us special is that we bring the power to
Speaker 4: the fleet. So we show up with our off gride
Speaker 4: mobile battery chargers and mobile power hubs. We can get
Speaker 4: going without any grid connection, which means we get fleets
Speaker 4: up and running and charging and as little as three
Speaker 4: to seven days versus them having to wait as much
Speaker 4: as two to three years for infrastructure to catch up.
Speaker 2: So you're the biggest off grid EV charging network.
Speaker 1: What does that mean mean?
Speaker 2: Meaning you're not the consumer chargers that are build up
Speaker 2: in malls or next to a Starbucks. You're you're working
Speaker 2: with like Ford pro kind of customers to charge their trucks.
Speaker 2: So you're working with construction fleets, with plumbers, with electricians,
Speaker 2: with anybody, with anybody who's pro fleet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Amazon fleets.
Speaker 4: Like Amazon last mile delivery, rideshare fleets as well construction fleets,
Speaker 4: rental car fleets, school bus fleets. Think about the problem
Speaker 4: that consumers have where they're like, hey, I need to
Speaker 4: figure out how.
Speaker 3: To charge one car.
Speaker 4: Fleets have the issue of how do I charge twenty
Speaker 4: cars one hundred cars, and how do I do that
Speaker 4: every day to keep my business going? And we step
Speaker 4: in and we basically get them up and running quicker
Speaker 4: than any other electrification option on planet ear. If we
Speaker 4: can get a full fleet up and running in as
Speaker 4: little as three days fully electrified and those cars out
Speaker 4: on the road, Dude.
Speaker 2: That is such a great business. How did you start this?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we started it when we realized that a
Speaker 4: lot of fleets were waiting anywhere from two to five
Speaker 4: years before the grid would catch up and allow them
Speaker 4: to electrify. And we said, well, what happens if we
Speaker 4: bring the energy to you, or if we get power
Speaker 4: set up to where we can use our batteries to
Speaker 4: get you charging almost immediately. What we realized is that
Speaker 4: fleets still incorporate fifty cars. They'll incorporate twenty cars, but
Speaker 4: then they'll have the issue of going to the grid
Speaker 4: and saying, hey, we want to get these cars electrified,
Speaker 4: but the grid can't handle the demand of all these vehicles.
Speaker 4: And so we show up, We get them up and
Speaker 4: go on with our mobile battery chargers, which means they're
Speaker 4: charging from a giant battery connected to charging stations, and
Speaker 4: then they're able to get up and running a lot quicker,
Speaker 4: and then they also have a smoother service.
Speaker 3: Right, there's no such thing as.
Speaker 4: Grid delays or power outages, especially when it's being battery backed.
Speaker 3: All the energy is there.
Speaker 1: Wait, so you just kind of bring a massive battery
Speaker 1: to places and that's how you do it.
Speaker 2: Is it on eighteen wheels? How do you transport that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so some of them are trailer based, some of
Speaker 4: them are container based. But basically we can get that
Speaker 4: fleet set up operating off that battery and then they
Speaker 4: can begin charging from those charging stations immediately. We also
Speaker 4: have power hubs that use basically clean energy like hydrogen
Speaker 4: and things like that that can also get a fleet
Speaker 4: up and run in and quickly as well.
Speaker 1: That's what I was gonna do. So how do you
Speaker 1: charge your battery? That's what I'm curious, like, where are
Speaker 1: you getting the power and how do you make sure
Speaker 1: it's cost efficient, especially when there's such a power grab
Speaker 1: right now with all the AI going on.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, so we're pretty much energy agnostic. So that means
Speaker 4: that we can grab energy from solar, which a lot
Speaker 4: of times that's what we'll do. We'll swap the battery out,
Speaker 4: so we'll basically have a battery recharging from a solar partner.
