Energy services firm Enel X will electrify thousands of commercial vehicles across the country under a new partnership with a New Hampshire company.
Enel X, which is based in Italy, with offices in Boston's Seaport district, announced a partnership Wednesday with Merchants Fleet to install the its smart EV supply equipment and charging ports into the fleet management company's vehicles.
Enel X makes smart home charging stations and other EV products. Under the partnership, Merchants Fleet will market a lease package that includes Enel X's JuiceBox charging station and installation services, said Giovanni Bertolino, head of e-mobility for the North American division.
"Merchants is probably one of the largest fleet operators in North America. This is very important for us," Bertolino told the Business Journal. "This is a model that we have been spearheading, and I'm very happy of the success we've been having so far in supporting the take-home fleet model. This partnership with Merchants will give us access to a very large pool of demand."
Merchants Fleet manages roughly 150,000 vehicles for its clients nationwide. While the companies plan to market the new lease package to prospective clients, the partnership opens the possibility for Enel X to install charging stations in the vehicles leased by existing clients, Bertolino said.
The lease package involves the residential product, rather than the commercial version that has more features. Using the residential charging station, a company could have an employee charge a company electric vehicle at home.
Enel X's North America division, which has offices in the Seaport district, has 4,500 business customers. In June, Enel X announced a deal to electrify Biogen Inc.'s employee fleet, installing charging stations at the employees' homes. The Cambridge-based biotech company seeks to convert its 1,000-vehicle fleet into electric vehicles by 2025.
The company has installed its EV charging stations and other equipment across eastern Massachusetts under a series of partnerships, including a deal with Kraft Sports + Entertainment to add 50 stations at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. It also helped the the Vineyard Transportation Authority power its 16 electric buses, which make up half of its total fleet, using solar-powered carports and battery power.
The parent company, Italian multinational energy distributor Enel, has 1,350 employees in the U.S. under its North America division, including roughly 700 in Massachusetts. That includes employees of the renewables division, Enel Green Power; the energy management division, Enel Trading; and Enel X.
Enel X now has roughly 400 employees across the U.S., including 125 in the Bay State.
The partnership comes weeks after President Joe Biden signed an executive order seeking to make half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric.
"The electrification of transportation is growing at an unprecedented pace today," Bertolino said. "We're in the phase in which we just want to create as many opportunities as possible and trying to deliver as much as possible."
