January 10, 2023 — Acquisition activity in the automotive retail vendor space is off to a brisk start in 2023. Following last week’s announcement that APCO Holdings had acquired National Auto Care, J.D. Power announced this morning it has acquired ZappyRide, to bolster its new E-Vision initiative created to provide software and data to greentech stakeholders, including dealer groups, fleet companies, automakers, suppliers, electric utilities, and other players in the electric vehicle space.

J.D. Power will integrate ZappyRide into its J.D. Autodata Solutions division. The plan is to launch more solutions in the coming months that will marry its automotive and utilities customer intelligence and analytics. with ZappyRide’s existing services that include strategic planning for electrification programs, consumer shopping and cost analysis tools, regional and federal incentive data, and EV program administration resources.

ZappyRide’s product offerings include EV education and decision-making platforms for consumer and commercial stakeholders, commercial fleet planning tools, an incentive application assistant for EV charging equipment, and several APIs covering data on nationwide incentives, charging equipment, vehicles and their specs, electricity sources, and their emissions.

Websites that ZappyRide powers include:

• https://ev.pge.com/
• https://ev.xcelenergy.com/
• https://doordash.zappy-ride.com/vehicles
• https://www.cadillac.com/electric-life

“The far-reaching implications of the historic EV transformation are not isolated to the auto industry; they are creating ripple effects far and wide that will change the game for utilities, federal and local governments, consumers, and more,” said Dave Habiger, president and CEO of J.D. Power in a statement announcing the purchase. “ZappyRide is positioned at the center of that interconnected ecosystem, delivering the software and solutions that all EV stakeholders need to make better, faster, and more well-informed decisions.”

Olivier Pinçon, CEO of ZappyRide, founded the company in May 2017. He will continue to lead the team as General Manager, ZappyRide EV Products, and report to Craig Jennings, who heads Power’s Autodata Solutions group.

Pete Cimmet, J.D. Power’s chief strategy officer tells TBR the two companies began talking about a year ago. He believes the EV data space is wide open and that ZappyRide provides the opportunity to scale quickly. “It has decent scale now,” he says. “But there is a lot of white space, and we think we can help it accelerate quickly. It’s adjacent to everything we do.”

Cimmet has overseen an aggressive aggressive acquisition strategy buying eight firms since J.D. Power was acquired by private equity giant Thoma Bravo in December 2019. Bravo acquired AutoData Solutions from the KKR-backed Internet Brands earlier that year, then merged the two companies. The Thoma Bravo/J.D. Power acquisitions include:

• Trilogy Automotive – 2020
• Inventory Command Center (ICC) – 2020
• ALG – 2020
• EpiAnalytics – 2021
• Superior Integrated Systems (Darwin) – 2021
• We Predict – 2022
• Tail Light – 2022
• ZappyRide – 2023.

Bravo also backs the Canadian-based TRADER Corp. which it acquired in 2016. In November TRADER acquired Dealertrack Canada from Cox Automotive’s Canadian retail business.