In this episode of Grid Connections, host Chase Drum sits down with Brian Clark, CEO and co-founder of Ranger EV, to explore how Ranger EV is transforming the electric vehicle charging experience. Brian discusses his unique journey from neuroscience to launching Ranger EV, emphasizing the need for seamless charging solutions for outdoor enthusiasts. The conversation covers charging anxiety, the innovative user experience Ranger EV offers, and the company's vision for growing its charging station network. Brian also touches on future partnerships and their mission to make EV travel more accessible and enjoyable for all.
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00:00:05
Good morning Grid Connections listeners.
00:00:07
Today we're diving into the world of outdoor adventures and electric vehicles with a very
special guest, Brian Clark.
00:00:13
He's the CEO and co-founder of Ranger EV.
00:00:16
Brian takes us through his journey from a career in neuroscience to founding a company
focused on solving a critical gap in the EV charging space, making energy transactions
00:00:25
when charging EVs as seamless as Venmo.
00:00:28
In this episode, we explore how Ranger EV is transforming the way outdoor enthusiasts like
Brian and his community electrify their travel adventures and just generally make level
00:00:37
two charging for EVs stress free.
00:00:40
Whether you've ever felt a bit of range anxiety, found yourself searching for a place to
charge in a remote location, or simply want to hear more about the future of peer-to-peer
00:00:49
EV charging, this episode is packed with insights you won't want to miss.
00:00:53
Before we get started, if you enjoy what you hear, encourage you to share this episode
with at least one friend who you think would appreciate it.
00:00:59
Don't forget to leave a review on our podcast page.
00:01:02
helps us reach more listeners like you.
00:01:04
With that, enjoy.
00:01:14
for anyone that might not be familiar with yourself or specifically what RangeRV is doing,
could you share with us kind of a quick little overview about the product and kind of what
00:01:25
got you into the space?
00:01:27
Sure, maybe I'll just start a little bit about what got me into this space.
00:01:32
So I'm a lifelong outdoor enthusiast.
00:01:35
I grew up in Minnesota hunting, fishing, camping.
00:01:39
And then during my college years, I was more into rock climbing and alpine climbing.
00:01:44
I had some friends who moved out here to the Pacific Northwest and we got more interested
in surfing.
00:01:52
So now here in Oregon, I like to go with
00:01:55
out to the Oregon coast with them and do my best to surf with them.
00:02:00
And my background is in neuroscience and neuroimaging.
00:02:06
So I was a neuroscientist and then I worked as a neuroradiologist.
00:02:11
And I got into the space because I sort of, as a neuroradiologist practicing here in
Portland, I started to get more interested in climate and electrification.
00:02:22
I got an electric vehicle for myself in 2019 and very quickly all the types of fun outdoor
stuff that we like to do in the region.
00:02:33
started to see the problems that were arising that would hold up sort of adoption, which I
think is this great technology and this electrification push.
00:02:46
So that got me excited to build something of my own.
00:02:50
And I saw this big opportunity to try to electrify the travel adventures that me and my
friends were taking.
00:02:57
And that's what got us into it.
00:03:00
And Ranger EV, so we're new.
00:03:04
We're building a software platform to do peer-to-peer EV charging.
00:03:09
Or as we call it, it's this new category of transaction, which is energy transactions.
00:03:19
When I did, so my first vehicle was a Tesla Model 3.
00:03:24
And I'm one of the people who got excited when Rivian was starting to show what their
vehicles would be like.
00:03:33
And I was got an early electric pickup truck.
00:03:38
And for me to visit my family and do all the things I wanted to do, I was finding I had to
plug in and all these weird places.
00:03:47
like having to sleep under the stars and plug in at an RV park, which is cool and
beautiful in rural Idaho.
00:03:55
But it often led to somewhat like awkward conversations with the business owner about what
I owe them for the energy to charge up the Rivian.
00:04:05
So that was sort of the genesis of this product was like, we call it a Venmo for private
EV chargers or a Venmo for energy transactions.
00:04:15
And we're really interested in making these peer-to-peer energy transactions seamless with
software.
00:04:21
And I think that's such a great thing because there is still I talk with people about this
quite a bit, especially here in the Northwest.
00:04:30
I think there's the corridors, I-5, even like Highway 97 going kind of through the middle
of the state.
00:04:36
There's decent now, even 97 really just in the last year, but decent high DC fast charging
availability.
00:04:45
But you really don't have to go too far off the grid.
00:04:49
And I think like when you look at it on paper, like, well, if you're just going straight
there and straight back, you should have enough charge.
00:04:55
But in like reality, just with people's lives, you might go on a little bit of a detour,
especially when you're out in
00:05:01
and go on a different hike and the more chargers of any type I am just a big fan of
because it is surprising how often I shouldn't say I'm feeling like range anxiety per se
00:05:15
but it's like well you know if there was a charger right here this would just have made my
whole experience as an EV driver either a lot simpler or just kind of
00:05:26
I don't want to say stress inducing and maybe it's because I've been doing it for so long.
00:05:29
doesn't really give me stress anymore, but just like it removes a lot of that like
logistical layer.
00:05:34
And I think one of my favorite things about an EV is just the fact that you can charge it
when it's not stationary as opposed to like having to take a combustion vehicle all the
00:05:42
time to the gas station to really get gas.
00:05:44
But so one, yes, I think that's great.
00:05:47
But two, I am just generally curious and maybe you have a secret spot.
00:05:51
but you mentioned surfing on the Oregon coast.
