With a Pierre Péladeau scholarship of $50,000, three UQAM graduates managed to create their company Recharge Véhicule Électrique (RVE), which, thanks to $8 million in funding, is today with its energy management system for electric vehicles for multi-family homes aimed at the American market.
The company, founded in 2015 by David Corbeil and his sister Marie-Pier, offers its users an intelligent charging solution.
If you want to install a charging station for your new car in buildings with several properties, you will encounter several pitfalls.
“With homeowners’ associations, it’s often a hurdle. They have to convince other owners of the value of installing a terminal, explains Frédéric Boucher, RVE’s chief financial officer. Once this is done, our technology allows the tenant to connect the power to their electrical panel without causing overload.
The RVE system helps prevent overloading of a condominium or home’s electrical system after an electrical connection is installed. It is always installed near the electricity meter. (Courtesy of RVE)
The RVE system is placed near the meters in the electrical room.
“If your washer and dryer are running at the same time and you have a turkey in the oven, you are using 80% of your electrical capacity,” adds Mr. Boucher. Your terminal will go into load shedding mode for 15 minutes, but your car’s charging cycle will not be affected.”
Take on Uncle Sam
After selling 30,000 systems in North America, half of them to private customers, RVE wants to attack the American market. An operation is possible thanks to the nearly $10 million in funding the company has received in recent months.
In addition to a $2.7 million provincial government grant in May, RVE received another grant earlier this month.
Investissement Québec, Fondaction and Exportation Développement Canada (EDC) became shareholders by donating $2 million each. And the Quebec government invested another amount of around $2 million.
Frédéric Boucher, CFO of RVE, is pleased about his company’s expansion in the USA. Courtesy of RVE
“This allows us to improve our technology and our algorithms,” mentions Frédéric Boucher. The addition of the three shareholders will help us expand in the United States in the coming years.”
RVE will put the California and East Coast markets at the top of its list. Why California? The population has the same incentives to buy an electric vehicle as in Quebec. Politicians are also aiming to abolish gasoline vehicles by 2035.
“We are in the process of building our sales teams. We have signed contracts with several major American distributors. We have to visit the branches of these companies and make our product known to the electricians. Our growth will come from this.”
To change the mentality
In the coming years, the number of electrical terminal installations will increase significantly. Electricians will play a key role in this process through their choice of materials.
“They often have the reflex to replace the electrical panels to increase the capacity of the electrical rooms or apartments,” explains Frédéric Boucher. If you install a 200 amp box every time you install it, it will impact Hydro-Québec.
“That means we have to expand our dams and wind farms more quickly. This is not necessary with our technology as it adapts to the existing electrical capacity.”
MEMORY
David Corbeil, a business graduate from the School of Management Sciences (ESG UQAM), and his sister Marie-Pier (a graphic design graduate from UQAM) won the Pierre Péladeau Scholarship worth $50,000 in 2015 to develop their business Start charging electric vehicles The Pierre Péladeau scholarships awarded by Quebecor aim to promote business creation among university students in Quebec.