Daniel: This is obviously of benefit to the
fleet audience. A lot of members would be
having their fleet connected with you guys in
Queensland. How can they engage with the
service or how can they get this information
to their drivers who would be driving the EV?
John: That’s a great question. It’s still so new
to us, we haven’t gone live, so we’ve shared
this with without sort of our top 10 mainly
government fleets that this is coming. The finals
trucks are still a few weeks away but we want
to make sure we’re hot off the press and ready
to go live out into the field. Once it is, it’s really
just part of the same commercial agreement with
us, the same service. Instead of going out and
adding petrol to a vehicle, we add a charger and
we give a bit of charge to the vehicle.
Daniel: How many hours did you invest in
testing on how you did a lot of testing with
these EVs?
Nigel: I’d suggest it would be about three or
four hours per vehicle at least, and we’ve tested
probably about four different electric vehicles. It’s
about making sure that our data is accurate and
it is going to work in the live environment. We’ve
been doing a stationary test on it, but testing
as if it’s worst case scenario. For the tow truck
that involves maybe a rainy day where we’ve got
windscreen wipers going and headlights on and
we’re using lots of the truck power as well as
being able to charge the car at the same time.
These tests help us to know we’re not sort of
maxing the truck out as well.
John: One thing we did find in testing is that
once these EVs start to go flat many alarms go
off on the vehicle telling you to pull over. Once
they go fully flat though, they lock out like a
dead weight or anchor on a boat. It just sits
there doing nothing. You can’t unlock the power
steering. You can’t do anything with it. To have
that bit of charge in that vehicle that give flexibility
to get the vehicle on and off a tow truck is a very
important step.
Daniel: Do you think driver behaviours and
stigmas around EVs are already changing, or
does more education need to happen?
John: Most EV drivers these days are using the
apps on their phone so that they know where the
nearest charging location is. They know they’re
getting more savvy on where to go, which is just
a different way of driving a vehicle. It comes to
educating the drivers correctly on how to operate
an EV the best way it can.
Nigel: It’s no different to making sure you got
fuel in your car. I suppose it’s the same thing.
Like John said, these vehicles do give you plenty
of warning that you’re getting low, even to the
extent where that car knows where the nearest
charge point is and it will warn you that potentially
you’re not going to make it.
John: It’s something we never thought of
15 years ago, but now we have this new EV
technology I think we’re all embracing it. It’s just
the change of technology and the way these
vehicles are coming out in so many different
makes and models. I suppose keeping abreast
of it all is the challenge for fleet managers to
ensure they get the right vehicle. They want to
make sure they get the best bang for the buck
when they’re adding these new vehicles to their
fleet.
26 ISSUE 24 AUGUST 2020 / WWW.AFMA.ORG.AU