00:05:53
Can you share where or what, at least if you can't say the area, what part of the coast
that you usually go for surfing?
00:06:00
So because of its proximity to Portland, usually we're on the North Coast.
00:06:08
where you're popping out on 26 or 6 is usually where I'm meeting friends.
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And I mean, know I'm preaching to the choir here, but so what sort of vehicle do you
drive?
00:06:23
Where do you like to go on the weekend?
00:06:26
Yeah.
00:06:26
So our daily is a Tesla model Y and we've had it for just over two years now.
00:06:31
We've put them out 60 miles on it.
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so for me personally, we, I would love to see it with more grand clearance and make it, it
doesn't need to be like an off-roader.
00:06:42
Our actual other vehicle is a 1987 Land Rover Defender 90.
00:06:47
So that's like, and to be honest, that's why I kind of like about the Rivians.
00:06:51
think they're really cool.
00:06:51
And they, the, the comparisons between the two, like
00:06:55
platforms and products I see a lot of overlap But yeah, I mean for road tripping.
00:07:00
I mean we only now put about I Think the past year we put maybe 4 miles on the
Defender It's a great like weekend vehicle, especially when we're in Bend or Hood River
00:07:09
We'll take it up to the mountain kind of go around there but we put so many more miles and
like do a lot of our road tripping in the northwest on the Model Y and Overall, it has
00:07:19
been great.
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I mean that is
00:07:21
kind of where efficiency is key when you're going to some of these more remote places.
00:07:25
And there's so many more state parks that I'd love to see level two charging offered at.
00:07:29
You don't need some big installation, but just even having a stop here and there, I think
just brings down the challenge.
00:07:38
It's not even challenges anymore, but it just, like I said, it's just such a nice thing to
have as an option to be able to charge somewhere when you're out on a venture and you
00:07:47
don't have to even think about or worry about it.
00:07:48
But.
00:07:49
Yeah, mean, this is the big point.
00:07:52
And this is the big, I think, the informative part that all my peers and friends who don't
have EVs or as we encounter a lot here in the Pacific Northwest, two vehicle families,
00:08:05
just like you described, where they're holding, they love their EV, but they're holding on
to their second ICE vehicle just for that reason, because the sort of weekend adventures
00:08:16
or weekend warriors.
00:08:18
there's just more friction or a barrier because there's this added.
00:08:21
So what we call it now is range anxiety.
00:08:24
We don't think is a big issue anymore for the reasons you listed because along the major
transportation corridors, DC fast charging gets better and better.
00:08:34
We call it charging anxiety now.
00:08:37
it's that, and charging anxiety is different because this is what I encounter on the North
coast of Oregon, which is sort of a charging desert.
00:08:46
Yeah, there's not FNES chargers either, actually.
00:08:49
There's a couple like in seaside and then it's kind of south along the coast.
00:08:53
And there's now some Tesla superchargers by the Tillamook Creamery in Tillamook.
00:08:58
But if you're right in between those, I mean, we're starting to do this accounting of all
our trips, which is the time and money you would save if wherever you're staying
00:09:10
overnight, you could plug in your vehicle.
00:09:12
And that's really our focus.
00:09:16
You know, in Norway, where they have EV adoption,
00:09:22
much further along than us.
00:09:24
Level two charging is sort of ubiquitous.
00:09:26
So wherever you're staying overnight away from your home, there's usually a level two
charger available.
00:09:33
And I think that's the, that's the vision we want to be a part of.
00:09:36
What makes us unique is where we're trying to deploy that.
00:09:41
We call, if you join our platform, if you're a destination, we call, we call your location
a ranger station.
00:09:48
And we plan to have a lot of fun with that in the future.
00:09:51
So we're always interested in hearing where people want to be going with their EVs and
particularly where they're staying overnight when they're away from home.
00:09:58
Because as you know, that's the best part about the EV is like you can charge it while you
sleep.
00:10:04
And that's what makes the big difference for me when I'm meeting friends to surf on the
North coast is, I mean, time is precious to all of us.
00:10:14
And we did the accounting on the last trip.
00:10:17
So we would have saved over an hour in time.
00:10:20
because we had to drive a little out of our way to go to the fast charger.
00:10:23
was almost, know, Rivian is a big battery pack.
00:10:27
Then it was almost 40 minutes at the fast charger.
00:10:30
And we did the math if my friend's house that I stayed at, if we got him a level two
charger and he joined the Ranger network, you know, I could have saved close to 17 bucks
00:10:41
compared to those DC fast charger prices.
00:10:43
And my buddy could have even pocketed 20 bucks, you know, if he was going to sell me the
energy.
00:10:50
No, I think that's what was so intriguing kind of learning more about the technology
because you're totally right.
00:10:55
I think in a lot of ways DC fast charging isn't actually super convenient depending on
like the use case and like especially when you kind of go into more remote areas.
00:11:06
It's more kind of an aviation about it.
00:11:10
I guess it was maybe closer to two decades ago, but it definitely, at least a decade ago,
you kind of saw the change between the spoken hub model and kind of the flying point to
00:11:20
point having these planes that are in the commercial space specifically, where instead of
having a bunch of jumbo jets and you would fly from like PDX down to LAX and then fly to
00:11:29
the UK, you started seeing kind of the smarter optimization of just like flying point to
point.
00:11:34
So going from like PDX to Heathrow and
00:11:38
I think that in some ways that's almost how you have to kind of think of level two
charging, like the DC fast charging.
