Evolectric

At a garage in Mexico City in 2023, a team of engineers and local mechanics converted an old diesel truck into an electric vehicle (EV). Within days, they swapped out the truck's existing internal combustion engine and parts for an innovative electric powertrain, new cooling system, battery, electronics, and chassis, and updated the cab to look as good as new.

The company behind this initiative is California-based Evolectric, which develops electrified transportation and battery technologies for commercial vehicles. Through its CircularEV^TM approach – managed entirely on Dassault Systèmes' 3DEXPERIENCE® platform – Evolectric is breathing new life into older vehicles, making them cleaner, smarter and more affordable to run.

"Our aim is to accelerate fleet electrification with our CircularEV solution, which combines circular economy principles and advanced EV technology, making it scalable, affordable and accessible to all fleet owners around the world," said Jakson Alvarez, co-founder, co-CEO and CFO at Evolectric. "There are around 340 million commercial vehicles worldwide, which would be hugely challenging to replace with new EVs. Instead, we're here to extract the most value from each vehicle by repurposing it to be 100% electric and smart."

By converting instead of replacing existing combustion engine vehicles, Evolectric is helping its customers save money and extend the lifecycle of their fleets. Rather than sending 10 to 15-year-old trucks with a few hundred thousand miles to be scrapped, they can extract as much value out of them as possible.

"Some commercial vehicles are built to last for as long as a million miles," Alvarez said. "Yet, because of the lack of reliability around the diesel, internal combustion engine and all the components, you're seeing many of them being scrapped at just 300 to 400,000 miles. We're here to change that. We can electrify that vehicle, refresh the cab and chassis, and put it back on the road for another half a million miles."

Compared to manufacturing a new EV from the ground up, the entire conversion process is faster, more cost-efficient and better for the environment.

"The process costs 45% less than buying a new EV," Alvarez said.

"Retrofitting existing diesel trucks can reduce 50% of carbon emissions during the manufacturing process compared to a new EV truck," added Nhiura Coaquira, head of Sales and Marketing at Evolectric. "It also results in fuel savings as high as 70% and maintenance costs as little as 50% compared to traditional diesels.”

Founded in 2019, Evolectric has used the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud since the beginning to develop its electrification technologies. Now, the company is rolling out its innovative CircularEV solution to underserved markets, where cost barriers and lack of EV infrastructure might prevent fleet owners from switching to more sustainable transportation.

“We’re combining a lot of the EV ecosystem in a turnkey-style offering to help our customers quickly meet their long-term zero-emission targets,” said Bill Beverley, co-founder, co-CEO and CTO at Evolectric. “By converting existing vehicles, we can avoid supply chain, development and validation bottlenecks and get our innovative technology onto the roads faster.”

For Evolectric, this is more than simply building electric vehicles or battery solutions; it wants to achieve meaningful change and help its clients integrate circular economy principles into their long-term strategies. In line with this way of thinking, Evolectric chose the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud to future-proof its business. It was a decision based not only on the founders’ previous experience with the platform but a concerted choice to implement technology that had longevity and could deliver both in terms of the company’s business and engineering requirements.

“I had previous design experience with CATIA, but it wasn’t until I had the opportunity to use the entire 3DEXPERIENCE platform that I really understood the overwhelming power of the tool,” Beverley said. “It goes beyond the CAD to PLM and all other vertical enablement, so it was logical from that decision point. I also realized that it was important for us to get a platform that condenses all the information in the business along with the actual engineering processes into one suite.”

Evolectric opted for cloud deployment of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to suit its current and future requirements. Being on the cloud gives the company on-demand access to the tools and functionality it needs without having to maintain an on-premise IT infrastructure. The platform also will scale with the business as it grows and expands its solution offering into new countries.

“We needed immediate uptime,” Beverley said. “We didn’t want separate IT management. I didn’t want to install and deploy; I wanted to download and click ‘go.’ And the cloud version gave us all of that and more. It has been great for us for scale because it’s easy to deploy and is accessible from anywhere, whether we’re on-site or within an organization that we’re working with.”

