Dave Prusinski
David Prusinski has been appointed Co-CEO of Vehicle Management Systems, formerly EVAI, as the company looks to expand its reach beyond just EVs. Prusinski joins Ian Gardner as Co-CEO and brings two decades of experience in automotive technology to the role.
He comes to VMS from Ford Integrated Services where he served as Chief Revenue Officer and was responsible for driving commercial and retail solutions for millions of Ford vehicles. At VMS, he will focus on defining go-to-market strategies, strengthening partnerships with auto dealers and service providers, and expanding the company’s footprint across North America.
“I had an idea one day and I thought, I want to create a solution that democratized the fleet in retail uptime solutions that exist out there,” said Prusinski. “That’s a huge underserviced market. I ran into the VMS team and when I started talking to them, I took a look at the VMS platform and when I saw that, I went, okay, I really get this. This is something very different. This is not a telematics platform. It’s an intelligent operating layer for vehicles, fleets and owners that dealers can use to keep vehicles on the road.”
This will not be the first time Prusinski has led the growth phase of an automotive solution provider. He was previously one of the original members on a small Ford Pro leadership team with only a nascent connected vehicle platform. He helped grow that team into one that now rolls out software solutions and digital tools to over 3,000 Ford dealers. Prusinski leaves Ford looking to replicate that success at VMS.
“Some other folks have asked me: why would you go from a big OEM down to a startup? Well, obviously, agility, but I’m a builder,” said Prusinski. “And I see these game changing type solutions. I’ve been fortunate to be on the front end of this on a couple of occasions. I see this as one of those opportunities that we will be able to change the industry. I think we’re really well prepared from a technology standpoint with what the team’s built already, and the skills I bring to the table to be able to scale the organization moving forward.”
A New Name: Vehicle Management Systems
As part of the announcement, EVAI will officially be rebranding to Vehicle Management Systems, a decision that allows the company to deliver its predictive AI tools to businesses addressing all powertrains, not just EVs.
“When it was EVAI, the team built an amazing EV first platform, but in the meantime, they also built an amazing ICE platform and a hybrid platform,” said Prusinski. “The same pains and issues around automation, virtual fleet management, up time, increasing dealer margins and profits, exist for the EVs as they do for the ICE and the hybrid vehicles. It’s an acknowledgment and a signal to our customers in the market that that we have a much greater scope and way greater capabilities than previously, and we’re actually going to be leaning into that much more moving forward.”
The change marks the next chapter for VMS in its mission to help dealers, independent repair shops, and fleet operators improve uptime and lower operating costs through smarter fleet servicing and improved vehicle availability. It already offers actionable real-time fleet insights and wants to continue building on its proprietary fleet AI tools to provide a platform custom built for the future.
“Traditional platforms, you think about telematics platforms. They capture data,” said Prusinski. “VMS doesn’t just do that. It captures data, but it interprets it, it prioritizes it, and it acts on it autonomously because it’s AI first and it’s AI native. And that’s what really got me excited. They’re not trying to retrofit intelligence on top of rules-based logic or legacy architectures, slapping it on top of a telematics. They built it from the ground up around intelligence, autonomy and insight. This is going to allow us to fundamentally build new solutions for dealers and fleets that the industry’s really never seen.”
Helping Dealers Service More Fleets
These new changes will also reflect what the company has said is an expanded focus on delivering greater uptime and lowering operating costs through predictive AI tools. The hope is to help businesses keep every vehicle running at its best by leveraging OEM-agnostic connected vehicle data, predictive modeling, and advanced AI. The company is looking to empower dealers and repair shops to create profitable service revenue streams by anticipating fleet needs, reducing service downtime, and keeping commercial vehicles on the road.
“Dealers have got so much on their plate,” said Prusinski. “They’re trying to really service their customers. They’re trying to get their service revenues up. They’re trying to increase their service margins. They’re trying to create great relationships with their end retail customers and their end fleet customers. And that’s where I get excited because I know that the VMS platform and the first tools we’re going to be coming out with are going to service exactly that.”
With a new name and a new Co-CEO now in place, VMS is ready to tackle its future goals. As the company expands its scope and eventually its software capabilities it hopes to bring scalable AI solutions to more small businesses and help improve vehicle health across the industry.
“Our goal and our job is we want to become the universal AI powered vehicle health platform,” said Prusinski. “Trusted by fleets, drivers, dealerships, and repair shops, and we want to really unlock a smarter and more transparent life for every vehicle on the road. From whether it be retail, one of the biggest capital expenditures a person will do, keeping that incredibly expensive capital expense on the road running or in a business keeping that incredibly important business asset running so they’re making revenues.”
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