Finding their spark: How Envirospark took their network cross-country

When Aaron and Stephanie Luque founded EnviroSpark Energy Solutions 7 years ago, it was with the primary goal of driving EV adoption through charging infrastructure development.  “It was our hope that every completed installation would result in people seeing the stations, and becoming a little more comfortable with the idea of switching to an EV.”  The early days of raising EV awareness included monthly visits to Tesla and Nissan dealerships in Atlanta while bearing gifts of donuts and coffee, and offering residential installation packages for new EV owners wishing to charge conveniently at home. 

Concurrently, CEO Aaron would also visit local businesses in an attempt to raise awareness for public infrastructure, and see if they would be open to the possibility of having stations installed on their properties. This was at a time when EV sales represented less than one percent of all new vehicle purchases. 

"eDRV has been a fantastic provider of software and back-office services for our network"

Stephanie fondly recounts the adventures (or misadventures) of cross country promotional road trips in their electric car before extensive EV chargers were available, along with the creative charging solutions they were forced to try in order to compensate for the lack of infrastructure. “We were road tripping from Atlanta to California promoting Tesla’s Destination Charging Program, and were running dangerously close to zero range in our EV in the middle of nowhere. We had to stop at an RV park near a National Park in Colorado and use a charging adapter to slowly charge our electric car, sandwiched between all these huge RV campers. It still gives us a good laugh!”

Today EnviroSpark zips cross-country installing everything from Tesla and Electrify America Supercharging stations along highway corridors, to major government, retail, and multi-family residential portfolio clients. Offering customized charging solutions wherever their customers need it, the company services clients in the retail, workplace and multi-residential space across the US and Canada.

In the early days of the company, it became clear that the right software was needed for their charging stations. Envirospark was looking for an ideal partner to assist with its goal of becoming a major charging owner-operator in their own right. After running a few pilot programs and evaluating several options in fall 2020 and spring 2021, EnviroSpark selected eDRV to serve as their primary software developer. “The stations worked great out-of-the-box,” Aaron said of their early encounters with eDRV’s charging solutions as it allowed their stations to be completely customized according to what they were looking for in each charging use-case. “eDRV has been a fantastic provider of software and back-office services for our network ever since.”

"We had to stop at an RV park near a National Park in Colorado and use a charging adapter to slowly charge our electric car, sandwiched between all these huge RV campers. It still gives us a good laugh!”

Commending the eDRV solution's flexibility, Aaron noted the lightning speed at which they could roll out new features and updates. This included using eDRV's APIs for downloading data and creating custom reports. “eDRV is the software driver of our user experience.”

Being the world’s first open API platform for charging management, eDRV aims to make the technology accessible to customers and developers to tailor for their requirements with industry leading documentation. This open approach to software influences the way eDRV interacts with its partners as well. “We were ultra-impressed by the follow-through and communication,” Aaron said about their ability to deliver on their networks within their deadlines. “They’re upfront and as good as it gets when it comes to delivering on timelines.” 

This constant communication is very much a two-way street and eDRV stands to gain much from partnering up with EnviroSpark.“From its pilot program the partnership with Envirospark has rapidly grown to a vibrant commercial relationship and we’re very excited to be partners in their success.” eDRV CTO Rupul Safaya said, “The openness and adaptability of our APIs allow our customers to build  tailored experiences for drivers and integrate EV charging networks with adjacent systems.”

eDRV removes the friction for businesses offering EV charging services. To find out how customers across multi-family apartments, commercial locations, retail, fleet, and highway charging locations are using our solutions, book a call with us today.