USA – ZEVx Inc of Tempe, Arizona, formerly known as ‘Zero Electric Vehicles Inc’, struck a three-year strategic agreement in April with industrial automation specialist Rockwell Automation Inc of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, meaning that ZEVx will make use of Rockwell’s services to scale-up the rollout of retrofit kits for converting diesel vehicles to electric power. 

ZEVx will benefit from two products from Rockwell’s ‘FactoryTalk Innovation Suite’: ‘Vuforia Expert Capture’ for creating step-by-step instructions and ‘Vuforia Chalk’ for providing remote assistance to service technicians. The Vuforia line of products employ augmented reality (AR); that is to say, they are designed to be used in concert with headsets that overlay visual and auditory information on real world objects. Technicians using AR will receive computer-generated directions and will have access to real-time support from experts when interacting with ZEVx retrofit kits. This will mean fewer repeat visits from expert technicians to ZEVx service partners and therefore a more efficient and less costly rollout of retrofit kit installation and maintenance.