Category: Stakeholder Management

This article is for fleet managers, sustainability managers and zero emission fleet transition specialists who want to learn about:

• Important considerations when planning a fleet transition to electric vehicle technology
• The challenges and risks of a simplistic approach to electrification 
• Using fleet data to guide a successful electrification journey and make informed decisions about EVs and charging infrastructure
• Identifying vehicles best suited for electrification and optimising fleet utilisation to reduce total ownership costs and enhance efficiency
• Insights on fleet optimisation that go beyond replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with EVs

The Risk of a Simplistic Approach to Fleet Electrification

The goal to transition to zero emission vehicles is a challenge for many fleet and sustainability managers of transit fleets, school buses, government fleets, utility, logistics and even corporate fleets.  

Mission critical fleets with fixed routes such as transit can experience significant variations of duty requirements each day based on weather conditions, passenger loading, battery state of health and topography of a specific route. Many other fleets with variable routes that are not predictable also have challenges identifying the right vehicle and charging infrastructure pairing to optimize the transition.

When adding the very first electric vehicles (EVs) into the fleet, it is not uncommon for a fleet to take a simple and straightforward approach and choose a few vehicles that could be good replacements based on simple calculations or just trial and error. Each combustion engine vehicle is directly replaced with an electric vehicle consisting of the most battery capacity available for the longest range, starting with the vehicles that have the least distance traveled, and one charger is purchased and installed for each vehicle, with the fastest charging rate that the budget can afford. 

Although this simplistic strategy can still help a fleet learn about electric vehicles to inform future procurements, it can be an inefficient approach and be detrimental when the numbers of EVs in the fleet starts to rise. This can result in significantly higher costs than necessary, and can also lead to underutilised assets or worse – vehicles not being able to meet their route requirements on extreme days. While this may not be a big issue for the first few vehicles, the long-term impact can not only cost more than needed, it can also have a negative effect on the organization’s enthusiasm and willingness to continue moving toward 100% decarbonisation.

This approach not only impacts the cost of vehicles, charging hardware, and infrastructure installation, it can also impact overall energy costs when charging the fleet, causing power demand and utility charges to be higher than needed.

The transition to an electric fleet is also an opportunity to optimise the fleet and take a comprehensive look at how operations can be tweaked for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness. With an all-encompassing approach, the result is not only lower costs, but can also lead to a faster path to reduce emissions. When you look at the system as a whole and take the data into account, alternate pathways may be uncovered that do not just rely on buying more vehicles and chargers.

Fleet Data: The Key to Successful Decarbonisation

Embarking on fleet electrification requires careful consideration of key factors, including vehicle range, charging time, depot or office spatial limitations, and the impact of charging patterns on energy infrastructure required and long term energy costs. This process should start with a comprehensive analysis, gathering detailed fleet data to inform decisions. Historical usage data is crucial in developing an optimal fleet profile, considering both public and depot charging solutions.

Identifying the right electric vehicles and chargers for a large complex fleet involves analyzing each vehicle’s daily travel distance, usage patterns, payload, local climatic variations, potential for regenerative braking, terrain challenges, ability to use public charging, stop frequency, and more. Within this context, a data-driven approach enables optimised vehicle and charger selection, leading to a lower risk and lower cost rollout of EVs and chargers.

EVenergi has extensive experience working with fleets to review their usage patterns and determine how operations can be optimised. We work with fleets with varying levels of data quality and have found that when combining the review of vehicle telemetry data with fuel and distance traveled, you can paint an incredibly accurate picture which will provide a blueprint for the vehicles and chargers required. 

With the right fleet data in hand, an analysis comparing vehicles based on their maximum daily energy requirements and annual utilisation reveals important insights on which vehicles are best suited for electrification.

The scatter plot above represents a fleet of vehicles, with each dot symbolising a single vehicle based on its maximum daily energy needs and the distance it travels annually. This example contains a mixed vehicle fleet consisting of multiple vehicle types with variable routes. 

The visualization makes it easy to first carve out the vehicles with the highest maximum daily energy requirements, which can be due to long range distances and/or more demanding routes. These vehicles would need more battery storage on board than offered by currently available vehicles in order to operate every daily schedule on a single charge. The number of vehicles in this area will decrease as batteries continue to become more energy dense and cost effective, and electric vehicles can hold more energy on board. 

The utilisation vs. energy required analysis also helps identify which vehicles could be replaced with currently available EVs, but would require economic subsidies or cost reductions to have a lower total cost of ownership than an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. 

In the shaded area of the final chart above you can see the vehicles that are best suited for electrification now based on the technology available in the market. These vehicles have higher annual utilisation and lower maximum daily energy requirements.

This type of review can not only help you identify which vehicles are most suited to be transitioned to electric, but also can help you identify underutilised vehicles within the fleet and understand the characteristics of their utilisation. With this information, you can optimise your fleet by uncovering insights such as the ability to consolidate 3 low utilisation vehicles into 2 vehicles with higher utilisation and more favorable economics.

Beyond Buying Vehicles: Fleet Optimisation Insights Uncovered

The collection of this comprehensive fleet data offers more than just insights into vehicle and charger selection. It also opens avenues for rethinking vehicle deployment and route optimisation. Analysis might reveal that certain vehicles are versatile enough to serve multiple functions, or that adjusting specific routes in fixed route fleets could yield better efficiency. 

Additionally, the fleet data can inform initiatives to encourage behavioral changes, such as promoting modal shifts in transportation use. This approach involves replacing car trips with lower-emission alternatives whenever possible, which could include using public transportation, cycling, walking, carpooling, or teleconferencing for meetings. The exact reduction in CO2 emissions depends on the mode switched to; while using public transportation can reduce emissions by 50% or more compared to driving alone, replacing a car trip with a bicycle ride or eliminating the trip due to virtual meetings can eliminate emissions entirely.

While not all vehicles in the fleet may be ready for swapping out with an EV just yet, shifting the rest of the ICE fleet to more efficient vehicles such as hybrids in the meantime can also make a significant impact on lowering overall fleet emissions while EV technology continues to improve and prices reach parity with combustion engine vehicles. 

In addition, as most fleet managers are well aware, driving efficiency has a significant impact on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Efforts such as training drivers on fuel-saving techniques like avoiding rapid acceleration and braking, maintaining proper tire pressure, and optimizing route planning can improve fuel efficiency by as much as 30%.

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Integrating data into the planning process can allow fleet managers to uncover ways to achieve more with fewer resources. It can mark a strategic shift from a one-to-one replacement of ICE vehicles with electric ones to considering if fewer EVs can meet the fleet’s demands. 

Decarbonisation and the EV transition are often discussed interchangeably, yet it’s crucial to understand that fleet electrification is just one pathway towards the broader goal of decarbonisation; other viable options exist as well. Vehicles, including electric ones, have an inherent CO2 footprint from production, as do electricity and hydrogen when generated from non-renewable sources. Therefore, one of the most impactful steps towards decarbonising a fleet lies not just in switching fuel types but also in reducing the total amount of vehicles and chargers needed and maximizing the usage of those that remain. 

By analyzing usage patterns and operational needs, it’s possible to not only reduce the number of vehicles but also enhance overall fleet performance and uncover a faster path to zero emissions.  We have also found that an initial plan, even with lower quality fleet data, can help to justify the long term business case for telematics.

Each fleet is different and there is not one single solution that is perfect for every fleet –this comprehensive approach is based on establishing a framework to look at the fleet with the right parameters, enabling the discovery of valuable insights that can help fleets reach their emissions reduction goals faster at a lower cost, and resulting in a more efficient system.

Success Stories

• Our World in Data
• Afdc
• Automotive Fleet
• IEA
• Transit.dot.gov
• Climate Council
• https://www.cbo.gov/publication/58861

There is about to be a huge amount of money spent on transitioning the nation’s bus fleet to zero emissions. The looming question is how to spend this money most productively, and in a way that does not create stranded assets or waste.

