December 8th, 2020 — In 2010, just 17,000 electric vehicles (EVs) were on the road globally. Today, the global EV fleet numbers 8.5 million with 1.7 million new EV sales annually, a figure that is expected to quintuple in the next five years.
2021 marks the three-year anniversary of the Tesla Model 3 and the four-year anniversary of the second-generation Nissan LEAF, the two best-selling EVs of all time. As millions of electric vehicles begin to enter secondary markets, buyers and dealers alike are encountering a used car landscape that is structured around the nuances of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. With battery health as the primary determinant of used EV value, there is a critical gap in understanding second-hand and residual valuation for electric vehicles.
Recurrent is the first independent vehicle report for used electric cars. Recurrent provides dealers and buyers of second-hand EVs with battery health reports and range projections before, at, and after point-of-sale. By using data to modernize the buying process, Recurrent is enabling a trustworthy, robust, and scalable secondary market for used EVs.
The New Odometer for Electric Vehicles
Mileage, and by extension its impact on the state of ICE powertrains, is a universally accepted indicator of vehicle value at the point-of-sale. In contrast, EV powertrains contain significantly fewer components, making the battery the primary determinant of vehicle health and value for potential buyers, insurers, and manufacturers. Battery health, which has a major impact on vehicle range and life expectancy, cannot be measured using the odometer alone. Recurrent harnesses data to increase transparency for EV battery health, creating the ‘new odometer’ for electric vehicles.
While some EV manufacturers offer limited driver-facing battery information, Recurrent’s data acquisition strategy and role as a neutral third party enables it to scale the collection of battery performance datasets across all EV makes, models, and years. In addition, Recurrent is able to calculate average performance by battery manufacturer and production batch.
For both EV and ICE powertrains, neutral performance data is especially valuable at the point of resale, as demonstrated by the success of vehicle data providers like Carfax, Kelley Blue Book, and Experian AutoCheck. Recurrent is amassing a distinct first-mover advantage through data aggregation and advanced analytics.
Recurrent’s Industry-Leading Battery Modeling
The foundation of Recurrent’s analytics are their battery degradation models, which combine machine learning with data on vehicle make, model, and year as well as over 1 million data points on location, state-of-charge, and range from their 2,500+ vehicle research fleet. These degradation models enable Recurrent to offer battery condition reports for car dealers and buyers, predicting future battery life and range at the individual vehicle level. The market opportunity for Recurrent’s offering is bound only by the growth of used EV sales, a market expected to reach $200B by 2025.
Recurrent’s technology is built by battery scientists from the University of Washington and technical advisors from Stanford, Columbia, and Lawrence Berkeley Labs. The company is led by software veterans Scott Case (former COO of EnergySavvy and former Director of Product Management at Microsoft) and Kyle Rippey (former Technology Lead at Rover.com and former Senior Software Engineer & CTO, Estately).
Powerhouse Ventures Invests in Recurrent
Powerhouse Ventures participated in Recurrent’s oversubscribed $3.5M seed round, led by Wireframe Ventures with participation from Prelude Ventures, Pioneer Square Labs Ventures, Vulcan Capital, AAA Washington, and Ascend VC. We’re thrilled to work with Scott, Kyle, and the entire Recurrent team to drive the adoption of electric vehicles by providing transparency and confidence for consumers and dealers alike.
Read more in TechCrunch and GeekWire.
Special thanks to to Alexandra Harbour and Ry Storey-Fisher.
To read more about Powerhouse Ventures’ other publicly-announced investments, visit our Insights page.