Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is using Driivz’s end-to-end smart EV charging and energy management software platform for its network of more than 600 public electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations in Europe and North America, the software supplier said.
The Driivz solution includes integrated software modules for EV charging operations optimization, asset management, user and driver management, EV billing and analytics. The solution also includes Driivz smart energy management solution for monitoring, managing and optimizing energy consumption across multi-charger sites, campuses, fleet depots and home charging.
“We needed a future-proof, robust EV charging management solution with the scalability to handle our rapid growth and the flexibility to connect EV charging to the wider Circle K ecosystem,” said Johan Grönlund, product director of the new global emobility division of Couche-Tard’s Circle K convenience-store network. “The partnership with Driivz will enable us to scale our business, capture synergies across countries and continents and help meet our customers’ expectations for availability, stability and a seamless charging experience.”
Support for cross-border payments, multiple currencies and tariffs, complex reconciliations and international roaming were essential requirements for Circle K’s business in both Europe and North America, the company said.
The Driivz platform uses application programming interface (APIs) to integrate with Circle K’s existing mobility platform, as well as with energy distribution and transmission systems. It also offers technologies such as energy management and self-healing algorithms to address up to 80% of charger issues automatically, as well as support for industry standards including operating a “golden node” for OCPI 2.0.1 and enabling plug-and-charge technologies through ISO 15118.
Driivz is a subsidiary of Vontier, is a Tel Aviv, Israel-based software supplier to EV charging operators and service providers. The company’s cloud-based platform spans EV charging operations, energy management, advanced billing capabilities and driver self-service tools. The Driivz platform serves as the operating system for EV charging network operators managing tens of thousands of public chargers and hundreds of millions of transactions for more than one million EV drivers, in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
- Alimentation Couche-Tard is No. 2 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard’s 24-country network includes more than 7,100 c-stores in the United States, primarily under the Circle K and Holiday Stationstores banners, and approximately 2,100 in Canada under the Circle K, Mac’s and Couche-Tard banners. In Europe, under the Circle K and other banners, Couche-Tard operates a retail network in Scandinavia, Ireland, Poland, the Baltics and Russia with more than 2,700 stores and unmanned automated fuel stations. And under licensing agreements, more than 2,200 stores operate under the Circle K banner in 15 other countries and territories (Cambodia, Egypt, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Macau, Mexico, Mongolia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam). This brings Couche-Tard’s total worldwide network to approximately 14,300 mostly Circle K-branded stores.
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