Companies and governments that are starting to incorporate electric vehicles (EVs) into their fleets have to make a wide range of operational and strategic changes. For their newly electrified fleet to run smoothly, they may need to rethink and overhaul their infrastructure, policies and processes.
By putting in place a clear transition strategy, using vehicle data to identify and implement efficiencies — notably around charging and usage patterns — and making continuous recalibrations, organizations will get the most out of their EVs.
Get the charging infrastructure right
An adequate charging set-up is a prerequisite for electric fleet operations. Dave Mullaney, principal in the carbon-free transportation team at RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute), explains the analysis that fleets can carry out as they invest in charging infrastructure. “By looking at historical data of vehicle travel patterns, you can come up with a transition plan in terms of what assets you need to buy, where you are going to deploy them and which warehouses or depots they are going to be at,” he says. “The next step is to understand the power situation at your depot, and to figure out with your electric utility provider how to procure the power you need for your fleet.”
The City of Austin, Texas, is carrying out an ambitious program of fleet electrification, and has switched about 7% of its 7,000 municipal vehicles to EVs. Rick Harland, assistant director of fleet mobility services, says that some of the largest operational complexities have come from building out 175 charging stations.
“First of all, building charging infrastructure is expensive, and it can be challenging to acquire sufficient funding to go ahead,” he says. “It takes months to design, get the permits and construct charging stations. And you can’t build as fast as you want to because you’ve got to work within budgets and constraints such as getting hardware and labor contracts in place.”
This is why identifying primary charging locations is so important. Geotab data shows that current fleet vehicles tend to rely on one or just a few locations for all their charging needs.
Among the early EV adopters analyzed, about two-thirds of vehicles in both Europe and North America charge in just one to three locations; 45% of European vehicles and 32% of North American vehicles have a single charging location.
This may be because early-adopter fleets are prioritizing the conversion of vehicles that have ‘easy-to-electrify’ driving patterns, as well as those that “have the ability to charge at a captive depot location and maybe only very occasionally engage with the public network for supplemental charging,” says Mullaney. “In the US, public charging is often not in great shape — there are reliability and availability problems — and it’s also quite expensive on an energy-to-wheels basis.”
Increase efficiency through fleet best practice
Fleet management best practices include ‘rightsizing’ the number of vehicles in a fleet and maximizing vehicle uptime and utilization. Implementing a robust charging strategy is the newest frontier in gaining efficiencies, according to Mullaney. “Organizations need to figure out how to integrate charging schedules into vehicle operation schedules,” he says. “In a way that minimizes their electricity costs but doesn’t affect their ability to deliver on customer commitments.”
According to Geotab data, a large proportion of fleet EV charge sessions start when the battery is still half full. European drivers appear to have more range confidence, driving longer distances before they stop to charge: 45% of European vehicles start their charge session at a battery level of 51% or above, compared with 65% of vehicles in North America. So fleets have an opportunity here to increase their EV utilization by driving more and charging less often or for shorter periods.
A charging strategy can help organizations to pair the right vehicle with the right job: vehicles with a lower range and frequent charge opportunities will require a smaller, less expensive battery, and vehicles with big batteries should be allocated to the more strenuous trips.
Organizations can also optimize the timing of charging to take advantage of off-peak utility rates, says Gary Clark, fleet director at environmental services company Veolia UK. “We’ve started to use smart charging techniques to make sure we can make best use of when the electricity is available,” he says.
“In the right use cases, organizations will have a captive charger they can use to access cheap overnight electricity — that’s really the sweet spot,” says Mullaney. “They can also look into installing solar panels on their depot roofs.”
Retrospective internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle data is important for transition strategies, but Mullaney is keen to highlight the importance of real-time data for optimization — particularly if a fleet is large and vehicles don’t have predictable travel patterns. “This allows an organization to know, for example, when a vehicle is going to arrive at its next stop,” he says. “If there is a charger at that stop, that could be used for a quick top-up; if not, how far can it go on the remaining battery life? And that can inform which vehicle you assign to that route going forward, if a driver can continue to legally drive given hours-of-service regulations. Real-time data and a good IT system can help you solve those problems, and can actually save you money by doing it well.”
Get your key stakeholders together early and engage with your finance department to make sure you have a funding mechanism in place.
Rick Harland
Assistant director of fleet mobility services, City of Austin, Texas
Get your key stakeholders together early and engage with your finance department to make sure you have a funding mechanism in place.
Rick Harland
Assistant director of fleet mobility services, City of Austin, Texas
Establish a clear transition plan
Organizations will need a carefully thought-out plan in order to implement their electrification transition successfully. “The change management aspect of fleet electrification is probably widely misunderstood,” says Harland. “A transition plan is a collaborative process, and it needs to be transparent. You can only transition as fast as your organization is able to, so get your key stakeholders together early and engage with your finance department to make sure you have a funding mechanism in place.”
One vital aspect to consider is frontline stakeholders such as drivers and maintenance staff, which is something Veolia has done. “We’ve launched specific driver training in house, and we’ve also worked with external partners to upskill our workshop technicians so that they are qualified to maintain and repair electric vehicles,” says Clark. “Even in the early days, the response we were getting from drivers and from management was nothing but positive. Everyone is really embracing the change.”
As Geotab’s Europe vs North America data shows, fleets that have greater experience with EVs and have a better or more robust network of charging available are more confident in their driving patterns. But these early adopters — as well as the ones that are in the process of switching their fleets to electric — could still do more to maximize their ROI. Analyzing data from telematics, for instance, can give fleet managers confidence in their vehicles’ ability to complete their duty cycles. It can also generate efficiencies by optimizing fleet performance and re-evaluating routes and vehicle types.
Starting out with pilot deployments of EVs can set up organizations for success and future scaling-up. Over time, their learning curve will accelerate, bringing a higher comfort level in managing their EV fleet. And as Mullaney says, fleets will benefit from making small, continual recalibrations. “Electrification is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution,” he says. “Continuously looking at how things are performing, at what is the latest in terms of cost and capabilities, and at how that fits into the network is how, in the long term, an EV fleet is going to be successful.”
Electrification is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Continuously looking at how things are performing ... is how, in the long term, an EV fleet is going to be successful.
Dave Mullaney
Principal in the carbon-free transportation team at RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute)
Electrification is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Continuously looking at how things are performing ... is how, in the long term, an EV fleet is going to be successful.
Dave Mullaney
Principal in the carbon-free transportation team at RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute)
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Copyright 2024. Geotab Inc. and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved