Switching To An Electric Vehicle Fleet Is Becoming Much Easier For Facilities Managers
By Paul Holland, Managing Director for UK Fuel, FLEETCOR.
Electric vehicles (EVs) are coming – the UK will stop selling new internal combustion engine vehicles in 2030, and we’re all becoming more accustomed to seeing cars hooked up to wires on the side of the street or at a forecourt. The UK has gone from having less than 7,000 charging points in 2016 to having 29,140 at time of writing (February 2022), with a growing number of rapid and ultra-rapid chargers. That doesn’t count private charging points, and it excludes the fact that an adapter can turn any wall outlet into a charging point for certain vehicles.
Within the next decade, anyone managing a car/van fleet in the UK will need to switch their vehicles to EVs and, similarly, staff will be increasingly using their own EVs to travel to and from work. With some companies already installing charging points for their employees, this creates several questions that need to be answered. For example, will employees pay for the electricity they use? If there are more EVs than charge points, how do companies decide which employee’s vehicle can be charged? If employees are charging vehicles that they use for company business at home, can they claim the electricity costs from their company, and if so, how do companies make sure that they aren’t paying for charging other vehicles?
EVs are going to have a profound effect on businesses and getting ready for that change now is far preferable to panicking in 2029. With this in mind, let’s look at some of the current challenges and how charging technologies, digital solutions and practical facility management is solving them.
Setting Up Your Facilities For Charging
Companies that have a fleet of vehicles will need to make some adjustments to accommodate EVs properly, whether that’s enabling charging at an HQ or on the road, and other more subtle considerations in between. A major barrier to entry until recently has been range anxiety, however manufacturers have worked tirelessly over the last 10 years to improve this dramatically. So much so that several major logistics companies have already fully electrified their car and van fleets, although HGVs still have some catching up to do.
Modern ‘just-in-time’ logistics require fleets of vehicles that are almost always on the move, and some companies time their deliveries down to the second. It is therefore impractical to consider pausing deliveries mid-shift to spend several hours charging, at least not without increasing the number of vehicles to make up for the shortfall. These companies should instead look to use ultra-rapid charging points. The availability of these is increasing, however charging at one can be pricier than using your own facilities.
For this reason, more companies are looking into the possibility of installing on-site rapid and ultra-rapid charging points. Although there’s an initial outlay for setting up the equipment, the cost savings from not having to buy fossil fuel, either in bulk to fuel vehicles on-site or from public fuelling stations, will be considerable.
Until battery technology is advanced enough to allow an HGV to travel almost constantly for eight hours or more there will still need to be provisions for on the road charging. This will mean setting up systems for drivers to pay for charging, and factoring charging times into daily routines as even an electric van can take up to 45 minutes to charge to 80% using a rapid charging point.
Creating an all-EV fleet could be a challenge for companies and an expense however there are grants currently available, and with careful planning along with the willingness to tweak the way that your company operates, it can be very valuable.
Home Charging Means Your Facilities Are Everywhere
The concept of facilities management was turned on its head for many companies in the past two years as office staff began working from home – suddenly a company’s ‘facilities’ were everywhere. It will be a similar story when EVs become truly mainstream because of the utility that home charging stations bring.
If a company has vehicles that employees keep at home, whether a company car or small van, then home charging will allow your company to avoid having to pay for charging infrastructure at your facilities – or enable both.
Installing charge points is becoming more efficient, especially with solutions available on the market that can ease any administrative pain points for example by integrating with home and work charging points to accurately capture energy costs. Such advanced solutions credit payment for the drivers’ energy used while charging at home for business purposes to their energy provider, eliminating what can be a cumbersome expense reimbursement process. This will make paying for re-charging accurate and easy for both staff and employers.
Setting Up An All-EV Facility
The technology, infrastructure, and administrative systems for running a company with EVs in its fleet is improving all the time. When making adjustments for their integration, opt for a provider that will give your company maximum flexibility and oversight when paying for vehicle charging. Consider too the network coverage that providers can offer, particularly if your vehicles will be needing on the road charging or travel significant distances regularly.
Technology that supports the use of EVs is advancing all the time, something that, as it continues, will reduce the price of installing charging points and increase the range of EVs. Given the huge fuel savings your company will make by switching to EVs, the time to make the switch is now.
