Optimising EV fleets – electrifying the right vehicles at the right time.

Finding the best way to electrify their fleet can be a major headache for fleet managers. Natasha Fry , Mer UK’s head of sales for fleet and workplace explains why fleet profiling is a crucial step, and how it provides the strong foundation that takes EV fleets from a strategy to a reality.?

Every fleet manager knows that at some point they will need to transition to electric vehicles. By now, most businesses will have established a strategy for the overall transition of its vehicles. The directive may well have come from a board-level ESG or CSR commitment. But, when it comes down to translating the strategy into action, it is up to the fleet managers working with facilities managers and, where there is one, energy managers to make it happen.?

If you think of a typical transition project, they tend to start with your current situation – ‘where are we now?’ – and have an objective – ‘where do we want to be?’ – and a strategy – ‘what are the big steps we need to take to get there?’ The trouble is that translating strategy into action calls for smaller steps, and taking the first one is hard. Taking the first step is less scary when you have the right business intelligence to make informed decisions.?

Fleet profiling?

There is no magic button to push that turns all your fleet vehicles into EVs with the right level of charging infrastructure in place. It has to be carefully planned, designed and managed.?

Most businesses sensibly opt for a phased approach that starts with profiling their fleet to understand which vehicles are the best candidates to be transitioned to EV. This calls for a profile of the fleet, which can be a challenge. Fleet managers might not necessarily know if their current ICE vehicles can be transitioned into an electric vehicle. Without the right intel to hand, any decision is going to be based on a gut feel. That’s risky when there are corporate-level strategies at play that involve considerable sums of money.?

Data is king

Robust business intelligence and decision-making calls for data, lots of it. That is something fleets generate in abundance. Data about mileage, routes, payloads, cost of fuel and servicing, maintenance intervals, even driving behaviour and weather patterns can all feed into fleet optimisation profiles.?

Telematics from individual vehicles reveals a great deal about where, how and why a vehicle performs. Taking telematics data and analysing it by vehicle type provides a good picture of which vehicles in a fleet can be electrified first. It can also help build a case for understanding which part of a fleet might not be a good candidate for electrification. We recently did some work for a customer which showed that 99% of its fleet could be electrified but one route made it impossible for the final 1%. In those instances you look for on route public charging or diverting the vehicle to another depot or charging partner.?

Understanding how the vehicles work is one part of the equation, there are several other factors that come together to build the optimal EV transition solution. Site-specific data about a depot is also vital. This can include physical location, site conditions, frequency of vehicles arriving and departing, even access at different times of the day. When you factor in what a vehicle does on site, how long it is stationary for, whether the vehicles remain on site overnight for night-time charging or need frequent top-up charges and so on, the picture starts to become even clearer. All of these variables add up to a very specific, intricately detailed site-by-site, vehicle-by-vehicle basis for your fleet electrification plans.?

Expert help is on hand

It may sound scary, but this is analysis that the fleet manager doesn’t have to do independently. Data analysts at a charge point partner, like Mer, are well-versed in performing this type of analysis. These are people who love this kind of deep analysis. By combining data from multiple sources into fleet optimisation tools, they provide an accurate and trusted foundation for Mer’s design and consultancy services.?

Mer’s experts in design and consultancy take insights from the data to model and design a charging infrastructure that is fit for purpose for today, and to meet future requirements. They take into account logistical restrictions such as available space; how it is currently being used, whether it makes sense to move parking bays or a smoking shelter, for example, to optimise the space for EV charge points for the fleet. They will also look at a business’s growth plans to determine what the fleet’s future EV charging needs might be.?

Underpinning all this, of course, is the importance of getting sufficient power to the site to fulfil the EV charging needs, again for now and into the future. This involves engaging with the Distribution Network Operator (DNO), which presents its own challenges. But, equipped with accurate, irrefutable data about the scale of the fleet transition and any power upgrade needed, those engagements can be more straightforward. Again, partnering with an experienced charge point operator who can engage with the DNO on the business’s behalf alleviates the pressure for the fleet manager.

Continual optimisation

Optimising an EV fleet doesn’t end at the transition phase. Fleets are an essential part of the UK’s economy. The whole EV fleet ecosystem needs to be optimised to keep goods moving across the country. This extends from data analysis and design and consultancy, right through to installation and the ongoing operations, including the back-end and servicing and maintaining the charge point infrastructure and hardware.?

Getting stakeholders on board

Putting all of these pieces together isn’t easy. There is a lot to coordinate, and the whole process demands buy-in from key stakeholders. When you consider that often the strategy has been defined at the most senior level, the challenges of obtaining 100% commitment from key decision makers are substantial. Involving them in the EV charging solution design process is an important step towards a successful implementation.?

Being able to show the board that the decisions made are based on robust, accurate data helps advance the whole process, saving time and money. It establishes that financial decisions are sound as you can prevent overspending on back-and-forth efforts to get designs approved. Designs arise from intelligence matching the EV charging requirements to information about the site and any logistical restrictions such as space and power upgrades.

Your fleet optimisation partners?

While there may not be a magic button, there are experienced allies who can help your business navigate this journey. Mer is one of them. If you would like to find out more, please visit https://uk.mer.eco/ev-fleet-charging/ or get in touch with me directly. My team and I will be happy to help you optimise your fleet for an exciting carbon-free future.?