00:11:43
mean, I don't know, like a trip I've done actually quite a bit and it is kind of a pain in
butt.
00:11:49
in some ways is, I've gone from bend Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona a few times in a day.
00:11:55
And it's a very long day.
00:11:57
It's about almost 1200 miles.
00:11:59
And it's a decent amount of charging and it's definitely gone better as far as like the
locations and stuff like that.
00:12:06
But.
00:12:06
I realize when I do that trip, am a small few, like not even an EV, very few car drivers
even drive that far or that much in a day.
00:12:18
And so I think just kind of getting better technology and making it much easier for people
to leverage level two charging.
00:12:27
Obviously you start getting into the multifamily stuff too, and just like where it makes a
lot easier for people to have cars if they don't own their own home, but
00:12:35
Especially just going like a week and little trip like having something where why do you
just?
00:12:40
It is on the North Coast or it is kind of rare to find DC fast charging most of them
There's the Tesla one in seaside, but that's an old v2 one and then my wife and I've been
00:12:51
going to ask story a lot more and I think the only thing they have they're like maybe tops
out at 50 kilowatts and So it's like if the things working you got to park it there and
00:13:00
leave it there for a while And then especially like the peak of summer there's other
people trying to use it
00:13:05
And more often than not, yeah.
00:13:09
Yeah.
00:13:09
as EV adoption ticks along, that's what you encounter if you go to lot of places in
California is queues at the DC fast charger too, depending on time of day.
00:13:20
that's the big situation, which is use them when you need them, as you know, from a
traveler's perspective when you're on the road trip and you just want to stop for 25
00:13:31
minutes.
00:13:32
But in a lot of cases, you'll save time and money and not have to wait in line if you
could have had it plugged in overnight.
00:13:39
totally.
00:13:40
And I think honestly just creates such a better experience for one thing.
00:13:43
You don't have to even think about it.
00:13:44
You just plug it in when you get there.
00:13:46
And admittedly, we've been able to do pretty decently for the most part on a lot of these
trips just using a level one charger or like just a regular wall outlet if we need to, but
00:13:54
it's obviously far from ideal and just.
00:13:57
nice about the having a super efficient vehicle.
00:14:01
And I think it's one thing we've encountered the RV park use case, for instance, is as the
electric vehicles get bigger with bigger battery packs, they're so the rivians of the
00:14:15
world and the other large SUVs, they're bigger battery packs.
00:14:20
And remember, they're like half as efficient as like a Tesla Model 3.
00:14:25
So
00:14:26
they take a little bit longer to charge and there's more energy there.
00:14:31
So for the sort of adventure capable electric vehicles that are coming to market, yeah,
level one charging is super challenging.
00:14:44
It's about like one mile per hour, I think is what I was getting with my R1T.
00:14:50
Yeah, I mean with our why even which is pretty efficient.
00:14:53
It's like one to two percent an hour, which isn't bad.
00:14:57
But even our situation where you want to drive up and down the coast each day to go to
some adventure and something can be kind of challenging.
00:15:04
And I'm a big fan of the Rivians.
00:15:06
But that was one of the big hindrances.
00:15:08
Like when I was just logistically trying to figure out like if it made sense for us and
with like how far we like to drive.
00:15:15
And I think as a car overall, it's great.
00:15:18
It was just kind of the charging.
00:15:19
Unfortunately, because of the size, the inefficiency and then also like the DC fast
charging performance was, I think when it came out acceptable, but like compared to
00:15:30
others, when you're trying to cover a lot of mileage, it just didn't really fit with our
lifestyle.
00:15:33
But it is, you're totally right.
00:15:35
There's so many more.
00:15:37
It's well to me, like just since the R1T came onto the market.
00:15:41
how many more electric SUVs there are now as options and clearly that's just what most
American families are looking to buy or would make the most sense for them.
00:15:50
So I don't think there's anything wrong with it and I think that's something you have to
be kind of proactively thinking about because that is where the future and I think most
00:15:57
likely a lot of people are going to be served by going to EVs and so I'm kind of curious.
00:16:04
I've had some interesting experiences when I've not really bad but going to RV camps to
charge
00:16:11
There definitely seems to be more of a, it used to be, could just kind of plug it in and I
would notice sometimes I'd throw a breaker.
00:16:16
And I think you can do this in the Rivian.
00:16:19
I know you can't do it in every vehicle, but then you can bring down the amperage that
it's pulling when it charges.
00:16:24
So then you don't have to kind of worry about throwing a breaker.
00:16:26
So it's not doing the peak performance, but whatever.
00:16:29
It's great.
00:16:30
However, it does seem like more campsites have become kind of,
00:16:36
They kind of push back on electric vehicles or some won't even allow electric vehicles to
charge anymore because of that issue that they.
00:16:43
Yeah, exactly.
00:16:44
Well, and that, and then like concerns around the breaker.
00:16:47
Yeah.
00:16:47
Yep, and tripping the breakers.
00:16:49
No, this is exactly the case.
00:16:53
I think that's the fun thing for us to think about too.
00:16:56
What gets us excited about Ranger EV and the platform is even though we think about EV
charging, sometimes you just have to say the words that remember it's an opportunity to
00:17:06
turn every home and small business into an energy seller.
00:17:10
And we here in the Pacific Northwest, have, because of all the hydroelectric, our cost of
electricity is actually quite low.
00:17:18
But to highlight the problem, the charging anxiety problem, as we call it, from the host
perspective or the business owner's perspective, you nailed it.
00:17:26
That's exactly it.
