In an era where electrification is becoming a cornerstone of corporate sustainability and operational efficiency, ABM is stepping forward as a comprehensive service provider for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. With over a decade of experience, ABM offers a full spectrum of services, from initial design and build-out to ongoing operations and maintenance, enabling businesses to focus on their core operations while seamlessly integrating EV fleets.
ABM’s Evolving Role in EV Charging Infrastructure
ABM, a company with a long-standing reputation for providing a wide array of facility management and transportation services, has significantly expanded its eMobility portfolio. Initially focusing on passenger car charging and supporting original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in electrifying dealerships and supply chains, ABM has strategically pivoted towards commercial vehicle fleets.
“The charging infrastructure business at ABM started a little over ten years ago,” explains Satish Jayaram, ABM’s Senior Vice President of eMobility. “For the first seven or eight years we were heavily passenger car-focused.”
The company’s eMobility offerings are structured into two primary segments: parking infrastructure and OEM support. ABM has deployed over 30,000 chargers in its first decade, serving diverse locations like parking garages, airports, and corporate campuses. However, the emergence of commercial EVs has prompted a significant shift.
“We started seeing the introduction of commercial vehicles from 2022 on, and we’ve significantly pivoted our business to address Class 2 through Class 8 vehicles,” Jayaram noted. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve been focused on private fleets. Corporate fleets have strong synergies with ABM because we service corporations from a facilities perspective. That was a synergistic space for us, corporate fleets that are electrifying, and also public infrastructure such as school bus fleets, transit fleets, port fleets. The vast majority of our business today is fleets.”
Comprehensive Fleet EV Charging as a Service
ABM’s approach to EV charging for fleets is a true “charging as a service” model. This encompasses the entire lifecycle of the charging infrastructure, ensuring reliability and efficiency for fleet operators.
“In the EV charging space, we do complete design and build for fleets, as well as operations and maintenance,” Jayaram stated. “We take it from a conceptual design all the way through procurement and construction. And we have a central network operations center that delivers a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to the fleet operator through the life cycle of the infrastructure.”
This end-to-end service model includes a dedicated network operations center in Cummings, Georgia, supported by field engineers who ensure adherence to SLAs for depot charging facilities. Beyond EV charging, ABM often leverages its existing integrated facilities management services to support these clients, providing mechanical, electrical, and general facility upkeep for depots and corporate entities.
Integrating eMobility with Facilities Management
The synergy between ABM’s established facilities management expertise and its burgeoning eMobility services offers a distinct advantage. Many clients who are electrifying their fleets are already ABM customers for other services.
“Several of these customers we touch in one form or fashion from ABM’s core integrated facilities management,” Jayaram explained. “In many of these examples, we are providing mechanical services, integrated facility services for depots and for the parent entity, so there’s a fair bit of synergy with the electrification and technical services work that we provide.”
While ABM does not provide the vehicles themselves, it maintains partnerships with third-party financiers to assist clients with vehicle acquisition.
The Role of RavenVolt in Electrification Projects
ABM’s wholly-owned subsidiary, RavenVolt, plays a critical role in the electrification process, particularly in the complex electrical infrastructure design and build-out.
“RavenVolt provides the front-end design engineering—everything to do with getting power to the site, including any necessary utility power upgrades, which is more often than not the case, especially in the public fleet space,” said Jayaram. “Oftentimes we find that customers want resiliency, so they need switchgear upgrades. In some cases, depending on the markets that they operate in and the utility jurisdictions they’re in, energy management is required, given the cost of electricity at varying times. RavenVolt provides all of the electrical infrastructure design, build and construction of the microgrid portions of the solution.”
Microgrids: Enhancing Resiliency, Sustainability, and Economics
Microgrids are a key component of ABM’s strategy for modern EV charging depots, addressing critical fleet operational needs.
“The way we think about microgrids is essentially three things. One is resiliency,” Jayaram stated. “How do we ensure to a fleet customer that the vehicles are charged when the shift starts at 6 am, or when you’re delivering a community service that’s really critical?”
The second pillar is sustainability. “The second part of what the microgrid delivers is meeting the client’s stated sustainability goal.”
The third, and often most complex, aspect is economics. Fleet managers are grappling with the shift from predictable diesel fuel costs to variable electricity pricing.
“I’ll give you a good example. I was talking to a fleet operator last week, and they purchased a bunch of electric vehicles,” Jayaram shared. “… this fleet manager said, ‘I know exactly how much diesel to buy, I know how much it costs on a per-mile basis. … Now I have all these electric vehicles coming in. I don’t know what the cost of power is, or how to manage my cost of electricity denominated by per-mile driven. It’s a whole new space for me.’”
ABM’s microgrid solutions aim to optimize electricity costs on a per-mile basis through sophisticated energy management. These systems can range from simple generator backups to complex integrations of solar power, batteries, and generators, designed to manage charging loads and mitigate grid impact.
“A microgrid could be as simple as having a generator that provides resiliency, or it could be as complex as projects we’ve done that include solar, generators and batteries so you can optimize your type of charging, and reduce the shock to the grid when you have 50 vehicles that all plug in at the same time,” Jayaram elaborated.