Evolectric partnered with Dassault Systèmes’ value solutions business partner XD Innovation through its cloud startup program to take advantage of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Beverley worked with XD Innovation at previous companies, benefiting from its expertise in which software to use, how to use it in a production environment, and which companies to collaborate with. Based on this, Evolectric knew that XD Innovation was the ideal partner to help it scale up and advance as fast as possible.

“We got them involved in planning the architecture of the organization and they’ve been a great partner ever since, teaching us how to use the tool with best practices and a forward-thinking growth perspective,” Beverley said.

Critically, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud allows Evolectric to deliver its CircularEVs as an out-of-the-box solution tailored to each customer’s specific requirements. Everything is defined and refined in the cloud ahead of the physical installation.

“We start by creating a space in the cloud for a customer,” Beverley said. “Within that online collaborative space, we design the EV solution, test it and track any revisions. Thanks to the platform, we can create and analyze accurate mechanical representations using advanced simulation with SIMULIA. Then we define the manufacturing process with DELMIA, produce the parts and package them up to be shipped to local networks and service centers so that they can do the installation themselves in as little as two days.”

Backed by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud, Evolectric communicates seamlessly with its customers and partner network globally. In the future, it plans to use the platform to share product updates automatically.

“Further down the road, I see the 3DEXPERIENCE on the cloud platform as a great way to roll out real-time updates so that when we make design changes, they’re automatically updated in our instruction manual in the cloud, ready for our partners to access,” said Andrew Pontius, head of Product and Strategic Partnerships at Evolectric.

Evolectric works closely with its clients to determine the best way of converting their fleets from diesel to electric power, taking into account the most suitable electrification system and power sources. And it tests and verifies all of this in the virtual world first. Working in CATIA, engineers capture all customer requirements, validate system integration and check how everything will function.

“We had the team in Mexico City accessing real-time CAD data, spinning the CAD, understanding what the process for installation was, where everything fits, and they were able to lay up new parts into the existing truck at and get the truck driving within weeks,” Beverly said.

Before converting a vehicle in the real world, Evolectric models the assembly process and shows local partners exactly what they need to do to make each installation as fast and smooth as possible.

“The 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a huge part of our plan to educate our partners,” Pontius said. “Via the virtual twin, we can demonstrate exactly how the build fits together and show them how to do these conversions to the same standard as us.”

All of Evolectric’s decisions and customer electrification roadmaps are guided by data, which is stored and managed using ENOVIA on the platform. Looking towards the future, ENOVIA will monitor the performance of its customers’ EV fleets and remotely carry out predictive maintenance, enhancements and upgrades.

“We’re now in the second phase of technological development, which comes down to what our data is telling us,” Beverley said. “What are these vehicles doing in service? How are we bringing that data back into the platform, capturing those new requirements and learnings into the toolset so we can continue to evolve?”

“It offers us an opportunity to make these vehicles very smart so that fleet owners can get the most from their investment, covering everything from charging efficiency and driving performance,” Alvarez added. “We can also quickly introduce new vehicle-to-grid and driver safety features.”

Based on the success of its CircularEV solution so far, Evolectric hopes to introduce its technology to more markets worldwide where demand grows for affordable and accessible EVs. Over time, the company hopes to build a network of local partners capable of carrying out all installation and maintenance services.

“We not only focus on our customers’ needs, but also we supply very innovative solutions that can be scaled anywhere,” Coaquira said. “If we did it in Mexico with local technicians in a small garage, we believe we can make it happen anywhere.”

Evolectric believes that EV adoption will continue gaining momentum as local users are empowered with the tools and technologies to manage the transition. Acceptance will only grow when the barriers to EV technology are lowered and it makes good business sense.

“Conversions have been around for a long time, but on a do-it-yourself basis,” Alvarez said. “To be able to do this in a scalable and reliable manner, you need an approach like Evolectric, which empowers local communities. That's where the circular aspect really comes in. The garages, equipment and people who have maintained these commercial vehicles for generations now can take their skills to the next level, do installations with our kits, and service vehicles locally. Dassault Systèmes allows us to deliver a solution that is truly scalable, reliable and accessible worldwide.”