#75: Inspiration acquires Electrada assets

Inspiration acquires Electrada assets, Federal freight grants quietly drop EV charging, Tap Electric raises €4M

Author

Steve Taylor
June 20, 2026

The Business and Policy of Charging Infrastructure

The 3 big stories

  • Inspiration Mobility Group acquires select assets of fleet charging provider Electrada

  • Federal freight grants quietly drop EV charging

  • Tap Electric raises €4M

The big takeaways. The charging industry is consolidating fast. Capitalized companies are absorbing distressed operators to build full-stack fleet solutions. In consumer charging, a widening cost gap between public and home is creating room for software companies to make charging cheaper.

Steve

Industry News

Inspiration Mobility Group has acquired select assets of Electrada, the Cincinnati-based fleet electrification company that built and operated charging depots across the United States since 2020. The deal gives Inspiration Electrada's full team, project pipeline, depot development operations, energy management software, and IP.

Over the past six years, Electrada built a credible track record, claiming 99% electric fuel uptime and 10 million clean miles annually, serving public agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and institutions under three service models. Customers ranged from passenger vehicle fleets to Class 8 tractor-trailers.

Inspiration already backs EV fleet management and vehicle leasing with capital from ArcLight, Macquarie, and Ferrovial. What it was missing until now was deep depot development and energy management expertise, specifically for heavy-duty and distribution fleets. Electrada now fills that gap. The combined platform will offer commercial fleets a single partner from electrification planning through daily fuel operations. Autonomous vehicle fleet operators are also cited as a target segment.

Steve's take

Electrada accomplished a lot in six years, including 375 depots, 99% uptime, and a legitimate CaaS model across vehicle classes most competitors won't touch. But CaaS is a long-burn model and the funding environment for fleet charging has been brutal. Inspiration is well-capitalized and needed exactly what Electrada built. The deal makes sense. 

What to watch now isn't integration, it's whether the Electrada team stays. Distressed acquisitions that lose key people inside 18 months tend to acquire the brand, not the capability.

Power and Policy

From Truck Charging to Truck Parking: How INFRA’s Priorities Have Shifted

For much of the past four years, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s INFRA grant program served as an increasingly important source of support for freight electrification projects. While never designed as a dedicated EV charging program, INFRA evolved under the Biden Administration into a vehicle for advancing heavy-duty truck charging, port electrification, and zero-emission freight corridors.

The FY 2026 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) suggests that era may be over.

The latest solicitation marks a notable shift away from transportation electrification and toward more traditional freight infrastructure priorities, with commercial truck parking emerging as one of the program’s centerpiece funding categories.

A Four-Year Evolution

INFRA has historically focused on large-scale freight and highway projects that improve the movement of goods and strengthen national supply chains. In the years immediately following passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, however, the program increasingly incorporated climate and decarbonization objectives into its evaluation criteria.

In FY 2022, EV charging infrastructure was generally treated as an eligible but secondary project component. Charging stations could be included as part of larger freight projects, but electrification was not a major competitive factor.

That began to change in FY 2023. As the Administration implemented its broader transportation decarbonization agenda, INFRA applications that incorporated freight electrification, alternative fueling infrastructure, and greenhouse gas reductions gained prominence. Applicants increasingly positioned charging infrastructure as a way to improve freight efficiency while advancing federal climate goals.

The trend reached its peak in FY 2024. During that cycle, the Department strongly emphasized zero-emission freight movement, climate benefits, and alternative fuel infrastructure. Truck charging hubs, port electrification projects, and freight corridor charging investments became common elements of competitive applications. For many in the charging industry, INFRA emerged as a potentially significant source of funding for heavy-duty charging infrastructure.

The FY 2025 competition began to signal a shift. While charging infrastructure remained eligible, the Department’s focus moved increasingly toward supply chain resilience, freight bottlenecks, economic competitiveness, and infrastructure performance. Climate-related language became less central to the program’s messaging.

The FY 2026 INFRA NOFO makes the change unmistakable.

Rather than highlighting freight electrification or zero-emission transportation, the Department has elevated commercial truck parking as a standalone national priority. More than $200 million—roughly one-third of available INFRA funding—has been reserved specifically for truck parking projects.

The Department’s messaging surrounding the competition focuses heavily on:

  • Commercial truck parking

  • Freight mobility and efficiency

  • Supply chain reliability

  • Air cargo access

  • Commercial spaceport connectivity

  • Highway modernization

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure remains technically eligible under the program. However, it is no longer identified as a priority area or highlighted as a policy objective within the solicitation.

Rob’s take

For EV charging developers, the FY 2026 NOFO sends a clear signal about the Administration’s transportation priorities.

Under previous competitions, applicants could strengthen their proposals by emphasizing truck charging, freight electrification, and emissions reductions. Today, applicants are likely to be more successful framing projects around freight efficiency, supply chain performance, and operational improvements rather than transportation decarbonization.

The shift is particularly significant for heavy-duty charging developers. Just two years ago, many viewed INFRA as a promising source of support for truck charging corridors, logistics hub charging, and port electrification. The FY 2026 solicitation suggests those projects will face a more challenging competitive environment unless they are tightly integrated with broader freight mobility objectives.

As a result, charging developers may increasingly look to state programs, utility transportation electrification initiatives, port authorities, and remaining federal charging programs for deployment funding opportunities.

Emerging Tech

Tap Electric, an Amsterdam-based EV charging software company, has raised €4M ($4.58M USD) in a round led by No Such Ventures, with participation from existing investors Shamrock Ventures, Fair Capital Impact Fund, and LUMO Labs. Founded in 2021 by Nico Spoelstra and Dan Pezim, Tap will use the capital to expand its platform across the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, and Ireland, and to build out its driver app.

The company's case for the funding is built on data showing public AC charging in the Netherlands now costs 77% more than household electricity. This gap has widened from 68% a year ago. For EV drivers without a home charger, Tap estimates that adds roughly $500 per year in extra costs. DC fast charging rose 6% over the past year, pushing the gap between public AC and fast charging from 18% to 26%.

Tap's platform connects drivers, chargers, and energy systems. Nearly 100,000 users charge through the platform monthly, and the company has posted triple-digit annual revenue growth for two consecutive years.

With the new capital, Tap is expanding into vehicle-to-grid projects, smart home charging, and open smart charging for public infrastructure, effectively moving from a payment and price transparency app toward a full energy management layer.

Steve's take

Public charging continues to get more expensive relative to home charging, and companies with real capital aren't focused on solving the problem. The assumption has always been that competition would drive prices down as networks matured, but that hasn’t happened. 

The €4M fundraise will get Tap through the next 18 months, but the V2G projects mentioned feel overly ambitious. What Tap is actually building is trust with drivers who feel ripped off every time they charge away from home, which is arguably more difficult (and valuable) than building and deploying infrastructure.

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⚡️Steve and Rob

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