Fleet Electrification Strategy – Tips for a Successful Transition

Fleet electrification is an exciting, but complex, process.  

Strategy is essential when taking your fleet from the fossil fuel world to the electric one. We have curated a simple step-by-step guide to help you along the way. 

Some Benefits of Developing a Fleet Electrification Strategy:

Getting the right people on board: From the very start of your project, it’s important to get the right people on board. A solid strategy and plan of action will help inform decision-makers. 

Knowing your “why”: Knowing why you are embarking on your electrification journey will help contextualise and support you in increasing your team’s confidence in the process. 

Understanding the numbers: Mapping out the key details and reviewing the feasibility of each stage in the process will help structure your journey – as well as understanding how many and which vehicles need to be electrified. 

Setting your goals: Having a goal start and end date for your project will help you stay on track, and reach milestones at the right time. 

Some Challenges You May Face When Electrifying Your Fleet:

 Not everyone will hop on board right away: There are still a lot of misconceptions about EV’s, especially in the commercial space. It may take some convincing when pitching your strategy to some key stakeholders. 

 Electrification can be a long process: Replacing your fleet with electric vehicles is a big task to embark on. Considerations such as charging infrastructure need to be carefully planned out to ensure your fleet continues to work efficiently.  

Informing your staff: You may face some concerns and negativity regarding range anxiety and charging capabilities – it is important to ensure that your staff are informed of your plans. Help educate your staff and discuss the positives of transitioning to electric. 

The fleet manager is a key individual to the fleet electrification process, and they will be behind many of the decisions to ensure a safe and successful journey from fossil fuel to electric. However, there are many other people who need to be in the know.  

Right from the start of this journey, ensure the right stakeholders are involved, including: 

• The facilities manager(s), to support with the charging infrastructure that is crucial to this fleet electrification, 
• The finance department, to help with key decisions around the investment health of the transition,  

• Your charging provider, to ensure the transition is seamless with the right charging infrastructure (we will return to this later) 

Is now the right time to transition our fleet? How much will it cost? Is the return on investment worth it?  

The electric era is an exciting prospect in the fight against climate change, but there may be some scepticism from your key stakeholders.  

There are so many positives to running an electric fleet, from improving your Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) commitments and lowering CO2 emissions, to reducing costs through lower maintenance bills and taxation and improving fleet efficiency through EV fleet management software. 

  Once you have the buy-in from the key stakeholders, turn to the numbers, map out the key details of your fleet’s electrification journey, and review the feasibility of each stage in the process.  

Depending on their role in the business, some vehicles may be more suited to electrification than others. Look into the suitability of switching your fleet to electric. Understanding the vehicle itself can be achieved by looking at the data on how far a vehicle travels on any given day and where here its base is when it is not on the road.  

Could an EV comfortably achieve the typical business mileage its petrol/diesel equivalent does? Consulting telematics can help you find out which vehicles are the most cost-effective to transition.  

You may wish to electrify your entire fleet eventually, or you might transition a few vehicles to gather the data and learnings necessary to support the long-term strategy. Create a timeline for when you will aim to switch each vehicle in your fleet. 

 Switching your fleet to electric cannot happen overnight. Having a vague target in mind for when the process will start and end – whether this be a phased approach for a gradual electrification process or a hard deadline for the completion of the entire project – will help you stay on track and tick off the key steps needed to reach key milestones at the right time. 

Getting Started with EV Charging for Blue Light Services 

As emergency fleet operators recognise that they cannot wait until they have made the transition to an all-electric fleet before getting their EV charging infrastructure in place, they have been preparing by electrifying their non-emergency vehicles to test the model.  

The charging infrastructure to support these vehicles paves the way for what is to come in the form of fully zero-emission emergency vehicles. The time is now to think about how, where and when the blue light fleet vehicles will be charged. Electrical site surveys are crucial to understand what power is available across estates today and if there are power constraints. 

Communicate the Change

Whilst your staff does not need to know the intricate details of your fleet electrification strategy, switching to an electric fleet is a big journey that will most likely affect the whole company in some way.  

Let them know why you have made the decision to go electric, the key dates around electrification, and any key health and safety information they should be aware of at this stage. 

Announcing your transition to your network is also a monumental step in your company’s sustainability agenda. And it is worth shouting about! You could run a campaign on social media sharing why you have decided to transition your fleet or communicate the news to your customers and investors via a press release or email.  

Powering Your Electric Fleet

Simultaneously to the above, fleet managers should be considering the other aspect of fleet electrification that goes hand in hand with transitioning the vehicles themselves: the charging infrastructure.  

Keep an eye out for our upcoming blog, which will consider the key steps to devising an EV charging strategy for fleets.