There is a large amount of dynamism in the zero emission bus technology space, not to mention the supply chain for either electricity or hydrogen. The capabilities of vehicles are changing, along with supporting infrastructure all the while fleet owners are being asked to put in a submission that may lock them into long term decisions prematurely.

These decisions include:

• When and how fast should I transition to zero emission buses?  
• Should I go hydrogen or electric?
• Should I go for a pantograph or plug-in?
• Should I build an electrolyzer or do I truck in hydrogen supply? 
• How do I most effectively apply for grants?
• Can I collaborate with other fleets in the area to share infrastructure?
• Should I do one depot all at once or upgrade depots incrementally over time?
• How will my operations be impacted if I transition to zero emission?
• What standards should I impose for vehicles, chargers, energy management and telematics?
• How much training will my staff require and what sort of training?

The question is: how to make all these decisions in the most sustainable way, during a time of great pressure to make a move quickly in many organizations? 

For the past several years, transit agencies have approached this in a combination of four ways:

1. Vendor driven engagements to pilots (for example with zero emission bus suppliers)
2. Creating transition plans either in-house or with outside consultants
3. Looking at the experiences of industry peers to make decisions
4. Delaying decisions until things are clearer in terms of technology maturity 

All of these pathways are valid,  but as we move into the scale-up phase, the zero emission transportation experts at Evenergi have found that that the most important elements that contribute to success are:

1. Creating a framework for managing long term changes rather than just point in time plans
2. Establishing organizational alignment with an understanding that it will be an agile journey
3. Avoiding ‘lock-in’ decisions as much as possible early in the journey to enable this agility
4. Capturing valuable data at each step to be used at every other step in the transition

We are constantly talking about the need to create a framework rather than a series of point-in-time plans. This relates to a data driven and iterative process where there is an acknowledgement that with the rate of technology change in the battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric space, a plan is likely outdated the day after it is written. 

The framework has many parts, but these can be summarized as financial, operational, infrastructure changes on depots and then regional influences. We then look at how these areas are impacted through the lifecycle of planning, implementation and management of the transition. 

	Planning phase	Implementation (pilot)	Implementation (scale-up)	Management
Financial framework	Gap analysis – Total cost of ownership and capital vs operational	Analysis of RFQs against data	Final long term decisions	Monitoring data to feed back into planning and to optimize operations
Operational – transit operations framework	Buses meeting their service assignments  Depot locations Interlining linkages Collective bargaining agreement implications  On-time performance vs on-route charging	Depot emulation – can buses fit within dispatch given different depot designs? Can ‘fueling’ be sufficiently completed considering pull-out/pull-in schedules and service profile?	Managing multiple propulsion types until fleet is fully transitioned	Optimized dispatch Optimal driver use
Operations – energy infrastructure framework	What is the right charging design Early information from utilities around capacity  Optimization to minimize capacity requirements Balance of distributed energy resources on-site	Refueling/charging specification  and selection and installation Energy management alternatives	Refueling/charging specification  and selection and installation Potentially larger upgrades	Proactive energy management vs operational limitations Microgrid management on-site Potential integration with dispatch systems
Regional framework	Regional energy infrastructure collaborations Regional fleet collaborations	Agreement on supply chains Agreement on access to shared refueling infrastructure	Potential to share energy infrastructure with third-party users	Potential to coordinate infrastructure access

At the bedrock of each step in this journey there needs to be a decision making framework based on robust data and strong analytics.

The next generation of planning framework requires a new types of data and analytics platform that should have a number of key components including:

Requirement	Benefit
Enable detailed route analysis	Detailed data increases accuracy and reduces costly mistakes
Looks at all fuel types (including mix fleets) and all, charging types (if it is electric)	Reduce total cost ownership
Integrated into scheduling systems	Increase accuracy reduces mistakes and lowers ongoing consulting fees
Model depot impact	Ensures that unforeseen depot infrastructure costs are minimized
Model dispatch – particular once sub-fleeting is no longer an option	Ensure that costly operational errors are minimized
Interlining between depots and even between different fleet owners	Maximize opportunities for cost sharing and new revenue streams
Rapid iterations of scenarios and sensitivities	Minimize on-going consulting costs
Single set of data across entire journey	Maximize leverage of data and iterate learnings
Tools independent of any one consulting firm	Minimize rework as you go through different partners on the journey
Ensure that outputs from planning (such as charging profiles) can be operationalised	Ensure that plans can be executed to maximize savings
Make sure that data captured from telematics can feed back into planning	Reduce total cost of ownership through learning

