By Francis Latulippe, CTO, Axceta
Context
Electric Vehicles adoption is on the rise, and EV charging batteries are evolving quickly. Along with personal EV adoption, commercial EV fleets are also growing in popularity and size, creating challenges that never existed before.
Electric Vehicles are revolutionizing transportation by providing a cleaner and more efficient alternative to traditional fossil fuel vehicles. As EV adoption continues to grow, so does the need for innovative solutions to manage these larger commercial fleets of electric vehicles. With an ever-growing network of charging stations, utilities and manufacturers are developing new technologies to expand this new form of transportation and create reliable services for Commercial Electric Vehicles Fleets operators. In this blog post, we’ll discuss some key challenges of managing an EV fleet, the key players who need to be at the table and what is required to help organizations efficiently manage their commercial EV fleets.
Challenges and Opportunities of Managing an Electric Vehicle Fleet
Managing an EV fleet comes with its own set of challenges and opportunities. Determining the proper charging infrastructure quickly generates headaches when balancing the trade-off between the initial and operating costs and the operational flexibility required for the fleet’s lifetime. Matching specifications from EV manufacturers, the capabilities of charging infrastructure providers and operational methods is already a challenge, in addition, considering the uncertainty of how aging will impact those calculations and dealing with changes in suppliers of that equipment further the complications. At some point, the use of real-life actual measured data is indispensable for a better understanding of the actual needs of a fleet and their evolution over time.
Harnessing a Powerful EV Fleet: The Vital Role of Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Planning for Successful Implementation
EV manufacturers, fleet managers and utilities all play an essential role in successfully deploying EV fleets. EV manufacturers understand the EV’s capabilities. EV fleet managers must plan and anticipate EV charging needs, while utilities must ensure they have the infrastructure to support large EV fleets reliably. These key stakeholders can craft a plan that benefits everyone involved. Allowing EV fleets to operate reliably without disruption is a critical process that requires careful coordination and collaboration among these three players. By optimizing an EV fleet operation’s workflow, these stakeholders can ensure the long-term success of EV fleets across industries.
Unlock the Potential of IoT with Axceta: Bringing Advanced Technology Solutions to Your Business
As electric vehicle adoption gains momentum and the need for larger commercial fleets grows, Axceta facilitates success with its expertise in IoT services and brings data from multiple sources under a unified, single view that can be acted upon.
Axceta’s services include designing data acquisition and telecommunication strategies, and developing effective data management and visualization platforms, allowing for more streamlined operations.
Axceta’s experienced team ensures that converting from traditional to electric vehicles is smooth by offering insights into cost and energy consumption. Presenting data in an accessible format suitable for each organization, Axceta makes it easier to make well-informed decisions that reduce costs and future-proof operations.
Data collection and analysis demonstrated that adapting the strategy to prioritize the vehicles to recharge at a given time based on the upcoming operation needs could yield a 50% decrease in the size of the infrastructure needed and just as much for the peak power consumption from the grid. Fleet managers could only embrace such a significant improvement after they gained trust in it, trust that could only be earned by supporting it with real-life data.
Conclusion
The future of EVs has never looked brighter. As companies become invested in commercial fleets, the possibilities for innovation grow exponentially.
With more and more providers offering new products, a conscious fleet operator should value his autonomy from OEM and remain open to adapting his operations to take advantage of the evolution bound to keep happening throughout the lifetime of his operations. Therefore, to maximize the positive social, economic and environmental impact that EVs can bring, a tight collaboration between the different stakeholders is key.
If you need help with your EV fleet management project or would like to learn more about collaboration opportunities in this field – don’t hesitate to get in touch! We’d love to hear your ideas and contribute our vision for a cleaner, healthier tomorrow.
Read more about Managing large EV Fleets in the Systra Case Study.
Article on similar topic
https://www.nema.org/blog/view/2020/05/26/charging-infrastructure-for-battery-electric-buses