00:17:27
We're hearing the same stories.
00:17:30
Certain campsites and RV parks are
00:17:34
not so happy with the EV travelers because they're plugging in tripping breakers.
00:17:39
And if they're coming through in any numbers, that's unrequited energy costs.
00:17:45
And as the vehicles get bigger, that's the other big reason we wanted to build this is
make it easy for a small business to just get a ranger station QR code and put it on the
00:17:56
entrance of the campsite and be like, Hey, EV people.
00:17:59
Make sure you have this app so we can square up on your charging costs.
00:18:04
And so tell me what you think.
00:18:05
mean, that's our big thing is that energy has a value, particularly if it's powering all
the travel adventures you want to do.
00:18:16
And we as EV travelers, yes, we love getting free energy when we can, but ultimately,
00:18:23
energy is better than no energy.
00:18:25
Yeah.
00:18:26
we're sort of used to paying per kilowatt hour anyways.
00:18:30
So if it's a reasonable price and it gives us convenience, yeah, that's the real thing
we're excited about is to sort of, and that's been an interesting discussion in a lot of
00:18:41
rural America too, which is you can sort of flip the discussion and be like, well, hey,
you can't really have a oil pump and a refinery on site.
00:18:54
It's for you to sell gas to your guests But if you put in the appropriate EV charger with
our software solution You can be charging up their vehicles overnight and it's sort of an
00:19:05
additional revenue stream and the business owners were talking to You know, I think
Portland is something like it's in the top 10 for EV adoption in the nation So in sort of
00:19:16
like Portland Seattle area
00:19:19
Those small businesses, they rely on tourism and they're eager to attract city folk with
the EVs and they're happy to have them as guests at their businesses.
00:19:32
So let's kind of walk through a thing.
00:19:34
Let's say I'm on a road trip somewhere on the Oregon coast and I'm in desperate need of a
charge and I come to a campsite or an Airbnb or wherever it may be that has a Ranger EV
00:19:44
charger set up.
00:19:46
How does that kind of experience work for me as the driver?
00:19:51
For sure.
00:19:52
So we're just getting started and where we're focusing on initially is working mainly with
the small hospitality businesses and hosts.
00:20:02
So the hope is you would encounter Ranger EV and need to get our application in two ways.
00:20:12
One would be the booking still all happens with the small business or vacation rental
host.
00:20:18
But if you were driving out somewhere, say in central Oregon, and you found an Airbnb that
you liked, and you booked it, when you got the instructions, you would get a link that
00:20:28
says, hey, we offer level two charging, you'll need a Ranger EV account.
00:20:32
So that would be one way that you would encounter us.
00:20:34
The second would be you would just get there, and you would see the QR code on the
charger.
00:20:39
And it would require for you to...
00:20:43
create a Ranger account and then add a payment method.
00:20:46
And then going forward as we grow this Ranger recreational network, you would be good to
go and charge at any of those places.
00:20:55
And the hope would be as we start to grow the network and all these fun adventurous travel
destinations, that the Ranger EV app also becomes a little bit more of a curated discovery
00:21:08
portal.
00:21:09
which has a feed of the ranger stations.
00:21:12
And so you know that any hospitality or place to stay that's listed in our application has
a level two charger.
00:21:21
there would be a link for you to book it through our application as well.
00:21:26
So that's pretty interesting.
00:21:30
So one of my concerns traditionally with apps is, especially when you're in the Oregon
Co., sometimes network is spotty.
00:21:38
How does that work?
00:21:40
is this, it is still something where you're to have to do in advance.
00:21:43
I know like with some of the new versions of iOS, you can kind of have a app-lite
experience and still have a transaction happen without having to download an app.
00:21:51
Is that something you guys are able to do or looking to do?
00:21:55
So it's early days for us, but right now the connectivity issue is at wherever your travel
destination is, yes, it requires the Wi-Fi connection at the Airbnb.
00:22:10
so when you're, because that's what allows us to communicate with the Level 2 charger.
00:22:14
So we're just trying to make sure that there's good Wi-Fi access for that L2 charger.
00:22:19
And if you're standing next to the L2 charger, then you should.
00:22:23
have the instructions on how to get the wifi and connectivity for the ranger station
that's at that property.
00:22:30
Of course, going forward, there are plenty of technological solutions to the connectivity
problem in remote areas.
00:22:42
And there's lots of solutions to that.
00:22:43
But in the beginning, we just sort of leverage the hosts or small business wifi network.
00:22:49
And we try to work with them to make sure that that's a
00:22:52
high fidelity signal.
00:22:53
It's actually one thing we're interested in is, you know, now that Starlink is a thing, if
there are businesses really out in remote locations or they have spotty Wi-Fi, I don't
00:23:05
know, what do you think?
00:23:06
That's we're actually, it's like an add-on.
00:23:08
If we get them to get a Starlink, if you pulled up as a guest, would you, I don't know,
would you pay an extra fee to have access to super broadband internet out in a remote
00:23:20
location?
00:23:21
You know, that's a pretty good question.
00:23:23
I don't know if you're a gamer here or you want to stream something.
00:23:28
well, just think like I do take sometimes I will record these podcasts or, I have to take
a zoom call.
00:23:34
Yeah.
00:23:35
Or my wife has to, take video calls too.
00:23:38
And so there's that, that is definitely an interesting business case.
00:23:44
And I think that does make sense.
00:23:48
of the upcharge functionality and, and I mean, obviously traditional hotels do that all
the time and
00:23:53
I've even seen that I think in a couple Airbnbs we've been to.