Speaker 4: We'll bring it in, we'll swap it out with a
Speaker 4: resh battery, and then keep that fleet going twenty four
Speaker 4: seven three sixty five. To the fleet, it looks like
Speaker 4: limitless energy and we're managing all the power on the
Speaker 4: back end, which means they never have to worry about
Speaker 4: downtime or any operational efficiencies. We're constantly swapping that battery
Speaker 4: out or hooking it up to solar to keep them going.
Speaker 2: I'm normally pretty skeptical, but I was like, Wow, what
Speaker 2: a cool company, what a great idea, And now it
Speaker 2: realized he's just a great pitch man. Also, right, I
Speaker 2: didn't see until now that you got a million dollar
Speaker 2: investment from Mark Cuban and Lorie Grinder on Shark Tank.
Speaker 2: You've won various awards too, so you're great at selling
Speaker 2: these businesses. Josh, what's your.
Speaker 1: There has to be demand otherwise you don't have a
Speaker 1: bill for sure.
Speaker 2: No, it's huge, and I mean, look at how well
Speaker 2: ford Pro has done with that unit. It's just unbelievable
Speaker 2: to growth. But what's your exit? I mean, are you
Speaker 2: looking at IPO this company? Will you sell it to
Speaker 2: a bigger company? How do you get Mark Cuban is
Speaker 2: money out?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 4: I mean right now we're really just focused on execution.
Speaker 4: We're having an amazing year, thank god, and we're really
Speaker 4: seeing fleets come to us and say, hey, we want
Speaker 4: to get going a lot quicker. We don't want to wait,
Speaker 4: and so we're having an amazing year. I think for us,
Speaker 4: the right exit will present itself, but right now we're
Speaker 4: focused on scale. We're focused on making sure our customers
Speaker 4: are happy. And making sure that we're onboarding a new fleet.
Speaker 4: Keep in mind, because we're not waiting on the grid
Speaker 4: to catch up, because we're able to service these fleets.
Speaker 4: We're almost onboarding a new fleet every week. So you know,
Speaker 4: while we don't come out there and say it, we're
Speaker 4: probably one of the fastest growing ev charging networks out
Speaker 4: there as well.
Speaker 1: Wait execution, no offense. It's a pet pee for me
Speaker 1: when an executive says execution, I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1: It's like everybody dumps things into that way.
Speaker 2: We want to grow their business, you know, and they
Speaker 2: don't want.
Speaker 1: To tell you what their exit is, so tell us,
Speaker 1: I mean, what does that mean? What do you need
Speaker 1: to do? What do you need to hit what targets
Speaker 1: in order to really be successful and sustainable longer term?
Speaker 4: Absolutely so for us, success is making sure that when
Speaker 4: we get a fleet operational, we're getting them operational to
Speaker 4: where they can actually grow their fleet. A lot of
Speaker 4: times fleets will come to us and they'll say, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm starting out with ten cars, but my goal is
Speaker 4: to get to one hundred cars and the grid can't
Speaker 4: keep up with that growth. Plus the time to install
Speaker 4: is going to take me three to five years at
Speaker 4: that number of vehicles. So for us, execution means, hey,
Speaker 4: get this fleet up and running in three to seven days,
Speaker 4: get them fully electrified. And then now that they're fully
Speaker 4: electrified and they want to grow their fleet, let's grow
Speaker 4: with them. Let's allow them to go from ten vehicles
Speaker 4: to twenty twenty to fifty to fifty to one hundred
Speaker 4: and see long term growth with that fleet partner over
Speaker 4: a number of years as they continue to grow and operate.
Speaker 4: And because we're getting them up and running quicker, we
Speaker 4: want them to see a better ROI than if they
Speaker 4: had to wait on infrastructure to catch up.
Speaker 2: All right, So we're speaking right now with Josh Aviv.
Speaker 2: He's the founder and CEO of Spark Charge. If you're
Speaker 2: just joining us out of Massachusetts, and I know that
Speaker 2: you're focused on the proit commercial fleets, but you must
Speaker 2: also love cars. I've been in a ton of evs lately.
Speaker 2: I was in a Chevy Blazer ev SS. I was
Speaker 2: in a Dodge Charger Daytona scat Pack, which I loved.