This is an exciting and challenging time for many fleet owners, but many of the questions stated at the start of this article can be answered with tools that exist today, with the power being placed in the hands of the long term operators of the buses and infrastructure.

With some exciting announcements around funding from the Australian Government, we’re seeing a significant increase in grant funding for electric infrastructure and vehicles. Australia is getting serious about a cleaner transport future and it’s more important now than ever to start thinking about your future fleets.

The Australian government has presented its Future Fuels and Vehicles Strategy, which provides for $250 million of investment in electric transport to include the expansion of electric car charging infrastructure and the establishment of hydrogen filling stations.

Below is a detailed overview of the specific measures being taken, or having been announced by each state around charging infrastructure network funding.

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State: New South Wales

Activities for infrastructure

The NSW Government has announced a $490 million commitment to incentivise the EV uptake.

• The NSW Government has committed $171 million investment to help co-fund private operators for installation of EV charging infrastructure throughout the major highways of the state at the interval of 100 km, over the next four years. This includes $131 million for new ultra-fast vehicle chargers, and $20 million in grants to small tourism businesses over the next three years to boost EV infrastructure at regional tourism destinations. According to the EVC, until 2020, the overall investment in charging infrastructure by the NSW Government was around $5 million.
• They are developing guidelines for installation of charging points in roadside service centres 
• They’re supporting EV charging through strategic land use planning and guides (NSW is creating a state-wide master-plan with Evenergi)
• The NRMA is investing $10 million in more than 40 fast chargers across NSW and the ACT:
• NSW Government and the NRMA will deliver at least 20 additional electric vehicle fast chargers to the existing regional network along NSW’s major highways. Previous to this announcement through its Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Plan the government plans to:
  • co-invest in fast chargers in regional NSW
  • co-invest in charging points in commuter car parks 
  • adopt preferred charging standards 

NSW is also launching its Electric Vehicle Infrastructure and Model Availability Program:

• It will run competitive funding processes that will co-fund the deployment of fast electric vehicle charging infrastructure. 
• It will also incentivise vehicle fleet owners, such as car rental companies, car share companies, and local councils to procure electric vehicles.

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State: Queensland

Activities for infrastructure

Queensland launched EV Strategy in 2017

• They have previously delivered the Electric Vehicle Super Highway (QESH), totalling 31 stations with the investment of $5.3 million.
• Queensland are rolling out an EV destination charging network from 2017 onwards
• They’re developing a workplace EV charging trial
• Queensland has committed to invest $2.75 million for expansion of charging infrastructure by installing 18 new charging sites. The expansion will lead to the extension of the highway by 1800km into the regional outback.

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State: Western Australia

Activities for infrastructure

The recent WA strategy includes:

• Up to $20 million has been allocated to support the creation of an electric vehicle charging infrastructure network
• Investment of $800,000 to install electric vehicle charging stations in government buildings to support the State Government electric vehicle fleet target
• Investment of $3 million to install two hydrogen refuelling stations – the two stations will generate renewable hydrogen, one station will be in Jandakot and provide hydrogen for fleet vehicles and another at Christmas Creek Mine, in the Pilbara, will power hydrogen buses
• Implementation of actions outlined in the State Government’s Distributed Energy Resources Roadmap that will assist the integration of electric vehicles, including consideration of incentives to promote daytime charging to help make best use of the midday solar generation peak and assessment of vehicle‑to‑grid technology forecasts. Buyback payments will be extended to energy exported to the grid from electric vehicles in the same way as rooftop solar
• Planning for the integration of electric vehicles in the electricity grid, including the deployment of charging points (household and fast charge) and trials to better understand the capabilities of vehicle‑to‑grid technology
• Tax exemptions on sales/use and leasehold till year 2025

