– By Nicolette Briscoe, Marketing Consultant –
How does building brand awareness and being more focused on sustainability sound?
Appealing, right? As electric vehicles (EVs) increase in popularity and a growing number of manufacturers include them in their range, they’re becoming a popular trial product within fleets.
With the lowest on-road price for an electric vehicle being around $53,000, EVs aren’t known for their low price point. What they are known for is making a statement to the community in what your business stands for – sustainability.
A 2018 study by ClimateWorks Australia in conjunction with the Municipal Association of Victoria assessed Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) across 18 Victorian Councils. What they found surprised them. They found that for every vehicle category type, except utes, an EV model exists that matched or beat their current Total Cost of Ownership.
This insight might just be the motivation needed to investigate EVs as a serious option for replacing existing vehicles when they reach the end of their lease.
Additionally, each state has incentives in place for offsetting some of the costs associated with new vehicle purchases.
In the ACT, the government offers generous incentives for the purchase of EVs, including 20% registration discount and zero stamp duty. And leading by example, the ACT Government intends to transition its entire passenger fleet to EVs by the end of 2021.
Several large corporates are also making the switch to zero. AGL Energy has a strategy in place to transition its fleet of 400 vehicles to EVs by 2030. ANC, IKEA Australia’s national delivery partner, is working towards having 100% of home deliveries made by EVs [4] in major metro cities by 2025.
And for local governments, switching to EVs, where fit for purpose, results in numerous benefits.
As leaders and policy makers in their local communities, councils have a degree of pressure and expectation from community members to lead by example. They also have significant emission targets in place and are typically striving to be leaders in sustainability.
Councils like City of Canterbury Bankstown in NSW welcome the reduced running costs that EVs deliver. In the first 12 months of operation, they reported zero vehicle maintenance costs. [7]
CEO Liberty Signs, David Cross says; “we recently branded electrics vehicles for both Ryde and Northern Beaches councils – feedback from the community was extremely positive. The branding in both cases was bold, bright and unmissable with clever messaging – excellent usage of the advertising space available on the vehicle to drive their sustainability message.”
When EVs are branded with relevant signage, a strong message is sent to the community. That message is: we are changing our behaviour in favour of sustainability.
Branding EVs with signage to build on sustainability credentials is a growing trend within Australian fleets. This is because more and more fleet owners are recognising that vehicle branding is a powerful form of marketing.
Many other forms of advertising fail to hit the mark when it comes to attention and engagement. As an out-of-home advertising medium, vehicle branding cannot be switched off, ignored or blocked.
This makes them an excellent vehicle for messaging and branding. Until now, have you considered your fleet as an advertising tool to promote your brand and message?
How will you turn your fleet of branded vehicles into a fleet of heroes for your business and the planet?
