Volta Charging and StreetLight Announce Strategic Partnership
Volta Charging’s Machine Learning Network Planning Technology Combines with StreetLight Data Analytics for Mobility Solution to Accelerate EV Charging Infrastructure Expansion
SAN FRANCISCO, July 22, 2021 – Volta Industries, Inc. (“Volta Charging”), an industry leader in commerce-centric electric vehicle (EV) charging networks, today announced a strategic partnership with StreetLight Data, Inc. (“StreetLight”), the leader in big data analytics for mobility, to use their combined analytics for the intelligent deployment of EV infrastructure. The partnership is intended to spur public sector agencies, utilities, transportation planners, and engineering firms, among others, to accelerate EV adoption through Volta’s PredictEV™ SaaS solution and StreetLight’s industry leading mobility data.
PredictEV™ is a machine-learning tool that helps utilities, municipalities, and companies predict electric vehicle adoption and demand for EV charging. Through this partnership, Volta Charging will provide its PredictEV™ tool to StreetLight customers needing comprehensive, data-driven analytics to intelligently place hundreds of thousands of EV chargers. StreetLight will also provide Volta Charging with opportunities to expand its market footprint across the U.S. through increased collaboration with transportation planners, engineering firms, and public agencies focused on transportation electrification.
StreetLight CEO Laura Schewel said, “When I started StreetLight over 10 years ago, site selection for EVs was a prime use case and I am excited to partner with Volta Charging to help organizations accelerate their ability to capitalize on the electrification of transportation as it is one of the largest macroeconomic shifts of the century.”
EV adoption has reached a tipping point and building out a nationwide charging infrastructure is necessary to enable mass adoption of electric transportation. EV chargers deployed at scale are a new infrastructure “asset class,” and their rollout affects more than just transportation; electrical grids, utilities, and the entities “hosting” chargers, be it retailers, employers, or residential complexes, are impacted. Optimizing charger deployment for the grid, the transportation system, site hosts, and consumers requires new data sources and analytics.
“PredictEV™ uses an extensive dataset based on a wide number of parameters—from driving patterns to population distribution to dwell time at locations,” said Praveen Mandal, Chief Technology Officer of Volta Charging. “Our partnership with StreetLight is intended to take PredictEV™ to the next level by leveraging the industry’s best source for transportation data.”
Machine learning and artificial intelligence play integral roles in optimizing the expansion of Volta Charging’s charging network. Ultimately, both StreetLight and Volta Charging want to build a charging network that is designed to deliver an optimal experience for drivers, to be capital efficient and deliver the most electric miles per dollar invested. This all starts with leveraging PredictEV™ to place stations in locations where people visit, shop and spend time.
About Volta Charging
Volta Charging is an industry leader in commerce-centric EV charging networks. Volta Charging’s vision is to build EV charging networks that capitalize on and catalyze the shift from combustion-powered miles to electric miles by placing stations where consumers live, work, shop and play. By leveraging a data-driven understanding of driver behavior to deliver EV charging solutions that fit seamlessly into drivers’ daily routines, Volta Charging’s goal is to benefit consumers, brands and real-estate locations while helping to build the infrastructure of the future. As part of Volta Charging’s unique EV charging offering, its stations allow it to enhance its site hosts’ and strategic partners’ core commercial interests, creating a new means for them to benefit from the transformative shift to electric mobility. To learn more, visit www.voltacharging.com.
In February 2021, Volta Charging and Tortoise Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: SNPR), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company with a strategic focus on energy sustainability and decarbonizing transportation, announced they entered into a business combination agreement. Upon the closing of the transaction, which remains subject to customary closing conditions, the combined entity will be named Volta Inc. and remain on the New York Stock Exchange under the new ticker symbol “VLTA”.
About StreetLight Data
StreetLight pioneered the use of Big Data analytics to help transportation professionals solve their biggest problems. Applying proprietary machine-learning algorithms to over four trillion spatial data points over time, StreetLight measures diverse travel patterns and makes them available on-demand via the world’s first SaaS platform for mobility, StreetLight InSight®. From identifying sources of congestion to optimizing new infrastructure to planning for autonomous vehicles, StreetLight powers more than 6,000 global projects every month. For more information, please visit: www.streetlightdata.com.
“For transportation agencies, this year is going to be different. It could bring a massive opportunity for legislators and planners to marshal budgets to effect the largest positive impacts. Michael’s deep experience will help us fulfill our mission to make transportation better.”
Huerta joins the StreetLight Data Board of Directors as the company looks to harness its rapid growth to further help state, local and national entities improve their data driven understanding of how the country moves, and thus how to best invest infrastructure dollars.
“From helping manage and prepare for the Olympic Winter Games, to the years working with the FAA, I considered my work with the U.S. Department of Transportation an incredible opportunity to help shape the country’s future,” said Michael Huerta.
“StreetLight Data offers technology and insight into infrastructure needs that the country had never considered possible before.”
They catapult data driven observations and understanding of the country’s movement into actionable information. I look forward to contributing to StreetLight’s future growth, as well as that of our country.”
“What impressed us about StreetLight was its ability to innovate and build meaningful insights from a rapidly expanding base of data. We expect that those insights will have broad application and deliver significant value across multiple industries,”
About StreetLight Data
StreetLight pioneered the use of Big Data analytics to help transportation professionals solve their biggest problems. Applying proprietary machine-learning algorithms to over four trillion spatial data points over time, StreetLight measures diverse travel patterns and makes them available on-demand via the world’s first SaaS platform for mobility, StreetLight InSight®. From identifying sources of congestion to optimizing new infrastructure to planning for autonomous vehicles, StreetLight powers more than 6,000 global projects every month. For more information, please visit: www.streetlightdata.com.
