Highland Electric Fleets, a provider of full-service school bus electrification subscriptions, and Synop, an AI-based, single-platform management service for commercial electric vehicle (EV) fleets, have entered into a long-term strategic partnership to manage EV fleet charging, grid connection, and fleet operations.

School districts, fleet owners, and third-party fleet management companies are expected to benefit from the partnership. They will be able to use services including smart-charge management, fleet operations, AI-driven forecasting tools, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) optimization.

The integration of Synop supports Highland’s pioneering full-service subscription model, which the company says includes everything a school district or fleet operator needs to electrify their fleets. Highland provides the school buses, installs charging infrastructure, supports driver and mechanic training and long-term bus maintenance, and more. Synop’s back-end platform manages fleetwide V2G controls and coordination between vehicles, utilities, and energy markets to ensure that fleets with Highland subscriptions provide the maximum benefit to both customers and the grid, without the need for customer intervention.

Customers also can use Synop to see their vehicles in real-time throughout the day and track their state of charge and fleet performance, among other things. This allows Highland to build V2G and other ancillary services into its subscriptions, lowering the cost for customers and ensuring that vehicles are ready for their daily routes and also able to support the local electric grid when needed. In addition, the interoperability of the Synop platform allows Highland to offer its customers the bus manufacturer of their choice.

"By managing vehicle uptime, charging, and complex data on fleet operations for any brand of electric bus, Synop’s sophisticated technology enables us to deliver on our promise to customers that they will have a reliably charged electric school bus every school day,” said Highland CEO Duncan McIntyre. “This partnership with Synop enables Highland to offer districts a comprehensive subscription that enables them to focus on what they do best - deliver children safely to and from school without having to manage the complexities that come with EV charging.”