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State: South Australia

Activities for infrastructure

The South Australian Government is investing $18.3 million to deliver its Electric Vehicle Action Plan. This includes:

• An investment of up to $13.4 million towards developing a state-wide charging network
• Planning of 110 rapid highway charging stations installed across South Australia
• A network of more than 350 fast destination chargers installed across major metropolitan centres, including an expected 100 destination chargers installed across Adelaide
• An initial investment in September 2020 of up to $3.6 million on EV smart charging trials
• Seeks $25 million of private investment in public charging stations
• The State Government invites businesses and communities to be a part of a statewide project for charging infrastructure development

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State: Victoria

Activities for infrastructure

In its recently announced plan, the Victorian Government has committed $19 million for charging infrastructure.

• This investment will establish a fast-charging network at key tourist places, community destinations, and high use locations.
• As part of a $100 million plan to drive ZEVs uptake, the State Government is investing $5 million for 100 charging stations (80% of this investment will go to Regional Victoria)
• The Government has also provided the funding of $644,000 to install chargers across 17 sites in the Loddon Mallee region and $3 million to install ultra-rapid chargers connecting Euroa, Moe, Torquay, Ballarat and Horsham.
• VIC has published a charging map with all available and planned stations
• It’s also published its draft 30-Year Infrastructure Strategy (2020)
• The Victorian Government has provided $3 million funding to support Chargefox’s roll-out of seven ultra-rapid charging sites across the state
• Victoria is the first state in Australia to introduce the latest generation ultra-rapid EV charging stations capable of fully charging an Electric Vehicle in under 15 minutes and sourced from 100% renewable energy.

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State: Australian Capital Territory

Activities for infrastructure

ACT Government is working on a ZEV Public Charging Master Plan (to be launched later in 2021) for a charging infrastructure roll-out including 50 publicly accessible chargers.

• They’ve introduced 29 public stations (2019)
• ACT has launched its 2018-21 strategy
• They’ve facilitated the installation of further charging points in the ACT and on major routes to Canberra
• Streamlined the approvals process for installation of publicly accessible electric vehicle charging points
• The ACT Government seeks to amend the Parking and Vehicle Access General Code to require all new multi-unit and mixed use developments to install vehicle charging infrastructure
• They’re working with local and state governments to facilitate the installation of charging stations on major routes to and from Canberra including routes to Sydney and coastal areas
• Conducting a feasibility assessment for the installation of covered car parks with solar powered vehicle charging stations
• To support the integration of EVs in the ACT, a $2.5 million grant for V2G technology trials was announced in 2020 through ARENA. This grant also supports the instalment of 51 bi-directional charging stations across the ACT and upgrades of ACT Government buildings to host charging infrastructure.

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State: Tasmania

Activities for infrastructure

Tasmania’s state-wide electric charging network comprises of 14 fast chargers, from Geeveston to Scottsdale, and Queenstown to Burnie, as well as the Midlands in between. The network ensures that mid-range vehicles can travel nearly anywhere around the state.

• The State Government invested $600,000 for 14 fast chargers and 23 workplace and destination chargers.
• Tasmania’s ChargeSmart Grant Program is committed to $2.5 million investment in charging infrastructure throughout the state.
• They’ve offered a number of grants for charging (2019):
  • ChargeSmart Fast Charging Program offered grants of up to $50,000 to support organisations to purchase and install Direct Current (DC) electric vehicle charging stations.
  • Destination: to $2,500 to support organisations to purchase and install Alternating Current (AC) electric vehicle charging stations for public use.
  • Workplace: up to $5,000 to support workplaces (e.g. councils, businesses and not-for-profits) to purchase and install electric vehicle charging stations

• The Electric Vehicle Fast Charger Scheme, offers a refund of up to 50% cost rebate of the TasNetworks charges for power supply, only when considering installation of DC fast chargers for public use