Zeem Solutions changes the charging game for commercial EVs

It’s no secret that electric vehicle (EV) adoption has struggled to fulfill its potential at the commercial fleet level. Uncertainty over power availability and costs, charging station access and charger compatibility and uptime – plus the high cost to install charging stations in their own depots – has caused many fleets to hesitate to invest heavily in electrification.

Paul Gioupis, founder and CEO, Zeem Solutions. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

Los Angeles, Calif.-based Zeem Solutions is seeking to address this – and help to advance electrification adoption – with a unique service model that enables fleets of all sizes to choose the class and configuration of vehicles they need and drive them under an all-in lease that includes supervised overnight charging, regular maintenance and cleaning, secure parking and 24/7/365 operations at Zeem’s mobility hubs. Fleets can also contract these services for their owned vehicles.

“Through feedback with our customers, we developed this model where we have contracts available for the fleets [with] guaranteed access to charging, which is a real big game changer,” said Margaret Boelter, policy & business development analyst, Zeem.

The company’s first depot was installed near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and is described as one of the largest commercial charging depots in the world, servicing vehicles from Class 1 to 8. Zeem plans to continue to build and operate more zero-emission vehicle depots and customer-located charging facilities throughout the country near ports, airports and warehousing and distribution centers.

Currently, it’s building a site in Long Beach, Calif., specifically focused on Class 8 EV charging. And it recently announced it would build an EV charging facility for electric trucks near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac) in Seattle, Wash., as part of a grant award to advance EV adoption.

Yet, the technology goes beyond vehicles and chargers. “We’re also exploring the battery storage space and on-site generation space,” said Boelter, “thinking about these depots as a full ecosystem of clean trucking.”

Ramping up

Paul Gioupis, CEO, started Zeem Solutions in 2017, bringing in an experienced team and initiating conversations with fleet owners about their challenges and impediments in going all-electric. At the same time, the company’s technical team began working with OEMs to research and test available EV-charger combinations to identify what worked and what didn’t.

Zeem maintains a fleet of electric vehicles available under an all-in lease. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

Though the supply challenges post-COVID caused some hiccups, Zeem was able to launch its first charging depot in December 2021, a mile and a half from the main terminal at LAX, with just six chargers and a small transformer provided on loan.

“One of our strategies is deploying the infrastructure and charging so that – while we wait for the power to be available from the utility – we can in the short term get things up and running and really build that base with the fleet customers,” said Boelter.

“We effectively started business with that in April-May of 2022,” said Rick Ecker, vice president of operations at Zeem. “Our first customer was Hertz Rent-a-Car… We were doing anywhere from 100 to 200 cars a day for Hertz.

“We did probably 26,000 charge sessions that first year with those six chargers, and it was something like a little over 150,000 kW. We’re pretty proud of ourselves to have that with seven full-time employees... running the depot seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”

A powerful base

Business quickly expanded to include Avis and other rental companies, select ride share firms and even delivery companies with Class 5 EVs. Then, the company gained its first Class 8 truck customer.

The LAX Depot includes a total of 78 ABB E-mobility-supplied DC fast charging ports and 53 Level 2 charging ports. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

By that point, a secondary hub a block or so from the main LAX depot was already in place. “We ended up having the rest of our switch gear and chargers delivered by the end of 2022 and we opened up both [LAX] locations officially in the beginning of January 2024,” said Eckert. “And in 2024, we did 1,000,001 charging sessions and something like 8 million kW dispensed.”

Today, the LAX Depot serves as the base of operation for more than a dozen third-party cargo and passenger fleets, with a total of 78 ABB E-mobility-supplied DC fast charging ports and 53 Level 2 charging ports, secure EV and driver parking with 24/7 staffing, a drivers’ lounge with Wi-Fi and workspace and other amenities. The LAX Depot also has charging stations and parking for ride share customers and delivery van-based services; available office space for customers; plus a full shop to service Zeem’s fleet of leased EVs, as well as to perform prep and warranty work for dealers and OEMs.

“One of the benefits of contracting with us as a fleet is that we’re able to do a lot of the maintenance work a lot faster than having to wait for someone from the OEM to send someone out, and that’s several days later,” Boelter pointed out.

