FUTURE OF FLEET > CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE
Network solutions for all drivers
By Natasha Fry, head of sales, Mer Fleet Services
The UK is making positive progress towards transport electrification. For example, there are more than 50,000 public EV charge points, while at least one in every 32 cars is now electric.
However, with around five million commercial vehicles on the road, there remains a mammoth task ahead for fleet managers. Faced with transitioning their ICE fleets to EVs, fleet managers must navigate a new and constantly changing landscape of vehicles, chargers, power requirements and sustainability expectations.
In 2024, aftercare and expertise will remain a key priority for anyone looking to transition their fleet and install new charging infrastructure; the support of a trusted EV charging infrastructure partner is as important as ever. However, new vehicles and load management solutions can offer fleet managers faster and potentially easier ways to install the infrastructure required to electrify their fleets.
The current electric vehicle market has focused mainly on cars, which has been positive for personal vehicles and fleets of smaller vehicles, such as company cars or non-emergency vehicles in emergency services fleets. However, this has meant that the choices for commercial fleets have been more limited, especially for 3.5-tonne vans and vehicles with larger gross weights.
As the market expands, there will be more electric vehicles available to fleet managers which will create several new opportunities for electrification.
More vehicle options will give fleet managers greater flexibility around vehicle choice, which will allow them to create fleets that are better suited to their operations. Vehicles with different payloads and charging needs can be mixed and matched. Freed from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to vehicles, fleet managers will have flexibility with their charging solutions too. This will help to encourage adoption because, thanks to their ability to create bespoke solutions, charging infrastructure operators are ready to meet fleet managers’ needs.
Though much progress has been made, the UK is still in the formative stages of electrification, especially for fleets. As such, most organisations have focused on transitioning their fleets at depots near major cities and installing charging infrastructure there. This will change as new vehicles, with different payloads and ranges, make it viable for fleet managers to install charge points at depots in more rural areas and those less served.
New and bespoke charging infrastructure solutions can help fleet managers transition their fleet faster, meeting the organisational targets that drive their need for fleet electrification. But these solutions are complex and involve many considerations, which is why expertise and aftercare are still a priority.
Fleet managers have to know how much power is available at their site, or whether their site is leased or owned and allows for the construction work required to install EV chargers. This information isn’t standardly in a fleet manager’s remit; obtaining it and understanding it can also be a distraction from keeping a critical fleet on the road. To deal with this, fleet managers need the support of an infrastructure partner that help guide and manage their transition.
As time has moved on, many of the chargers installed in the early years of electrification are no longer fit for purpose. New standards such as the Open Charge Point Protocol help to address this problem by ensuring chargers meet minimal standards for their back-office compatibility. For critical fleets, however, the quality of the solutions is of paramount importance – and so too is the aftercare available.
As fleet managers know, technical equipment is susceptible to failure at some point. What’s needed is a charging infrastructure partner who can diagnose and repair faults remotely. And, if necessary, immediately respond with on-site engineers.