00:23:57
So that makes sense.
00:23:58
And I get the idea of like having as long as you're at a rental or a business that has the
Wi-Fi.
00:24:04
That's easy.
00:24:05
That's I guess I was kind of thinking more.
00:24:07
Should we expect to see these if we go to like a state park or something more off the
grid.
00:24:12
But no I think there's such a need for that anyway for having better because I've seen
some Airbnbs say they have you be charging and it still is just a
00:24:24
wall outlet that they have in their garage.
00:24:27
Yep.
00:24:29
I mean, we're hoping to have a solution there to requires a little bit more trust and
safety where if people are into, you know, there's a way to just list your plug and then
00:24:42
just let the the guests know what the cost of electricity would be and give them the
opportunity to pay as well.
00:24:50
So there's solutions for that.
00:24:51
Yeah, the connectivity issue there's out in remote locations.
00:24:55
You know, there's plenty of
00:24:57
Plenty of technologies to address that.
00:24:59
And some of that will come on newer generations of hardware.
00:25:03
I mean, just the 5G networks and there are other technologies that can support
connectivity out in remote places.
00:25:13
Now let's say as a let's say I have a vacation rental I don't but I wanted to sign up with
you guys and kind of add this functionality to one of my rentals.
00:25:25
How would I go about that or what does that process really look like.
00:25:29
Yeah, so we're very much wanting to meet people where they're at.
00:25:34
So, you know, in our experience, it tracks similar to EV adoption.
00:25:38
know, 90 % of the vacation rental owners we talked to don't have an L2 charger yet.
00:25:44
So if and we're finding the best case is that the owner of the property has an EV
themselves and, know, they spend some time there, maybe one weekend a month.
00:25:56
And so they're ready.
00:25:58
They're interested in one anyways because they want to be able to plug in their own
vehicle when they use their own vacation rental.
00:26:04
So any vacation rental hosts out there or property managers, for sure, just get in touch
with us.
00:26:12
You can visit rangercharging.com and contact us.
00:26:17
And member of the team will get in touch with you.
00:26:20
And we basically work with them to...
00:26:23
get a hardware solution, an L2 charger that works for them and works well with our
platform, find a local electrician, and then help them see if they qualify for any
00:26:33
incentives.
00:26:35
And yeah, that's been the process thus far.
00:26:39
And if you're a vacation rental host who already has an L2 charger, we would love to have
you on the Ranger network as well.
00:26:48
So again, you can reach us via the website, rangercharging.com.
00:26:53
And yeah, we'd love to hear from you and we could talk about how to onboard your level two
charger and turn you into an energy seller.
00:27:00
And hopefully when we start doing some fun content and marketing, start sending more, you
know, adventurous EV travelers to your business too.
00:27:12
And so currently you guys are all throughout North America or just the US or is there kind
of a, for anyone that's listening to this, is there any kind of core areas that you guys
00:27:21
are focused on currently?
00:27:23
Yeah, I mean, we're just getting started.
00:27:26
So yeah, so we're based here in Portland, Oregon.
00:27:31
So we're just starting to grow this and we sort of organize it by which trips we can
electrify.
00:27:37
So the highest priority trip for me was that surf trip to the North Coast.
00:27:42
So we're rolling out an initial vacation rental host on the North Coast of Oregon.
00:27:49
and the trips and travels and places we know best, yes, they're in the Pacific Northwest.
00:27:54
So right now we're in Oregon, but we're very much looking regionally, Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, and then over the coming years for sure, as we work with partners, achieving more
00:28:09
national scale.
00:28:11
Yeah, that's great to hear.
00:28:13
I think they're, not exactly sure where to combine it, but there does seem to be some sort
of overlap between definitely, I'm just trying to think like so many other, they've never
00:28:27
been EV focus though.
00:28:28
So there was, that are kind of like, there's been a lot of campsite and camping apps and
these kinds of other things that obviously aren't.
00:28:38
quite the same, but there seems to be such like if you looked at the Venn diagram, a big
overlap in the people who kind of want for sure.
00:28:46
Yeah.
00:28:46
And that's kind of what I've been like just talking to you, kind of thinking about this.
00:28:49
Like obviously there could be collaboration on like with a national hotel chain.
00:28:54
Sure.
00:28:55
But it does seem like probably it makes sense to start with these kind of smaller kind of
localized chains and stuff to start as well.
00:29:03
But then like how do you scale that and like having that kind of as you talked about, like
having a
00:29:08
an experience by going to like you're going to Astoria this weekend.
00:29:11
Here's the charger for the first night.
00:29:14
Then when you're staying in Can Beach or wherever the second night, this is kind of what
that almost kind of like a charging itinerary is set up for you to be.
00:29:22
Mm-hmm.
00:29:23
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely the vision.
00:29:27
And yeah, I mean, we'd be eager to hear from people.
00:29:31
People could comment on this podcast, basically, in your EV travels, you know, where are
you staying away from home that you wish there was an L2 charger?
00:29:40
And we want to prioritize, you know, getting those chargers to where people are going,
because that's what's going to help drive this electrification EV adoption, is if people
00:29:52
I mean, that's the way we do this.
00:29:53
We sort of have to like build better products and the experience actually has to be better
than the status quo.
00:30:01
So if we can save people time, money, and this audience knows it's more efficient.
00:30:05
But yeah, there's a lot of work to be done to make this like a seamless, convenient
process to travel in EVs.
