The critical role of design consultancy in successful EV fleet transitions
Great design is an essential component of any major business transition. It’s the bedrock on which successful projects are built, and it must be sufficiently flexible to accommodate change. Cameron Galloway, Design Manager for fleet and workplace charging at Mer UK, describes how a circular approach creates the right strategy for EV fleet transition projects.
Transport is a major operational and logistical element of most businesses in the UK and time is running out for the millions of diesel and petrol fleet vehicles to transition to EVs. With that in mind, many organisations have either embarked on their transition or are looking to develop their transition plans. What might appear simple on the face of things, is generally more complex than it first appears. Few of the individuals involved are electrical experts, and the concept of powering their fleets by electricity is wholly new.
Charge Point Operators (CPOs) are on hand to offer up front consultancy and design expertise to make the transition as straightforward as possible, by helping to navigate the complexities of electric vehicles, chargers, operations, and power. And it all starts with understanding where you are starting from and where you want to get to.
Image: Mer
Take a circular route
Transitioning fleets from diesel or petrol fuelled fleets to EVs is a circular rather than a linear process. At first sight, a typical project might look to be a straightforward case of analyse, plan, review, implement. In reality, an EV fleet transformation case is likely to be 1. understand the company’s EV fleet ambitions, 2. analyse what they might look like in reality, 3. investigate what is required against what is available in a feasibility study, 4. plan according to those resources, 5. review the plan against the ambitions, 6. analyse any restrictions, 7. go back to step 1 and adjust the plan, 8. review it again, 9. draw up an implementation plan and review that…you get the picture. It’s a continual process until the right solution appears.
Overall, designing and developing an EV transition project becomes a larger circular process, with smaller circular plan-review-adjust-replan-review stages within it. This might seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s simply a case of being pragmatic and allowing for changes and adjustments throughout the process.
There will inevitably be changes as there is no blueprint that can be universally applied to take a fleet from ICE straight to EV. Every company, every fleet and every site has its own circumstances that must be taken into consideration before an EV charging infrastructure can be implemented. The risks and potential costs of trying to ignore this reality are considerable. This is why several large companies that rely heavily on logistics are creating their transition plans sometimes years in advance of actually rolling them out – with the mindset that they will probably need changes before the actual installation. Their thinking is that it is better to be prepared, to factor the likely costs into future CAPEX spending and create an effective project management approach in advance.
Your starting position
Depending on the individuals involved in the project, there are a number of different starting points. A traditional fleet manager might be concerned mainly with the vehicles, whereas an operations manager just wants the vehicles to work on schedule. For procurement or sustainability managers, the main concerns could be optimising power costs and offsetting carbon. A facilities manager might want to start with the location of chargers. It’s worth understanding that the whole project is an ecosystem, and none of these components will work effectively without reflecting on what is possible with each of the others.
A skilled CPO will pick up the journey from whichever starting point the client chooses and will take a holistic approach to ensure that the focus comes back to the success of the transition project as a whole. There’s no point having the best vehicles if there isn’t the infrastructure, power availability or chargers to keep them on the road.
What this looks like in real life is that an ambitious project for depot charging that cannot access enough power for the required chargers could end up being downscaled. With fewer vehicles able to charge than originally intended, the whole transition process will be slower and more costly. This has an impact on operations, financials and potentially ESG and brand as well.
Without following the circular pattern and ensuring there are no gaps, the whole project will inevitably fall down at some point.
Image: Mer
There will be change
There are many moving parts to establishing EV charging infrastructure for fleets, and even a subtle change can have a cascading impact on the whole project. And, trust me, there will be change. Every major project of the scale of EV fleet transitions will come up against changes.
Change can arise from outside factors, like power availability from the grid, site restrictions, conditions around planning applications, legal aspects over land ownership and wayleaves. Advances in EV technology are happening all the time, and these affect what is achievable with the range and charge speeds of vehicles.
Changes can come from many factors within the business, such as a change in timeframes for the transition due to operational or structural changes, winning a contract with a new customer or a change in the supply chain, personnel or locations. There really is no limit to what can impact the project.
Any changes need to be integrated and go back to the start of the planning and reviewing process. And any change impacts the whole process, which is why it is important to feed it back into the planning and reviewing stages – again, underlining the circular nature of transition projects.
Design-driven questioning
The most important thing for any organisation looking to transition its fleet to EV is to have an open conversation with a CPO about what they want to achieve from the outset. That provides the end-goal and the priorities for the design to address, and can help to reset expectations based on what is achievable.
The CPO can then be open with the organisation about any operational constraints. This element is sometimes overlooked as it involves asking practical questions like: ‘How are the drivers actually going to use this?’ ‘How is charging going to fit into their workday?’. This helps the organisation picture not only what the solution will look like, but potentially explore what operational changes might be required – which could ultimately improve productivity and efficiency. By being open, these conversations encapsulate everything: ‘How does the site work currently?’ ‘How would we integrate charging into this site operationally?’ ‘How is it going to affect things in terms of health and safety, do we need more sprinklers?’ ‘Will the chargers have to go in a certain location because of some constraint?’
Ultimately, that first conversation about what a business really wants to achieve from its EV transition goes far beyond the charger, beyond the vehicle, even power. It presents a chance to transition into something new and impressive in terms of operational effectiveness, driver safety, stakeholder engagement in environmental and sustainability strategies. It’s a much bigger picture that design-driven CPO consultancy services can help you visualise and achieve.
To find out more about Mer’s consultancy services for tailored advice and solutions, visit https://uk.mer.eco/charging-solutions/ev-design-consultancy/ and download our Fleet EV Transition checklist.
