CaaS for mobile cooling in South Africa and beyond

Mobile Cooling-as-a-Service Company Plans to Electrify over 4M Diesel Transport Fridges

Maxwell and Spark in South Africa can replace a dirty diesel unit with its completely green electric fridge at no upfront charge to the user, as well as save them roughly 20% on their monthly operating costs. 

In August 2020, Maxwell & Spark was selected as one of the finalists for the Cooling as a Service (CaaS) prize launched by BASE (Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy) in July 2020 through their CaaS Initiative. Applying the CaaS business model in the mobile cooling sector can drastically reduce the emissions generated by fuel consumed to keep goods transportation vehicles cool.

Background 

Since their invention in the 1930s, refrigerated trucks have changed the way we live and feed ourselves. It is no longer necessary that human populations live near their food sources, and farming is able to take place at a much larger and more efficient scale. However, the current technology is based on the use of diesel engines, which have not changed much in the past 90 years. The roughly 4.5 million transport refrigeration units globally are now amongst the most polluting engines on roads. But a small South African company, with a unique business model and large global ambitions, plans to change all of that.

Maxwell and Spark is a Greentech and electric vehicle company focused on replacing outdated energy technology in industrial and commercial environments. The company was initially founded in South Africa but is now growing its footprint into Europe, North American, Australia and West Africa. Maxwell and Spark have been developing their fully battery electric transport refrigeration system, called fridge.li, in partnership with SPAR and Scania since 2017. The fridge.li was launched for commercial sale in 2018, making it the first fully commercialised battery electric transport refrigeration system in the world.

About the technology 

“Our fridge.li system is not only carbon neutral and emission free, but it will save you over 90% on your energy costs by switching from diesel to electric,” explains Dr Clinton Bemont, CEO of Maxwell and Spark, highlighting the fact that the system is designed not only with environmental benefits in mind, but also with financial benefits. “But, to ensure the highest performance of our system, we use a very specific, and very expensive, type of lithium ion chemistry. This adds significantly to our build price which means our system is roughly 30%-50% more expensive to buy initially, compared to a diesel system.” comments Dr Bemont.

Overall, Dr Bemont explains, though the fridge.li system is more expensive to purchase, it will save so much money on one’s operating costs that the investment should break even after two to three years. And even more impressive: one can expect savings of more than 50% over its 10-12 year lifetime cost of ownership.

Some cool facts about the fridge.li

• It is 100% battery powered, has zero roadside emissions and saves between 50% (grey energy charged) and 100% (PV charged) atmospheric carbon emissions
• Using the fridge.li, transporters can save between 90% and 95% of their refrigeration energy costs
• The fridge.li unit requires servicing every 200 000 kilometres
• Typical fitment takes around three to four days
• No modifications are required: it’s a plug-and-play solution
• The battery offers up to 6 000 full discharge-charge cycles
• The battery does not contain heavy metals, has a projected life of over 15 years, and is able to operate at temperatures as low as -40°C and as high as 80°C
• All that is needed is a three-phase plug point to charge
• Charge time is from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours
• Battery run time is up to 24 hours
• Previously called the ‘PolarLi’ it was recently rebranded to fridge.li which is also the url of their website

CaaS model and how it works 

However, not all fleet owners have the capital or the economic motivation to do fleet wide electrification. That’s why we’ve developed our mobile Cooling-as-a-Service solution. The Maxwell and Spark mobile Cooling-as-a-Service solution is another world first for the company. 

Maxwell and Spark will build, supply and install their units into large cold chain logistics fleets at no expense to the fleet owner. Maxwell and Spark will also cover the cost of servicing, repairs and electricity. The fleet owner will then only pay a single fee for cooling, and this fee is charged on a simple pay-as-you-use basis.

“A typical diesel system can cost as much as EUR750 per month to run, depending on where you are in the world, once you’ve bought it. With our mobile Cooling-as-a-Service model, the same user can expect to pay roughly EUR600 per month, all inclusive, without any capital expense,” says Dr Bemont. “In other words, we can replace a dirty diesel unit with our completely green electric fridge at no charge to the user, as well as save them roughly 20% on their monthly operating costs. The cost and savings can vary from country to country primarily based on the price of diesel and electricity in those regions but, to date, we have always been able to find a significant saving regardless of the geography.“

The current diesel transport refrigeration systems are extremely bad for the environment. “A typical diesel system will put out around 17 tons of CO2 per year. But that’s not the worst part. Because these diesel engines are not considered ‘on road’ engines, they’re held to different emission standards compared to trucks and cars. And so, based on the current emission standards and runtimes, a typical diesel system will create as much air pollution per year as about 80 to 150 cars depending on where you are in the world!” explains Dr Bemont.

With the CaaS model, transportation companies do not need to worry about securing spare parts or taking care of predictive and corrective maintenance. Instead, they can focus on their core business, which is making sure the goods arrive at their destination on time.

Although the CaaS model that Maxwell and Spark are developing will require a long term commitment of up to 10 years, a transporter will be able to exit the contract after 5 years without any penalties. This makes it easier, particularly for third party transporters, to enter into transport contracts that are typically of a 5 years length.

Future plans 

Maxwell and Spark have big plans. While the mobile Cooling-as-a-Service model is still in a pilot phase, the company believes that it will allow for a much faster adoption of their technology, and the ultimate electrification of the entire European and African transport refrigeration fleet and then beyond. With over 1.3 million transport refrigeration units on the road in Europe and Africa (and another 3.2 million in the rest of the world), the achievement of these ambitious plans will not only be a commercial success for both the company and their partners – but it will also be a significant win for the global environment.

Beyond that, Maxwell and Spark are developing a range of commercial electric vehicle solutions including an electric minibus taxi for the African (and other third world) markets and a yellow equipment electric vehicle specifically for high intensity mining applications.