FLEETDRIVE
Telematics analysis can tell you exactly how much energy each vehicle needs in order to cover its daily needs , including driving and powering ancillary loads on the vehicle . It can also tell you average and annual needs . The best vehicles to transition now have a high annual energy need , with a maximum daily requirement that is below that of one full battery charge .
Many fleets also have flexibility in selecting which vehicle does which job each day . Pulling apart the historic data to give a potential EV all the work that suits it best adds complexity to the analysis , but is often a step that yields significantly more attractive results . More often than not , this analysis gives you a list of vehicle duties that not only could be performed by an EV , but that also give you an attractive TCO compared to a fossil fuel vehicle .
The second solution that helps solve the charging side of the EV challenge is smart charging . Upgrading site connections and switchboards is expensive , time-consuming , and can require approval and support from a landlord , which can all significantly impact your transition plans .
However , almost all sites only use their peak capacity for a few hours a day , rarely at the same time as when you want to be charging your vehicles . With a simple AC charger , most vehicles will be able to receive their average daily energy top-up in a few hours . For example , a Rivian
R1T as an extremely large EV ute , driving the NSW average of 33 kms per day it would only require 9.2kWh , or about 1.5 hours on a 7kW AC charger each night . This means a smart charging system could charge multiple vehicles , one after the other overnight , using no more than the same amount of energy as a handful of residential aircon units .
A suitable charge management system can monitor the site load in real-time and turn chargers off and on as appropriate to stay within the capacity constraints , while still ensuring vehicles receive the charge they need before the next duty cycle . In many cases , this will be enough to avoid or at least delay a grid infrastructure upgrade . If you are able to delay that upgrade and invest in the most costeffective solution today , you buy more time for the technology to develop and prices to continue declining while reducing risk and upfront capital costs .
It is clear there are still a number of real problems facing fleet managers in transitioning to EVs . However , utilising data and smart planning and charge management solutions can help you find a practical and cost effective way to get your transition underway , while the rapidly evolving EV industry continues to evolve and open up more use cases for cost-effective vehicle electrification .
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