00:30:13
Well, one of the things that kind of talking about Starlink, like the hardware to support
this, I actually have a Starlink at our place here.
00:30:21
So that's what I'm using for this conversation today.
00:30:24
I think it would make sense obviously to tie that with some of these, especially along the
coast, the internet, whether it be cellular.
00:30:38
Or a lot of the broadband options too.
00:30:40
They're pretty unstable.
00:30:41
Actually, at least in my experience, they seem to drop quite a bit.
00:30:43
like doing it's, an interesting idea to go to like someone who has a vacation rental, not
only offer them a better internet package, but then obviously have this side of the, EV
00:30:55
charging component to drive business and people who are exploring on the coast with their
EV.
00:30:59
But I'm curious, are there any hardware providers that your company works with like
specifically, or is it?
00:31:07
Can I just about any level two charger or certain types of setups for what the level two
charging experience is?
00:31:14
And then is there even any car OEM support that you guys are looking to expand to with
certain electric vehicle models?
00:31:23
let's say they don't install level two charger, but they have like a 1450 outlet or even a
120 volt outlet.
00:31:33
Could you have the car then kind of tell how much is being charged?
00:31:37
I'm, I'm, I'd realize I'm kind of jumping all over the place with that, it's just kind an
interesting use cases.
00:31:43
that we're getting into.
00:31:45
So to take just the last point first, yes, any outlet, we call it a virtual charger.
00:31:54
So you become a ranger station, your location, and we send you a ranger station QR
sticker, and you put it over your NEMA 1450 or next to your 1450 receptacle or 110 outlet.
00:32:09
And yes, there are lots of ways to then tender that energy transaction.
00:32:15
To get started, the feature we're doing for this virtual charger feature in our
application, it relies upon sort of self-reporting by the guest, which basically they,
00:32:27
it's like Venmo.
00:32:29
You basically look at your screen at the end of your charging session, and then you just
thumb in how many kilowatt hours or just snap a...
00:32:37
eventually just take a screenshot of your display in your car showing at the end of your
charging session.
00:32:45
But the advantage is then when you scan the QR code, we're here on the central east side,
you may hear the train going by.
00:32:53
was gonna say on my side you might hear a bunch of dogs start barking so totally totally
get that though.
00:32:58
The background ambiance for the listeners.
00:33:00
one's really going.
00:33:03
Yes, so there's ways to have the traveler basically use their vehicle and just enter in
the amount of energy they've used.
00:33:12
There are other ways to communicate with the vehicle itself that requires some
partnerships with the electric vehicle OEM, and we're certainly interested in those in the
00:33:24
future.
00:33:26
Regarding level two hardware,
00:33:28
providers.
00:33:29
We have our favorites.
00:33:31
As we're starting, we like the ones that are OCPP compliant.
00:33:37
Those work very well on our platform, but we're also in the early stage here and we're
reaching out and we're talking with a lot of those L2 hardware OEMs about how we grow this
00:33:51
Ranger network and what are some of the best hardware solutions to use.
00:33:56
No, that's great.
00:33:57
I mean, kind of looking forward to, are there opportunities that maybe you want to share
or kind of like looking at the roadmap of kind of what product next steps might be, or
00:34:08
even potential partnerships that you're kind of looking to do to kind of improve that
experience for people using the Ranger EV app and like kind of make it this kind of more
00:34:21
larger platform of different technologies working together.
00:34:25
Yeah, for sure.
00:34:27
Again, along those lines, if you don't have a Level 2 charger for your home driveway or
your vacation rental yet, when you're selecting a Wi-Fi connected L2 charger, pick one
00:34:40
that's OCPP compliant, because that's going to give you lots of good options about which
software you use to control it.
00:34:49
And that works super well with our platform.
00:34:52
Hopefully, it
00:34:53
call out just with some of the stuff we've even been seeing in the level two space lately
and unfortunately, good and bad.
00:35:00
Yeah, Juicebox owners, we're lots of people are working on solutions for you.
00:35:06
We're happy to be here as a resource and try to come up with a solution so that you can
have functioning chargers and software that drives it.
00:35:17
Feel free to reach out to us.
00:35:19
But yeah, hopefully we can come back in the future.
00:35:21
And when we've got some of these partnerships lined up, we could tell you bit more about
it.
00:35:28
At this early stage, we're a new software company and software is this living, breathing
thing and it needs people to use it so we can figure out all the bugs and things that need
00:35:41
to get fixed.
00:35:42
So we have an early beta version of our Ranger EV product, which is a web application.
00:35:50
Yeah, we're looking for users.
00:35:51
So if you're interested, if you have an EV, yeah, check out rangercharging.com.
00:35:57
check out our web application, reach out to us.
00:36:01
You can find our links on our website.
00:36:03
We would love to hear from you so we can make sure that we're building software that you
want to use when you're out traveling.
00:36:11
No, I think that that's great.
00:36:13
And I definitely will have links to that and more in our today's show notes.
00:36:17
I guess as someone who has a Rivian and obviously like kind of doing the adventuring
thing, I guess I'm curious, are there any recent kind of EV trips you've taken recently
00:36:26
that really kind of surprised you or that you loved?
00:36:28
And then if there are any other in the Northwest that you're kind of hoping to do soon,
I'd just love to hear more about that.
00:36:35
Yeah, mean some of my favorite trips, obviously I think the Oregon coast is a magical
place, all different seasons.
00:36:44
Now it's fall, so the Northwest swells and sort of the serious surf is starting to arrive.
