Electrification Coalition Shares Plans to Electrify U.S. FleetsElectrification Coalition Shares Plans to Electrify U.S. Fleets

A year ago, the Electrification Coalition, a group dedicated to reducing the dependence of the U.S. on oil, growing an electric vehicle infrastructure and uptake in the process released the Electrification Roadmap.
Intended as a policy framework to assist the adoption of electric vehicles by consumers and light-fleet users, the Electrification Roadmap proposed federal support to establish EV-friendly areas in cities throughout the U.S.  
Today, the Coalition released its second policy framework, the Fleet Electrification Roadmap.  
Oliver Hazimeh, Partner and Head of the Global E-Mobility Practice at global management consulting firm PRTM was enthusiastic about the findings of the report.
“PRTM is once again delighted to partner with the Electrification Coalition, in the development of a new report…These factors combined with the implementation of operational innovation and policy levers could lead to EV and PHEV penetration in 2015 as high as 7% of fleet vehicle sales”
In the U.S. in 2009 there were 16.3 million fleet vehicles in operation. This document aims to help encourage a significant proportion of these fleets to be switched for electric vehicles in the coming years. 
Just like the Electrification Roadmap,  the 78-page Fleet Electrification Roadmap covers everything from the challenges that both public and private sector fleets face in order to switch over to electric vehicles through to corporate sustainability initiatives, case studies and policy recommendations. 
Interestingly, the document highlights a massive 28 percent, or 4.5 million vehicles in 2009 used for short-haul delivery duties. 
Ford Azure Transit Connect Commercial VanOf this segment, nearly half is comprised of small delivery trucks like the 2011 Ford Connect – a vehicle already being converted to electric in a joint partnership between Ford and Azure Dynamics. 
Another segment highlighted for easy electrification are school busses, which have downtime during the day for charging, make regular, predictable stop-start trips and could operate much more efficiently than conventional internal combustion engined busses. 
Highlighting fleet cars used by sales people and service or utility workers, the report details average daily driving distance for such vehicles as approximately 71 miles per day – well within the range of cars like the 2011 Nissan Leaf.
Fleet cars used for these duties could also be charged up at night-time, increasing the potential savings for fleets nationwide. 
School BusOne of the shortest average daily mileages recorded for fleet vehicles comes from local government light-trucks. The report details that on average, a pool vehicle such as a pickup truck may only drive 22 miles per day on a highly predictable route, such as between road construction sites. 
In its policy recommendation section, the Fleet Electrification Roadmap authors recommend the creation of tax credits for the purchase of medium and heavy-duty grid-enabled vehicles deployed in fleets greater than 10 vehicles in operation. 
It also calls for the extension of the existing tax credit for electric vehicle charging infrastructure through 2018, including the expansion of eligible costs to allow for the installation of fleet-compatible charging infrastructure. 
Among the other recommendations is one which caught our eye – a program to guarantee the residual value of the first generation of large-format automotive batteries put into service between 2010 and 2013. 
This is doubtless to help fleet owners deal with the uncertainty and fear surrounding the weakest point of all electric vehicles – the battery pack. 
We have yet to fully digest all the information contained in the document but certainly recommend if you are involved with fleet management you read the PDF here. Along with the original Electrification Roadmap the two documents detail a possible future where electric vehicles form an integral transport solution for personal, public and private sectors.
 [Electrification Coalition]

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