May 14th, 2024 — The commercial vehicle market is undergoing a paradigm shift. Propelled by customer demand, declining costs of batteries, government incentives for electrification, lower operating costs, and expanding regulatory rules to phase out internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in over 30 countries, the global market for commercial electric vehicles (EVs) is expanding rapidly, representing a $558B market opportunity by 2031.
While commercial EVs continue to see double-digit annual growth rates, the procurement process for both EV and ICE commercial vehicles today is undigitized and slow, requiring manual back-and-forth coordination between buyers, sellers, OEMs, and several other required build stakeholders, on dozens of items including custom configuration metrics, compatibility checks, build and assembly stakeholder management, pricing quotes, and logistics and delivery processes.
To address these fundamental and extensive market challenges, SHAED has built a first-of-its-kind platform to unify, digitize, and connect each stakeholder and stage of the commercial vehicle procurement process—from vehicle configuration, build, sales, and delivery. SHAED’s market leading solution dramatically simplifies commercial vehicle procurement, the critical first step in the fleet electrification value chain.
The commercial vehicle market is complex and vast
The stakeholder environment for commercial vehicle procurement is complex, consisting of nine intertwined groups including buyers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), second-stage manufacturers, upfitters, auto dealers, logistics and delivery providers, fleet management companies, and vendors.
These stakeholders operate at different stages of the procurement process, representing a global commercial vehicle market for both EV and ICE assets that is projected to grow from $955B in 2022 to $1.7T by 2029. EV commercial vehicles alone are projected to grow from 520,000 units in 2023 to 2.1M units by 2030.
While SHAED is focused on addressing the pain points of commercial EV assets, the platform also provides new value and significant productivity gains to the status quo ICE vehicle procurement process. As fleets transition, SHAED offers a comprehensive acquisition platform, meeting buyers where they are in their electrification journey, whether they are purchasing their first or thousandth EV.
The procurement status quo is woefully slow and undigitized
Procuring commercial vehicles today is cumbersome and manual, involving numerous verbal and written conversations between buyers and sellers where specifications of a desired vehicle and upfit options, like additional vehicle interior customizations, are presented in paper catalogs or via email.
While the standard procurement timeline of a commercial ICE vehicle is around ten months, procuring a commercial EV is even more complex, especially for medium-to-heavy-duty commercial trucks. Buyers might spend 20 months to procure a single EV, slowed down by a limited understanding of new and critical variables like required component compatibility checks throughout the build process, specialized transportation equipment and logistics needed given EV chassis are much heavier, compatible charging equipment, specific use-case optimization, and more.
As buyer demand for commercial EVs continues to grow, slow and inefficient procurement processes severely inhibit fleet electrification.
SHAED offers a comprehensive solution for commercial EV vehicle procurement
The SHAED platform consists of four modules that align with each stage of the commercial vehicle acquisition and sales process and, for the first time, digitally connects and organizes the sector’s diverse universe of stakeholders.
SHAED’s CPQ Product streamlines vehicle configuration, pricing, and quoting, allowing buyers to digitally mock up their vehicle. Through the CPQ platform, the buyer can test different EV chassis, body types, and customizations all through an interactive 3D model.
Once a vehicle order is confirmed, the buyer and their counterparties use SHAED’s Dashboard Product to track the build process and timelines, gaining visibility into real-time inventory lead times and status updates.
SHAED’s Logistics Product helps coordinate and hire the right transportation, delivery, and logistics vendors, allowing stakeholders to pre-plan routes, delivery dates, and address specific shipping requirements for EVs, such as weight considerations and charging needs while en route.
Finally, given SHAED’s consolidation of these initial steps, the company facilitates the buying and selling of commercial vehicles through its Marketplace, seen publicly as CommercialEVs.com. The Marketplace offers a more effective, all-inclusive online marketplace, integrating vendor data from all SHAED modules, and expediting sales processes with buyers, dealers, and vendors.
SHAED has digitized and simplified the procurement process for both EV and ICE vehicles, providing a single platform for stakeholders to streamline complex workflows and address critical communication gaps and incomplete data, adding transparency and crucial efficiencies to the entire industry. With limited competition and a stellar team with the right networks, SHAED has an opportunity to become the industry standard for commercial vehicle procurement.
Powerhouse Ventures is proud to join SHAED’s $5.7M seed round, led by EnterTech Capital with participation from additional undisclosed parties. We look forward to working with CEO Ryan Pritchard, CTO Masaood Yunus, CFO Eddie Schick, and the entire SHAED team to accelerate the procurement of EVs.
Special thanks to Shaandiin Cedar and Marie Thompson.
To read more about our work at Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures, visit our Insights page.