00:36:52
You get the, you know, it's also beach campfire season and great misto winter experience
on the Oregon coast.
00:37:00
In the spring and fall, if people have never been
00:37:04
My family originally is from Idaho.
00:37:06
And if you've never, right after you go through Boise, if you take highway 20 up near Sun
Valley, if you've never been past like craters of the moon, it's just, it's more of a
00:37:19
continuation of like the high desert, sort of like Eastern Oregon.
00:37:24
But that craters of the moon area and up in Sun Valley and Idaho, those are probably more,
some of my favorite EV trips I've taken so far.
00:37:33
That's what drove this product is some of those places are there's nothing out there.
00:37:37
It's nothing but an RV park.
00:37:39
but yeah, if you can, if I would, Idaho is a wonderful, wonderful, beautiful place.
00:37:45
and it's, we want to make it easier to go there in EVs as well.
00:37:49
So that's a trip I would recommend.
00:37:51
Craters of the moon up in the Idaho desert.
00:37:54
Yeah, that's a gorgeous area and I definitely agree that I've wanted to spend more time
there and then, God, what was I?
00:38:02
Was that two summers ago?
00:38:03
I'd kind of done a trip through Northern Idaho through Coeur d'Alene and others and just
such a great place and so much fun to just go.
00:38:13
Even without any purpose, it's just beautiful up there all times of the year, but getting
out of the lake in the summer was just great.
00:38:20
in such a fun kind of road trip to do in an EV.
00:38:22
And I think honestly, for a lot of people, if you live in the Northwest and if you're
skeptical or concerned about doing it, like going out to Coeur d'Alene is about as easy in
00:38:31
a lot of ways of doing an EV road trip as there is, just because there's so much charging
options along the way, fast charger options along the way to really make that as easy as
00:38:45
possible and stress-free for a lot of people.
00:38:49
Yeah.
00:38:49
And, let's see here.
00:38:51
Other favorite EV trips.
00:38:55
I mean, it's been a year ago, but, I went along with another cool, Portland climate tech
company called Eris Hydronics, which is making very innovative, heat pumps combined, HVAC
00:39:11
and hot water systems.
00:39:14
we towed their Eris Hydronics,
00:39:18
demo unit from Portland all the way down to Silicon Valley San Jose with the Rivian.
00:39:23
And that was a 5 pound trailer.
00:39:25
So that's a trip.
00:39:28
It's easily doable, but you're going to knock the EV range in about half with that heavy
of a trailer.
00:39:35
And we definitely had some, I think it was near Roseburg, Oregon.
00:39:40
We didn't think we were going to make it over the hill to the DC fast chargers.
00:39:45
We thought we were going to brick it, but we just made it.
00:39:48
So that can be an an exciting EV trip.
00:39:51
and Northern California is gorgeous.
00:39:53
And it's definitely improved with how many chargers are along that area, but there's just
a lot of kind of unexpected.
00:39:58
I guess I shouldn't say unexpected, but if you haven't been there before, there is a lot
of elevation change, a lot of twisty roads and sometimes high winds too.
00:40:08
So pretty much everything that can really throw off your range estimates, it'll kind of
throw at you through that area, especially in the wintertime too.
00:40:15
Then you're dealing with all sorts of storms, but it's a gorgeous and such a fun area to
drive through.
00:40:22
But that's great to hear.
00:40:23
I definitely, think a great company we'd probably want to have on this podcast as well to
learn about that.
00:40:29
Is that something, are you looking to kind of document more of these road trips that you
do in the future and kind of short-term as almost, is that how you're currently kind of
00:40:39
beta testing where Ranger EV locations and where to put these Ranger stations at or what
have you, is there kind of like any, yeah, I mean, it seems like the most fun way to do
00:40:49
it.
00:40:49
Yeah.
00:40:49
I mean, that was, we went through sort of a research and customer discovery phase, as they
call it.
00:40:55
But a lot of it is just hearing from the EV enthusiasts and yeah, the types of trips
people take.
00:41:02
And we encourage people to, we just set up a new Instagram account, which is at Ranger
Charging.
00:41:09
If you're on Instagram,
00:41:11
Please send a message there, again, if you ever end up anywhere that you wish there was a
level two charger.
00:41:18
We love to know where people would love chargers.
00:41:21
But yeah, that's definitely the idea.
00:41:23
We're hoping in the future we have some fun things in the works where hopefully we'll be
able to tell some of these electric adventure road trip stories through some compelling
00:41:34
content in the future.
00:41:35
And if there are people who are...
00:41:39
videographers or interested in telling those types of stories or going to those
adventurous locations.
00:41:45
Yeah, we're interested in working with them as well.
00:41:48
No, that that I mean is kind of just I think the ideal sort of thing just along the West
Coast in general with so many of these great beautiful places that we get to enjoy all the
00:41:59
time and really have made EV road tripping so much fun.
00:42:01
And so I think that's such a great thing to be doing and seeing.
00:42:04
I got a feeling you guys will be very successful just because a lot of people do want to
kind of see those stories and learn more and test them out for themselves.
00:42:13
I mean, that's sometimes how you have to do it is I myself even just kind of took my first
00:42:18
when I first got our model wide, you're always kind of unsure as to what the range and how
it's actually going to perform when you kind of run into real weather.
00:42:28
And so I ended up doing a road trip from, bend Oregon down to kind of South of Mount
Shasta and then across to Alturas, California, and then up through silver Lake and all
00:42:41
these kind of essentially a very beautiful, but kind of talking about extremely remote
areas.
