The momentum towards adopting electric vehicles in the UK is accelerating. In the face of an intensifying climate emergency, the past year has seen a 43% surge in the availability of public EV charging stations, with an addition of almost 19,000 units, bringing the total to just over 62,500. The UK’s Department for Transport has mandated that by 2030, 80% of all new cars sold must be electric. Despite the UK Government postponing the ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol car sales to 2035, this is just a temporary pause. Numerous sectors are on the brink of significant transformations as this deadline looms.
Change is inevitable so businesses should embrace it
The bottom line is clear: the transition to electric vehicles is gaining momentum and shows no signs of slowing down. Businesses need to stay ahead and adapt if they’re to thrive in the new world – not just in the automotive manufacturing sector, but in fleet management, too. For fleet managers, whether they’re in delivery and depots, or workplaces and company fleets, a major shift is coming. Partly because 10 years from now, most new vehicles will run on electricity rather than fossil fuels; and partly because government incentives (and disincentives), will make maintaining petrol or diesel fleets inefficient and costly.
The current status quo is unsustainable, compelling fleet-managing businesses to face a critical decision. They can either ignore the issue, or they can proactively embrace change by initiating the shift to electric vehicles. In truth, it’s not really a choice. Although transitioning to electric vehicles is a significant – possibly even daunting – undertaking, it’s an imperative for fleet running businesses that want to be able to innovate and grow sustainably. Companies that delay embarking on electrification may find themselves at a severe disadvantage, facing a far steeper challenge when circumstances inevitably compel them to adapt.
What’s stopping businesses from switching to electric fleets?
Yet many companies are delaying kick-off for EV transition projects, most often because of concerns around start-up costs. In fact, a poll of 200 UK fleet decision makers in 2023 found 76% had delayed transition plans due to cost pressures. Others common concerns are around the fundamental accessibility of charging stations, and range anxiety—the fear that electric vehicles, without adequate charging support, will not perform as well on long journeys as their petrol or diesel equivalents.
There are significant government schemes in place to support the implementation of physical infrastructure required (as evidenced by the rapid growth in charge points), helping to ensure the fundamental viability of electric fleets as a concept. But once companies have charge points installed, other concerns may arise. How do you manage the new infrastructure well? How do you monitor your charge points’ status and state of repair, track energy usage, ensure uptime, and smoothly manage payments and reimbursements? How, in other words, do you ensure your fleet can always get the power it needs to keep moving, right around the clock? The tasks involved are of a totally different quality and character to those involved in managing the fuel supply for a petrol or diesel fleet.
Adopting the correct strategy can yield significant results
Fortunately, these challenges are not beyond resolution. As electric vehicle, battery, and charger production technology improves, so is the management of EV infrastructure to meet the growing demands of the fleet sector. Fleet managers considering a shift to electric vehicles should strike out confidently, but they should do so with the right tools in place to manage their investment well. Any electrification project should consider the points below, and ensure the company’s growing EV charging infrastructure is supported with intelligent, flexible, and scalable management software.
Monitoring performance
First, it’s essential to ensure the consistent performance of your EV infrastructure to keep your fleet operational daily. That includes the ability to review all your charging stations in a single view, monitoring both the physical status of each unit and the overall power consumption and output of your system. You need to be able to see in real-time any issues arising with charging units – from broken plugs to malfunctioning payment units – and so rapidly despatch engineers or IT technicians to address the issue. Likewise, it’s essential to be able to track and automatically manage the draw your fleet is putting on your power network at any given time. In other words, you need a system that can intelligently distribute electricity around your network to best meet the shifting needs of your fleet, without needing to draw extra power from the grid and so cause unnecessary costs. A backlog of charge points errors or a lack of available power could have a major knock-on effect on both your fleet’s performance and your bottom line, so a robust management platform is a must to keep both under control.
Access management
Second, managing access, payments, and reimbursements at charging points is a key consideration. The appropriate solutions will vary based on the specific scenarios – for instance, overseeing an electric car park at a sizable workplace with a fixed charging fee for employees, or setting up charging stations for a fleet based at home and compensating a predetermined portion of the electricity expenses for work-related use. It’s important to be able to set up tariffs on a point-by-point basis, and to determine usage rights in the same way. For example, some of your charge points may be configured as ‘public’, allowing general use for a set tariff. Others may be configured as ‘private’, only allowing permitted users to connect – for example, this would allow you to assign your drivers to specific EV chargers that require no charging fees.
Complying with regulations
Finally, it’s important to consider how your EV infrastructure management platform can help you work towards regulatory compliance. As environmental regulations and emission standards become increasingly stringent each year, it’s crucial for fleet businesses to employ charging management software that ensures compatibility with the most up-to-date and rigorous charging station criteria. Likewise, as ESG reporting standards evolve, the right monitoring features will enable you to identify and report on the consumption and performance of your charging infrastructure to fulfil CSRD requirements in the EU and ESG reporting in the UK.
Ultimately, the effectiveness of an electric vehicle fleet hinges on the strength of its supporting infrastructure, which in turn relies on robust charging management systems. Significant business advantages arise from a well-operated EV fleet, such as enhanced efficiency, reduced operational expenses, and simplified regulatory adherence. To reap these benefits, fleet operators must commit and invest in the appropriate resources necessary for success.
Author: Russell Olive, UK Director, vaylens