Fleet managers are increasingly focused on the total cost per mile, encompassing both operational expenses and capital investment over the asset’s lifecycle.
Case Study: School Bus Electrification Challenges and Solutions
ABM often steps in when initial EV infrastructure plans fall short. A recent project highlighted the complexities of school bus electrification.
“We were working on a school bus electrification project. The school district, because there were some funds available from the state and the federal government, purchased a bunch of electric school buses,” Jayaram recounted. “The school buses showed up, and I think they had 16 Level 2 chargers for 70 buses. The perception was, ‘Hey, we could just install a few more chargers and we’re good to go.’ But for that volume of electric buses, it’s not just putting on a few more chargers. There’s a whole bunch of infrastructure you need to build out, including getting an additional service line from the utility, and upgrading the switchgear.”
Recognizing that construction timelines can be lengthy, ABM developed an interim solution. “The answer was not to bring a bunch of diesel generators to power electric buses, because that fundamentally defeats the purpose from an emissions perspective,” Jayaram stated. Instead, they implemented a temporary system combining batteries with propane generators, chosen for their lower emissions profile compared to diesel or gasoline.
“The batteries in this case were the initial power source that was powered by the grid. In this particular use case that worked well, because you didn’t need as many generators,” he added. This hybrid approach ensured charging availability during operational shifts while grid power charged the batteries.
Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) Technology
While V2G technology holds significant promise, ABM is approaching its commercial deployment with caution, focusing on pilot projects rather than widespread implementation.
“We have pilot projects, but it is not broadly prevalent yet—it depends on the jurisdiction,” Jayaram said. “Obviously electric school buses are a great application for vehicle-to-grid.”
He highlighted that the primary hurdles are not technological but relate to grid interdependency, scheduling, and the safe reverse flow of power. “There’s safety things that need to get resolved, there’s standards that have been written and are being piloted right now at several of the utilities.”
Hardware and Software Integration Strategy
ABM’s strategy involves selecting the best-fit hardware and software solutions from third-party providers, focusing on system integration rather than proprietary development.
“We provide hardware that best suits the application. We don’t do white labeling of hardware per se,” Jayaram explained. “We work with a leading group of hardware providers and have strong relationships with them.”
The company’s value proposition lies in its ability to integrate diverse hardware and software networks into a unified management system. “The value add that we bring is that it doesn’t matter which network you’ve picked—we will integrate all of that in a single pane of glass,” he stated. “You can see all the network operating systems on the chargers, the generators, the switchgear, you have eyes on all of it.”
ABM utilizes internally developed software to coordinate these disparate components, providing a holistic view of the entire electrical infrastructure.
The ABM Electrification Center: Driving Innovation
To foster innovation and streamline the development process, ABM has invested in an Electrification Center.
“We invested in this electrification center to help drive more innovation across the whole tech stack—batteries, chargers, solar, switchgear, microgrid controls and a variety of charging hardware,” Jayaram said. “What we do there is help clients simulate their end use cases.”
This center allows clients to simulate operational scenarios, test interoperability between different vehicle and charger types, and conduct rapid root cause analysis for potential issues. It also serves as a critical training facility for ABM’s field engineers.
“We had upwards of 25 different manufacturers’ hardware in there,” Jayaram added, emphasizing the center’s vendor-agnostic approach.
Addressing Interoperability and Obsolescence
Interoperability remains a significant challenge in the rapidly evolving EV ecosystem, largely due to frequent firmware updates across vehicles, chargers, and network software.
“Firmware is sort of the bane of the industry from a hardware perspective. Firmware never stays stagnant, and use cases change dramatically, so firmware changes happen a lot,” Jayaram observed. “It’s a constant exercise, because everyone is innovating and changing things across the ecosystem.”
Regarding hardware longevity, ABM differentiates between obsolescence and performance degradation. While DC fast chargers might typically operate for five to eight years, their actual lifespan is heavily influenced by utilization rates. High-utilization sites, operating at 85% or more, present different challenges than those with 30-40% utilization.
Future Trends in EV Charging
ABM anticipates continued robust growth in fleet electrification, particularly with the increasing availability of Class 7 and Class 8 electric trucks.
“The electrification of transport is an area that will continue to grow, and the fleet side of that is probably the most interesting space from an adoption perspective,” Jayaram stated. “The numbers speak for themselves. A lot of new vehicles are starting to come out between Class 3 and Class 8.”
Megawatt charging systems (MCS) are also on ABM’s radar, with the company keen to address the utility infrastructure challenges associated with this next generation of high-power charging. ABM’s integrated approach, combining microgrid capabilities with EV charging services, positions it to help clients navigate the complex power demands of heavy-duty electrification and grid modernization efforts.
“Between data centers, an aging grid and Class 6 through Class 8 electrification, we’re going to see all kinds of challenges,” Jayaram concluded. “By putting our microgrid business and our EV charging business together, we’re able to provide power more quickly and seamlessly to electric infrastructure, and that’s where I think the market will need players like us to come in and innovate.”