For several years, conversations about electric vehicles in fleet operations centred on preparation. Organisations knew EVs were coming, but most activity focused on learning, trialling and planning rather than making large-scale changes.
That mindset is now shifting. According to Origin Zero’s Adam Aslam, fleet operators are increasingly moving beyond planning discussions and into practical decisions about electrifying their fleets.
“When I think back to when we started, there was a lot of noise and a lot of education-based conversations,” said Adam Aslam. “People knew that EVs were on the horizon, but it wasn’t necessarily something they wanted to do immediately.”
Aslam explained that early interest often came from a small group of early adopters who recognised the long-term financial benefits of EVs, particularly from a total cost of ownership perspective.
“Those who were cognisant of total cost of ownership understood that EVs were going to represent really positive outcomes in the future, but it wasn’t necessarily today,” he said.
That dynamic has changed significantly in recent years. As more vehicles become available and operating costs become clearer, fleets are now seeing a viable business case for electrification in the present rather than the future.
“We’ve moved beyond that now,” said Aslam. “The conversations have shifted to what organisations can actually do today, not just what they need to plan for later.”
Importantly, the financial case is becoming easier for fleet decision-makers to justify internally.
“There is now a real and concrete business case that exists today,” he said. “There are positive financial levers in the form of current government incentives, but the long-term business case now stacks up as well.”
For fleet operators managing large numbers of vehicles, this shift is particularly significant. Instead of trialling EVs as a future technology, organisations are increasingly making structured decisions about how EVs fit into multi-year fleet replacement programs.
“When fleet decision-makers are making a multi-year decision for a large group of assets, they can now make a really informed decision rather than it being an aspirational target,” Aslam said.
Another sign of the market’s maturity is that EV programs are no longer limited to small experiments. While many organisations still start with pilot programs, a growing number are now expanding those trials into broader fleet rollouts.
“We’re seeing customers at a whole range of stages,” Aslam explained. “Some are still in that pilot phase with two, five or ten vehicles, but others that started those trials three or four years ago are now expanding EVs across their fleet.”
In some cases, organisations have already committed to fully electric fleets.
“We’ve got some customers who are basically fully EV at this point,” he said. “Others have introduced EV-only purchasing policies from here on out, so while they still have combustion vehicles in the fleet today, all new purchases are electric.”
For many businesses, the pilot phase remains an important step in the transition.
Starting small allows Fleet Managers to test operational suitability, gather real-world data and manage change within the organisation.
“Starting with a smaller subset is really important, and we highly encourage it,” Aslam said. “Taking a data-led approach to identifying which vehicles are the best candidates for electrification makes those early trials far more likely to succeed.”
Origin Zero Product Manager Charlie McIntyre said data is playing an increasingly important role in helping organisations make these decisions.
“In the past, a lot of that work was done in Excel,” said McIntyre. “Now we can import a customer’s fuel card data and analyse the duty cycle of each vehicle.”
This analysis allows organisations to identify the lowest-risk vehicles for electrification.
“We can look at how far vehicles travel each day and say these ones are doing 50 or 60 kilometres a day and mostly metro driving,” McIntyre said. “Those are the vehicles that are the absolute lowest risk to transition to electric.”
The ability to make data-driven decisions helps Fleet Managers build confidence within their organisations.
“That consulting piece at the beginning is really important,” he said. “We can say: of your vehicles, what could you transition first, how would you start the trial, and what would the plan look like from there.”
Beyond the financial and operational considerations, the transition is also being driven by changing attitudes among drivers.
Early EV trials often required significant support from fleet teams, but as more vehicles enter organisations, drivers themselves are starting to request electric vehicles.
“The early implementation required a lot of hand holding,” Aslam said. “But now we’re seeing drivers coming to their fleet teams and saying their lease is coming up and asking how they can be part of the EV program.”
This peer-to-peer knowledge sharing is helping accelerate adoption inside organisations.
“When drivers start sharing their experiences with their colleagues, the perceived risk reduces,” he said. “That change management process actually happens quite organically.”
For Fleet Managers, this represents a significant turning point in the EV transition.
Instead of asking whether EVs will eventually become viable for fleets, the conversation has shifted to how quickly organisations can begin implementing them.
