Circle K Looks to Scale EV Charging Operations
LAVAL, Québec — Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. is optimizing the management of its electric vehicle (EV) network through a new partnership with Driivz.
Circle K, the global convenience store brand of Couche-Tard, migrated its network of more than 600 public EV charging stations in Europe and North America onto the Driivz platform, an end-to-end smart EV charging and energy management software solution.
The platform 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 multicharger 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 Circle K. "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."
Circle K began its venture into EV charging outside of Europe in South Carolina in 2022. Plans called to bring charging units to 200 Circle K and Couche-Tard convenience stores across North America over the next two years, as Convenience Store News previously reported.
Driivz met the essential requirements for Circle K's business in both Europe and North America, such as support for cross-border payments, multiple currencies and tariffs, complex reconciliations and international roaming. Among the key deciding factors were Driivz's maturity on core charging services, the flexibility of the platform, the competence of the people and its vision of the future, the company stated.
The Driivz platform uses APIs to integrate with Circle K's existing mobility platform, as well as with energy distribution and transmission systems. Technologies such as self-healing algorithms to address up to 80 percent of charger issues automatically and sophisticated energy management also figured strongly in the selection of the Driivz platform. Future proofing is also ensured through Driivz's support for industry standards, including operating a "golden node" for OCPI 2.0.1 and enabling plug-and-charge technologies through ISO 15118, according to the company.
"We are honored to be chosen by Circle K and entrusted with helping to manage an EV charging infrastructure of such reach and magnitude," said Doron Frenkel, founder and CEO of Driivz. "We are thrilled to be a part of Circle K's sustainability journey as we create a more responsible future and strive towards a cleaner planet."
Tel Aviv, Israel-based Driivz is an independent company and wholly owned subsidiary of Vontier. The Driivz platform serves as the operating system for the largest EV charging network operators, currently managing tens of thousands of public chargers (100,000-plus in roaming) and hundreds of millions of transactions for more than 1 million EV drivers in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Clients include Shell, Volvo Group, EVgo, Centrica, Circle K, ElaadNL, ESB, Mer and eMobility Power.
Laval-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. operates in 24 countries and territories, with close to 14,300 stores, of which approximately 10,900 offer road transportation fuel. With its well-known Couche-Tard and Circle K banners, Couche-Tard is one of the largest independent c-store operators in the United States, and is a leader in the c-store industry and road transportation fuel retail in Canada, Scandinavia, the Baltics and Ireland.