Fleets Go Electric to Lower Fueling and Maintenance Costs
Fleets are cutting fueling and operating costs by electrifying.
Cost savings is a major driver for fleet electrification. Electric fleets are less expensive to fuel due to the lower cost of electricity. Simpler mechanics also reduce maintenance needs so EVs can spend more time working and less time getting repaired, extending their useful life.
Electricity is less expensive than fossil fuels at baseline, but electric fleets also bring with them the benefit of sophisticated energy management tools that enable additional savings.
Because electric fueling is easily connected with other systems such as telematics and route planning tools, fleet managers can optimize fueling timing and power use to lower costs. Charging can be scheduled when electricity rates are low and fleets can set power ceilings to avoid expensive utility demand charges.
Smart charging blends cost optimization with peace of mind, ensuring that electric fleets are always charged and ready when needed at the lowest cost possible.
Scheduled Charging Saves Money
According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center, electric vehicles typically require less maintenance than conventional vehicles for several reasons:
Reduced maintenance can keep vehicles in service longer and extend their utility, reducing total cost of ownership.
New York City analyzed maintenance costs and found that EV maintenance costs were only 20-25% of the costs of maintaining vehicles with combustion engines. In other words, going electric could reduce a fleet maintenance budget by 75-80%.
As vehicle availability continues to expand, we continue to see steady growth in charging activity across our fleet customer base. We expect this growth trend to accelerate as more fleets electrify, bring the right EV charging partner on board and grow their electric fleets to meet savings and sustainability goals.
As shown in the chart, from 2018 to 2019, ChargePoint saw 30% growth in fleet EV charging, and is keeping close to this pace in 2020. This growth should continue to reflect the expected global growth in EV sales for fleet categories.
How do fleets charge? As you might expect, the peak charging time for fleets is early in the morning, between 5:00 and 7:00 AM, so that vehicles are ready to tackle their routes when the day begins. As fleets grow, charging activity can be spread across a longer period of time.
Fleet vehicles charge on average for about 2.5 hours before rolling out. This suggests there is ample time to charge fleet vehicles and, importantly, to do so at times that typically have lower energy costs. The opportunity for smart savings far outpaces that of fossil fuel vehicles.
Beyond the fueling and maintenance savings offered by electric vehicles, smart charging technology can help fleets save even more by reducing energy costs and optimizing fleet operations. By scheduling charging at off-peak rates or setting a power ceiling to reduce utility demand charges, fleets can fully optimize their electricity use to save money.
Here at ChargePoint headquarters, we aimed to accommodate more EV drivers without generating demand charges for spikes in energy use. We used our own energy solution to optimize energy use across EV charging spots and were able to save more than US$8,000 (6,759€) annualized on our energy bill for charging passenger vehicles. The larger the vehicle and longer the route, the greater the potential for savings.
As more fleets continue to electrify, we can look at how these money-saving trends and charging behavior translate into electrification commitments from big brands.
