When Yoshi Mobility opened its store in 2015, the philosophy was undeniable, according to CEO and co-founder Bryan Frist: “We started with the undeniable concept of never going to the gas station again. “
That’s when the Nashville, Tennessee-based company started its direct-to-customer gas delivery business and expanded to offer other on-site services, adding detailing and windshield wiper washing, inspections and replacement.
Today, the company that started with the idea that motorists will never have to make it all the way to a gas station means that EV fleet operators will never again have to set up shop or make a stopover at a charging station.
Starting this year, Yoshi Mobility will begin converting 600 General Motors BrightDrop Zevo electric delivery vans into cellular superchargers for electric vehicles, the company announced Monday.
These superchargers are necessarily 240 kW DC fast chargers that head to a fleet’s parking lot and distribute electrons from the cell charger battery.
Bryan Frist, Co-Founder & CEO, Yoshi Mobility
“There’s a critical challenge in the grid, so we think we can boost power supply over the long term and that’s a unique way to do that,” Frist said in an interview. “The cell evaluator can score and then multiplex all the foci. We tell other people that you can electrify each and every area of your parking lot.
Each cellular compressor can service between five and seven vehicles, according to Frist. With two compressors running on a fleet operator’s ground, one would service a vehicle while the other would qualify its own off-grid load and alternate, according to Frist.
“What we’re saying is we can do the same load in 3 1/2 hours, we can do it in 10 minutes, and we can move around your yard,” Frist says. “You don’t need to set up the entire infrastructure. ” You don’t need to build it. You’ve just signed a contract with us.
The company plans to start with a “handful” of cellular compressors in BrightDrop pickup trucks, but plans to ramp up production and begin marketing more widely in the first quarter of 2025.
Yoshi Mobility’s first cellular compressors are built on six hundred GM BrightDrop Zevo electric delivery vans.
Although it started with the BrightDrop Zevo 600, Yoshi Mobility is also creating superchargers in Chevrolet Silverado electric pickup trucks, though the generation is “vehicle-agnostic,” the company said. The key, according to Frist, is to use a giant vehicle sufficient to accommodate a battery with a capacity greater than what would force a general electric vehicle.
The current concentration is on cars made through General Motors Co. , as the automaker is the main investor in Yoshi Mobility, Fist said.
The cellular compressors will complement Yoshi Mobility’s existing supply of high-capacity cellular turbines installed on a fleet operator’s land, generating up to one megawatt of power and servicing more cars than cellular units.
The addition of mobile EV charging for fleets comes two months after Yoshi Mobility acquired Mobile Auto Concepts Inc. -MACi, with the goal of strengthening its on-site service offering and expanding its presence on the West Coast.
The San Francisco-based company specializes in offering on-site tire maintenance and replacement, preventative maintenance, multi-point inspections, and environmentally friendly washdowns.
Its main consumers are ZipCar, UpShift Inc, and the City of San Francisco.
Expanding the facility is key to Yoshi Mobility’s growth, but with the arrival of its mobile EV superchargers, Frist says the company is embracing its role in accelerating fleets’ transition to electric, stating, “Behind AI, this is the biggest transition. “of our generation.
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