Highland Electric Fleets, a provider of full-service school bus electrification subscriptions in North America, and Synop, an AI-based, single-platform management service for commercial electric vehicle (EV) fleets, have entered into a long-term strategic partnership to manage complex EV fleet charging, grid connection and fleet operations.
Through the partnership, school districts, fleet owners and third-party fleet management companies can focus on delivering children to school in a safe, quiet and clean environment while services including smart charge management, fleet operations, AI-driven forecasting tools and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) optimization are all managed in the background.
The integration of Synop supports Highland’s full-service subscription model, which provides the school buses, installs charging infrastructure, supports driver and mechanic training and long-term bus maintenance, and more. Synop’s back-end platform manages fleet-wide V2G controls and complex coordination between vehicles, utilities and energy markets to ensure that fleets with Highland subscriptions provide the maximum benefit to both customers and the grid, without the need for customer intervention. Customers who want deeper visibility into fleet operations can use Synop to see their vehicles in real-time throughout the day and track their state of charge and fleet performance, among other things.
“Synop lets us deliver a seamless experience for our customers, with detailed fleet information for customers who want that visibility,” says Highland CEO Duncan McIntyre. “By managing vehicle uptime, charging, and complex data on fleet operations for any brand of electric bus, Synop’s sophisticated technology enables us to deliver on our promise to customers that they will have a reliably charged electric school bus every school day.”
These tools allow Highland to build V2G and other ancillary services into its subscriptions, lowering the cost for customers and ensuring that vehicles are always ready for their daily routes and also able to support the local electric grid when needed. In addition, the interoperability of the Synop platform allows Highland to offer its customers the bus manufacturer of their choice.
“This partnership with Synop enables Highland to offer districts a comprehensive subscription that enables them to focus on what they do best – delivering children safely to and from school without having to manage the complexities that come with EV charging,” adds McIntyre.
“We’re excited to partner with the market leader in school bus electrification to help enable the electric transition and set the standard for operating electric school buses at scale,” states Gagan Dhillon, Synop’s CEO. “This partnership will help Synop deliver our technology to school districts all across North America and enable them to rapidly transition away from diesel-powered buses. We look forward to working with Highland and offering easy-to-use charging and energy management solutions to districts across the country.”
