Zimi scaling EV infrastructure
Stellenbosch start-up Zimi has secured a R50 million funding round to develop EV charging solutions for South African commercial truck and van fleets. After successive fuel price shocks earlier this year, fleet managers have never been more open to a blended fleet with EV trucks.
The Development Bank of South Africa was the lead funder, with Keyo Ventures and several angel investors making up the balance. Despite South African BEV passenger vehicle sales declining last year, Zimi has always believed that the real potential for EVs in the local market lies in commercial fleets.
“ The funding is instrumental in helping us make EVs possible for fleets across South Africa,” says Michael Maas, CEO and founder of Zimi.“ Our vision is to shift all commercial vehicles in South Africa to EVs. Providing a seamless ecosystem of best-in-class electric vehicles suited to fleets, charging infrastructure, solar and energy management systems.”
Commercial fleets have more demanding charging cycle needs than private passenger vehicles. The enormous investment in home and public solar installations throughout South Africa makes the case for EV fleets. But an issue for many fleets is that they can’ t risk the cost of making an EV truck-buying and charging infrastructure miscalculation.
EV trucks and vans are notably more expensive than diesel versions, often by more than a third. The lifecycle costs and depreciation curves for local EV trucks and vans are also unknown, which increases the outright ownership risk for fleets looking to transition from diesel to EVs Then there’ s the issue of charging infrastructure, access to chargers in remote locations, and securing consistently low recharging rates.
Data and software integration are crucial for any diesel-to- EV fleet transition. Without an integrated truck and charging telematics system, it’ s impossible to manage an EV fleet with confidence and unlock the benefits of low-cost energy recharging sources, like solar.
Since 2021, Maas and his team at Zimi have been developing both the hardware and software needed to manage a commercial truck EV fleet with confidence, in South Africa’ s complex and challenging logistics environment.
Zimi removes the complexity of planning and managing a powerful, distributed charging network for an EV fleet. Customers can lease AC and DC chargers with full integration. The Zimi platform helps fleet owners avoid the risk of investing in the wrong vehicle and charging choices, and of being locked into a limited and poorly integrated recharging network.
Zimi plans to use the R50 million capital to deploy around 200 fleet charging stations and support the rollout of roughly 2,000 electric vehicles over the next 18 months.
WORDS IN ACTION 20 JUNE 2026