00:42:47
that the best thing you might find along the way is a 120 volt outlet.
00:42:52
Some of that will let you plug into an outlet if you can even find a place along the way,
because it's so beautiful and how remote it is.
00:42:59
But when it's kind of your first time doing that in a car or specifically an electric
vehicle, even it can be a fun challenge.
00:43:07
Lot of charge and anxiety for sure.
00:43:09
Yeah, but I think it's still wild to see in the two years I've had Micar how much that's
changed, especially in central Oregon with both more DC fast chargers, but there's a
00:43:22
decent amount of level two charging, but I would like to see more of that improve.
00:43:27
mean, to me, seems like there's a pretty big early opportunity for you guys with like KOA
and those campgrounds and stuff like that.
00:43:34
So I've got to imagine that's probably pretty high on the business development.
00:43:39
a scale for you guys to kind of make those partnerships and try and get in with them.
00:43:43
Yeah, and also, you know, the technology we're building.
00:43:49
Remember, Portland is a good example.
00:43:51
Your home driveway.
00:43:53
Most people still don't, know, so on the east side of Portland, most people don't use
their garages or hobby houses.
00:44:00
You know, they park the cars in the driveway and sort of that neighborhood plug share
case.
00:44:06
That's our technology works great for that, too.
00:44:08
So if you're the one in your neighborhood who has an EV,
00:44:12
and your neighbors get one but maybe don't have a charger and you wanna, you know, charge
them a little bit to plug in overnight or use yours, we can do that too.
00:44:22
But it seems like a good opportunity too if you have kind of like a level two charger,
whether it's even in your driveway, but if you wanted to put one like street side in front
00:44:31
of your house and even be able to offer kind of for people who park nearby or just don't
have the opportunity natively that you could at least make some extra money doing it that
00:44:40
way and kind of make EV charging a little bit easier for your neighbors.
00:44:45
Yeah, we're interested in talking with the city of Portland more.
00:44:50
Curbside charging is a big issue and people who don't own a home or don't have off-street
parking, what are the barriers to them charging their car?
00:45:01
And that's one of the things that leads to lines at the DC Fast Chargers in a city, right,
is people who don't have access to home charging.
00:45:09
Yeah, for sure.
00:45:11
Yeah, I don't know if there's much you can share for that's pretty early in your
experience working with the city of Portland on curbside charging.
00:45:17
Has there been anything that you've kind of that stood out to you or is that still pretty
early?
00:45:21
The reason I ask is I was looking to try and figure out in the city of Bend, I just
haven't had a chance to actually dedicate time to it.
00:45:28
We are eager to talk with the city of Portland.
00:45:33
so, yeah.
00:45:35
And I have a feeling there are plenty of other, there are other players in the space too
who are looking at this problem around street parking as well.
00:45:45
And I know.
00:45:47
I'm sorry, what are we gonna say?
00:45:49
I was going say, I think there's a couple of companies, one around New York too, that's
very focused on that sort of sidewalk, rolling out level two charging on the streets too.
00:46:01
there's definitely, everyone sees the problem and everyone's trying to build solutions.
00:46:07
I think that's what's kind of interesting about the opportunity that your team's providing
just because it does keep it fairly simple and cost effective because there are some
00:46:15
really cool curbside things that have so far been kind of pilot sponsored by a lot of
cities but sometimes they're either more expensive or fairly complicated like some of
00:46:24
these ones that have the whole understandably but the whole retracting cable and all this
stuff so no I think it's the more options the better right now I think that's great and
00:46:36
Just trying to make it easier for people to get an EV and charge it wherever they are.
00:46:39
It's such a great thing to have more of.
00:46:45
But, yeah, no, I, I realized we're kind of coming up on the end of our time here, Brian.
00:46:49
want to say thank you so much for coming on today.
00:46:52
We'll have to have you on again soon.
00:46:53
I definitely want to see how this, progresses here in the Northwest.
00:46:57
I hope to be going on a couple of these adventures soon and using your guys chargers,
because I think this is definitely something that has a lot of potential and definitely
00:47:07
has a big need for.
00:47:08
So Brian, thank you so much for coming on today.
00:47:10
And I guess for anyone who's curious, what's the best way to.
00:47:14
connect with your team and kind of engage with you if they want to reach out and learn
more.
00:47:19
For sure, visit rangercharging.com and there's a contact us form or feel free to DM us on
Instagram at rangercharging.
00:47:30
And Chase, yeah, thanks for having me on.
00:47:32
Love to talk all things electrification and we should for sure make you into a ranger and
we'll get you out to some ranger stations and we should for sure go on some adventures
00:47:44
together.
00:47:45
That sounds great.
00:47:46
Thank you so much, Brian.
00:47:47
We'll have to talk soon.
00:47:53
That wraps up another episode of Grid Connections.
00:47:55
We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Brian Clark, CEO and co-founder of Ranger EV.
00:48:00
And we hope you learned something new about the future of EV charging and how it's shaping
outdoor adventures.
00:48:05
From peer-to-peer energy transactions to making EV road trips more seamless, there's so
much innovation happening in the EV space and we're thrilled to bring you stories like
00:48:13
this one.
00:48:14
If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend or a fellow EV
enthusiasts who might enjoy it as well.
00:48:19
And don't forget to leave us a pause or review on our podcast page.
00:48:22
helps us continue bringing you great conversations to your feed.
00:48:26
Thanks for tuning in and until next week, this is the Grid Connections Podcast signing
off.
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