USA – At the latest Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, held between 20-23 May at the Las Vegas Convention Center, we spoke to several firms that offer support to operators looking to switch their fleets to electric vehicles. One of the firms we spoke with was Zenobē, a London-based “charging-as-a-service” company with considerable experience already in the passenger transport segment. There is a bewildering number of charging providers in the market, and it can be difficult to tell them apart and assess their individual merits. Now that Zenobē is expanding to the American market, we decided this would be a good time to find out¹ what makes it different from the competition.

Perhaps the best way to understand what Zenobē and what it does is to start from this fact: that it is one of largest owner-operators of energy storage in the UK. In other words, Zenobē has contractual ownership or part-ownership over a significant number of stationary and electric vehicle batteries – amounting to approximately 735 MW in energy storage assets. The company began with stationary batteries, but some years ago it moved into the electric vehicle market and now supports around 1,200 vehicles on the road, primarily buses.

The basic idea is this: Zenobē takes on all the upfront costs of setting up the required charging infrastructure at the operator depot. In return, it takes ownership of the vehicle batteries and “leases” them to the operator, while also providing ongoing support such as charging management software and battery maintenance. At the end of the contract, Zenobē takes back the batteries and repurposes them for a second life in applications such as stationary storage.

The company website lists several case studies, primarily from projects in the UK, in order to demonstrate its experience in installing charging infrastructure and managing energy storage assets. By financing the upfront investment, Zenobē takes on much of the risk of switching to electric vehicles on behalf of the operator, while “betting” on the value of the battery, which it will recoup through fees and its second-life usage.

In its case studies, Zenobē explains how it supported many of the largest British transport operators, such as First Group, National Express, and Stagecoach, to electrify their fleets. In certain cases, the OEM brought Zenobē as a partner to support the end customer; Zenobē has a longstanding relationship with Scottish bus builder Alexander Dennis.

Inside the Abellio London bus depot - one of several British operators supported by Zenobe

Zenobē started out in 2017, named in tribute to the celebrated inventor and electrical engineer, Zénobe Gramme (a Belgian). Initially, Zenobē wanted to simply own and lease batteries, but it quickly realised that clients would need considerable support in setting up and managing their charging infrastructure. After running into issues with interoperability of chargers and vehicles time and again, Zenobē opened a customer testing centre in Portsmouth in 2023, where it also carries out commissioning and integration of equipment before it first arrives with the end user.

Moving from stationary energy storage to electric vehicles was a big leap for the company and introduced many new variables that complicated the process of setting up the infrastructure. It involved a considerable amount of trial and error and “on the fly” fixes when problems arose. Using what it has learned from these projects, Zenobē is now able to offer an “end-to-end solution”, that is to say a service which covers initial planning, financing, setup and installation, management (using its in-house software), and battery repurposing or recycling.

What Zenobē is offering to the American market is its hard-won experience in getting things wrong, dealing with unforeseen problems, and making things right so that it has become one of the largest charging service providers for commercial vehicles in the UK (and with several customers abroad in Europe and Australia). While the company accepts that it is arriving “late” to the market, it believes that its experience in resolving issues and scaling up infrastructure projects give it an edge over the competition. It is targeting segments such as school buses first, supporting customers in bidding for grants and getting vehicles on the road as early as the autumn. In both the UK and the U.S., however, Zenobē plans to expand into the truck market, using the experience it has gained with buses.

¹ With thanks to Robert Long, BD Manager – Second Life; Walter Watson, EVP Partnerships and Operations – Fleet; and Maggie Clancy, EVP U.S. EV Sales and Marketing, who spoke at length with T&BB during the show.