Electric vehicles pose a real opportunity for organisations with significant transportation needs.
Read on for the 8 essential steps to electrification and download Drax’s free guide to optimising your business fleet. Drax, offer a unique end-to-end partnership approach to electrification that supports businesses every step of the way.
Why electrify your fleet? There are many benefits:
- Zero tailpipe emissions
- Lower maintenance costs
- Renewable energy advantages, such as using on-site generation for zero carbon charging
- Unbeatable insight from state-of-the-art telematics
- Future-proofed business, with the 2030 ban on petrol and diesel car sales just a couple of replacement cycles away.
If you’re considering electric vehicles (EVs) for your business, you’re moving in the right direction.
Electrification isn’t something you can achieve overnight – there are many moving parts to consider.
But this process doesn’t need to be problematic. There are eight essential steps that put fleet managers on the road to electrification.
1 EV suitability assessment
Before you introduce EVs into your fleet, you’ll want to understand and prove the benefits.
Start with a full review of your current fleet usage to understand your operational requirements. Consider factors like mileage (per trip and per day), load requirements, areas of operation and resting locations as a starter for 10.
2 Vehicle recommendation
Next up, choosing the right electric vehicles for your business.
Much like traditional vehicles, you’ll look at drivability and function versus form. But for EVs, you’ll also look at specifications like engine range (miles per charge, measured in units of energy, kWh) and charging capability (do you want standard charging speed, or rapid charging capability?)
3 Charging infrastructure assessment
At this stage, you’ll decide two things: what kind of charge points you want and where they’ll go.
You might think you need charge points at every site you own. But unless your vehicles regularly travel over 100 miles per day, you may be surprised at how few charge points you actually need.
4 Electrical site survey
Once you’ve chosen your charging locations, the site survey makes sure your installation is practical and efficient.
Groundworks can be inconvenient, so managing them effectively – such as taking advantage of existing electricity infrastructure – can help minimise disruption and expense. This is the last stage before committing to location.
5 Hardware implementation
Time to get plugged in! At this stage, you’ll be ordering and installing your charge point hardware.
6 Charge point management
Charge points are user-friendly but sophisticated pieces of tech.
Their initial set up will let you enable clever functionality, like programming different tariffs for different types of users.
7 Maintenance and servicing
What happens if your charge points need updates or develop faults?
Even the best products in the world aren’t immune to faults.
8 Enabling the power of telematics
Once your electric fleet is up and running, you can use data to optimise the value of your investment.
EV-specific telematics data can provide valuable information, like how efficient your drivers are. Even minor tweaks to driving styles can make journeys more power efficient, which adds up to operational savings.
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