Multiforce Systems provides automated fuel management systems that help fleet operators control fuel costs. Now the company has launched a new line specially designed for EVs. FuelForce EV offers energy management and control for fleets of plug-in vehicles. In collaboration with Cyber Switching, a power management company based in Silicon Valley, Multiforce has developed the FuelForce 814-EV, the first in a suite of products that will authorize, monitor, control, and track EV charging and power usage.
Sitting between the electrical panel and the EV chargers, the 814-EV provides a control point for fleets, validating each charging transaction and tying that data back to the driver, vehicle, department, etc. With FuelServe.net, Multiforce’s cloud-based system, fleet managers can access power utilization reports from any device with a web browser. These reports can be combined with similar data for diesel, gasoline, etc, providing a single platform for the management of all fleet fuels.
The heart of the FuelForce EV platform is power management technology from power distribution specialist Cyber Switching. “The collaboration between Multiforce and Cyber Switching has created a product that allows fleet personnel to authorize and control the dispensing of electricity to EVs while collecting accurate, critical energy usage, and vehicle data for accounting and fleet maintenance needs,” explains Chuck Reynolds, CEO of Cyber Switching.
“With the ever-growing base of electric vehicles, the time has come for a fuel management system to help fleet managers manage electric vehicle charging and control the costs of doing so, all from the same platform they manage their diesel and unleaded fueling,” said Multiforce President Tom Bates. “We’ve designed this patent-pending approach so that it will work with standard Electric Vehicle chargers and all standard Fuel Management Systems, not just our own.”
“Charging can be scheduled in a way to avoid Utility Demand Charges or Peak Rates,” explained Bates. “Utility billing for electricity is much different than the standard billing approach for other fuels, and this creates a dilemma for fleet managers required to appropriately allocate costs to departments using EVs. Depending on the time of day and the overall electricity use of an organization, the costs for charging an electric vehicle can vary greatly. This is vastly different than monitoring and managing liquid fuels.”
Source: Multiforce Systems