98% charger uptime

As an authorized service and warranty center for ABB E-mobility, Zeem also knows what it’s doing when it comes to ensuring charger uptime.

“Anybody who’s been to a public charging station – you’re going to have five chargers, three work, two are broken, the handles are destroyed. No one’s in a rush to fix it,” Eckert commented. Zeem, on the other hand, is able to do its own service work to ensure its chargers are consistently ready for operation.

Further aiding charger reliability is the “white glove service” Zeem provides for customers. “We don’t let the customers charge [the vehicles],” Eckert explained. Rather, drivers bring the vehicles in and park them in their designated spots. The vehicles are inspected and serviced (if needed), cleaned and fully charged so they’re ready to roll when the drivers arrive for the next shift.

Vehicles are parked in designated spots, then Zeem technicians clean, service and charge them in preparation for the next shift. (Photo: Becky Schultz)

“We have controlled access at the site, which is in contrast to the public access charging that you might see for the light-duty sector or for your own personal vehicle,” said Boelter. “A lot of the benefits of that are seen for our fleet [customers], because they want guaranteed access to charging. They want to be able to rely on being able to use a charger or have their vehicle charged when they need it, rather than showing up to a public charger that may be busy, may be broken, may not work with their vehicle. That’s a lot of uncertainty for a business.”

“Because we operate everything ourselves, our uptime is 98%,” Gioupis stated, adding that integration of the charger and vehicles is highly important to ensure reliable performance. “If you don’t, you’re not going to have a successful operation.”

For those customers who are considering installing their own charging hub, Zeem can serve as an adviser to maximize the chances of success.

“If you talk to a charger company, the company wants to sell you their charger,” said Gioupis. “We’re neutral. We don’t have a preference. We know what vehicle to what charger. Just tell me… what are you trying to do? How many hills, how many grades, how many duty cycles? ‘Okay, this is the vehicle [or charger] you should have.’ So, we come from a different side.”

“Also, it’s super technical to design and install and operate the infrastructure,” Boelter pointed out. “If that’s not your bread-and-butter business, spending a ton of time on that doesn’t make a lot of sense. So, we are technical advisers there, and then we also help fleets with grant applications.”

This includes walking customers through grants and incentive programs for acquiring EVs and/or installing on-site charging.

OEM partner

In addition, Zeem can give new EV customers firsthand experience with the latest vehicles. “We get first look at a lot of the new equipment, which is really exciting, and so we’re able to offer test drives of some of the cutting-edge technology,” Boelter said.

“Also, we’ve pointed out a lot of issues with vehicles or chargers to the OEMs, to the manufacturers,” she continued, “because we’re often the first folks to be doing the ‘handshake’ between a charger and a vehicle.”

“In the beginning, [OEMs] thought we were threatening. They thought that we were competitive to their business,” Gioupis commented. “Now they realize ‘You’re a great customer,’ so they go above and beyond on serviceability, giving us more transparency.

“The OEMs realize after a while, ‘You’re an extension of our sales, you’re an extension of our maintenance,’ he added. “They realize we’re the best partner they could have.”

Grant aids EV adoption, depot construction

Zeem Solutions will build an EV charging facility near SeaTac Airport and six local fleet operators will purchase 19 new electric Class 8 drayage trucks thanks to a $5.12 million grant from the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA). The grant will facilitate zero-emission freight delivery of containers from the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma to inland warehouses.

(Photo: Zeem Solutions)

The six truck fleet operators included in the grant award are now able to purchase the trucks more affordably, and the fleets will charge and domicile the trucks at Zeem’s SeaTac Depot, which will be located just south of SeaTac Airport, near warehouse and distribution centers that see a large volume of truck deliveries. In addition to serving trucks, the depot will serve fleets operating light-, medium- and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles.

In the initial phase of operations, Zeem will energize six DC fast charger ports, using 400-kW charging hardware to allow quick charging stops and overnight charging. It plans to expand the number of chargers to enable 250 vehicles to charge per day, with parking capacity for 70 vehicles overnight.

The facility will also offer services such as parking, security, maintenance and cleaning for a range of EV fleets, from electric ride share cars and airport shuttles through Class 8 trucks.