'We need tomorrow's product today' say fleet managers on electric vehicles

Fleets want a greater choice of electric vehicles and want to be able to add them to choice lists now, but are prevented from doing so by considerable challenges.

And drivers are putting more pressure on fleets to make EVs available to them since the BIK rates published in July.

In discussions with Fleet News, manager revealed the following:

Challenges:

• Cost – struggling to get into grading due to the upward pressure on pricing

• Charging infrastructure –some would like more ‘business friendly charging points (e.g. in hotel car parks)

• Range anxiety is still an issue requiring more education

• Tax tables –not enough data on emissions

• Vehicle choice –still feels quite polarised from ‘high end’ options like the Tesla model 6 or Jaguar iPace to more budget friendly but less ‘desirable’options like the Nissan Leaf, Renault Zoe.

Agreed more ‘mainstream’ options/choice are required.

• Lead times are a challenge – if a fleet puts an EV on the choice list but has no chance of getting product for the foreseeable.Innovation:

• One fleet has removed P11D cap for ultra low emission vehicles and is looking instead at wholelife costs.

• One fleet is looking at driver profiles based on travel patterns to identify suitable candidates for EVs, plug in hybrid electric vehicles.

• One fleet calculated that if they could switch 25 employees from cars with a CO2 emission rating of 125g/km to sub 75g/km the resulting reduction in the company Class 1A bill was enough to fund the installation of 12 EV charging points on the premises.

Thoughts on the future:

There was a consensus that the BIK tables published in July presented a ‘window of opportunity’ that they feel will not be open forever.

Fleets want to act now but are restrained by limited model choice and lead times.

In conclusion, they said they now want manufacturers to respond by improving the short-term availability of suitable EV’s.

In short they said: “We need tomorrow’s product today.”

> The above was shared with Fleet News at the September meeting of the Fleet200 Executive Club.

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