Speaker 2: Right now I'm in a Cadillac Vistic, which I'm also
Speaker 2: just really positively surprised by. What do you, what do
Speaker 2: you drive? What's your d D Josh?
Speaker 3: I drive a twenty twenty six Cadillac Vistic.
Speaker 2: The Vistic is pretty sick, isn't it. I was truly
Speaker 2: oppressed by this vehicle.
Speaker 3: Love it.
Speaker 2: I didn't love the Escalade IQ as much, which is
Speaker 2: the bigger ev It's it's a it's a giant It's
Speaker 2: like a giant house on wheels. But the Vistick is
Speaker 2: relatively snappy for a car that can still hold like
Speaker 2: seven people. What do you do for your for your
Speaker 2: charging when you're on the road, when you're going around,
Speaker 2: you know, to make work trips and you can't just
Speaker 2: be charging at home every night. What's your experience been
Speaker 2: with the US consumer Charging network?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'd say, you know, when it comes to
Speaker 4: road trips and things like that. One of the things
Speaker 4: that I love about the Vistick it's got I think,
Speaker 4: you know, real world mileage roughly around three hundred and
Speaker 4: thirty miles of range, and so I've been able to
Speaker 4: go from basically Boston down to New Jersey and almost
Speaker 4: all the way back on a single charge.
Speaker 3: I'm without having to stop, and I love it. I
Speaker 3: love it. I love the Super crews on it.
Speaker 4: It's it's a it's probably, in my opinion, one of
Speaker 4: the best EV's I've driven, and I I've owned I
Speaker 4: think close to ten EV's in my lifetime.
Speaker 3: So love that car. I think when it comes.
Speaker 4: To you know, travel charging, you know I've typically used
Speaker 4: the Tesla Supercharger network or Electrify America, any of your
Speaker 4: standard EV charging networks.
Speaker 1: So what what do you make of the state of
Speaker 1: kind of evs in America under this administration which seems
Speaker 1: to have been pulling back.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of backlash. It seems like YEP sales
Speaker 2: slows down. But is there any doubt in your mind, Josh,
Speaker 2: that we're all driving EV's in ten years.
Speaker 3: There's no doubt in my mind. I think.
Speaker 4: Look, I think what it's going to come down to
Speaker 4: is the economics of owning an EV Right. I think
Speaker 4: that's really and I think that probably should have been
Speaker 4: the focal point from day one. Right, Look how much
Speaker 4: money you're gonna save when you're charging at home.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Look at the time save not having to go to
Speaker 4: the gas station. Right, Look at the experience of just
Speaker 4: being able to plug in when you pull in to
Speaker 4: your driveway. Right, I think that is really going to
Speaker 4: come down to it. And if you think about it,
Speaker 4: the low cost of maintenance. Right, I can't remember the
Speaker 4: last time I went to a mechanic for an oil change.
Speaker 4: I can't remember the last time I went to a
Speaker 4: mechanic because.
Speaker 3: The engine light came on. I didn't know what that meant. Right.
Speaker 4: The low cost of ownership for an electric vehicle is
Speaker 4: ultimately going to push more people to own electric vehicles.
Speaker 4: And I think that is why in the next ten
Speaker 4: years we are all going to be driving evs. Is
Speaker 4: because they're going to save so much money to the consumer.
Speaker 2: Carol will switch when they drive themselves. She wants her
Speaker 2: own personal Weimo at her house in Jersey City.
Speaker 1: I do love Weimo, but I do like EV. I
Speaker 1: do like the idea of EV's. I don't want to,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to learn about the environment. Hey, Josh,
Speaker 1: stay in touch. Josh a Vive, founder in ce of
Speaker 1: Spark Charge joining us from Massachusea.
Speaker 2: You got to get him on my podcast now, Hot
Speaker 2: Pursuit with Hannah Elliott.
Speaker 1: No, yes you could. Yeah, we'll share. We'll share