For decades, fleet fuel management has been relatively straightforward. Give the driver a fuel card, let them visit a service station and receive an invoice detailing the transaction.
Electric vehicles are changing that model because the organisation can suddenly be responsible for procuring the energy used to power its fleet — and some of that energy may come from an employee’s home.
Charlie McIntyre from Origin Energy says managing those electrons is one of the operational challenges fleets can underestimate when transitioning to EVs.
McIntyre discussed the issue at Everything Electric Sydney as part of a supplier panel featuring sponsors of the Fleet News Group Awards.
Electricity becomes a fleet management issue
“We talk a lot about the charging, but the actual electrons make it very different,” McIntyre said.
With an ICE fleet, the service station handles much of the infrastructure required to refuel the vehicle. An EV potentially changes that relationship.
“The electricity has to be purchased,” McIntyre said. “And then secondly, which is very different, is that you can now use or top up this fuel source from home.”
That creates questions that traditionally haven’t been part of fleet fuel management.
Who pays for the electricity? How is consumption measured? How does the employee get reimbursed? And how does the organisation separate energy used by the fleet vehicle from the rest of the household?
Home charging makes sense for take-home fleets
Despite the additional administration, home charging can also remove one of the perceived barriers to EV adoption.
McIntyre said the best charging solution depends on the operating model of the fleet. For vehicles taken home by employees each night, residential charging can provide a particularly convenient solution.
“The beauty about electric vehicles, unlike a petrol car, is that you can actually charge at home,” he said.
A vehicle returning home with around 50% battery capacity can be replenished overnight and leave the following morning ready for another working day.
That can eliminate the need for a driver to make a separate refuelling stop.
Public charging becomes the backup
McIntyre said public charging can then play a supporting role rather than necessarily being the primary energy source.
“We’re seeing, at least for the vehicles that we’re transitioning first, the ones that make the most financial sense, the home charging is a really convenient piece,” he said.
Public charging can provide backup when required.
Depot charging, meanwhile, becomes more relevant where vehicles return to a central location, are operated as pool vehicles or spend significant periods parked at an office.
A new fleet fuel strategy
For fleet managers, electrification is creating a broader definition of fuel management.
Instead of negotiating fuel cards and monitoring litres consumed, organisations increasingly need to consider electricity procurement, charging hardware, home energy reimbursement, public charging and depot infrastructure.
The vehicle is only one part of the transition.
For fleets with large numbers of take-home vehicles, the next generation of fleet refuelling infrastructure may therefore be distributed across employees’ driveways rather than located at the depot.
