For many organisations, the early stages of fleet electrification were driven by a single person. In some cases it was a proactive Fleet Manager exploring new technology. In others it was a Sustainability Manager looking for ways to reduce emissions.
But as businesses move from small EV trials to broader deployment, the transition is no longer something one department can manage alone. Electrifying a fleet has become a cross-department project involving multiple teams across the organisation.
Adam Aslam from Origin Zero said this shift reflects a growing understanding that electric vehicles impact much more than vehicle procurement.
“In the early days it was often a particularly proactive Fleet Manager driving the conversation,” said Aslam. “More often than not it was actually a sustainability-led conversation where sustainability teams were looking for solutions they could bring to the fleet purchasing team.”
Today, organisations are increasingly approaching electrification with broader internal collaboration.
“We’re seeing a lot more cross-functional working groups being formed,” he said. “Instead of engaging with a single individual, we’re now often working with a group of representatives from different parts of the organisation.”
This broader approach reflects the operational reality of transitioning to electric vehicles. Fleet electrification affects infrastructure, workplace policies, finance and operations, which means multiple stakeholders need to be involved in planning and decision-making.
“It’s not just a fleet purchasing decision,” Aslam explained. “You’re interacting with people and culture teams, property teams, and sometimes even going through city approvals for infrastructure. There are a lot more people involved in the conversation.”
For fleet teams, this means the role of the Fleet Manager is evolving. Instead of simply selecting vehicles and managing replacement cycles, fleet professionals are increasingly coordinating across departments to build a business case and deliver the transition.
Aslam said awareness of this broader stakeholder environment is growing across the market.
“What we’re seeing now is increasing awareness that this needs to be a group conversation,” he said. “That’s a really positive change because it means organisations are starting to approach electrification more strategically.”
However, he noted that many organisations are still learning how to structure those conversations internally.
“There is still a little bit of education required in the market around who needs to be involved and when,” he said. “The framework for traditional fleet leasing and vehicle procurement has been very mature for decades, but EVs introduce a different set of considerations.”
Building the internal business case is often the first step before engaging the wider stakeholder group.
“The way we encourage organisations to approach it is to start by understanding the capabilities in the market and building a high-level business case,” Aslam said.
“Once you’ve got that, it’s important to get some internal endorsement before expanding the conversation across the organisation.”
This approach helps avoid a common challenge where too many stakeholders are involved before the project has clear direction.
“If there’s one detractor in a group of peer-level stakeholders, it can slow the whole project down,” he said. “So it’s important to have a clear rationale and some internal support before bringing everyone together.”
Product development is also supporting this more collaborative approach. Charlie McIntyre from Origin Zero said tools that analyse fleet data are helping organisations identify which vehicles are suitable for electrification and where charging infrastructure may be required.
“Previously, a lot of that work was done manually in spreadsheets,” said McIntyre. “Now we can import fuel card data and analyse how vehicles are used so we can identify the best candidates for electrification.”
This type of analysis helps support discussions between fleet, sustainability, and finance teams.
“We can look at a fleet and say these vehicles are doing relatively low daily kilometres and mostly metro driving,” he said. “Those are the lowest-risk vehicles to transition first.”
Having clear operational data also makes it easier to engage other stakeholders such as property teams responsible for charging infrastructure or finance teams assessing total cost of ownership.
For organisations that successfully build cross-department collaboration, the electrification journey becomes easier to manage.
Instead of a single department pushing the change, the transition becomes a coordinated effort aligned with broader organisational goals around cost control, operational efficiency and emissions reduction.
As businesses increasingly commit to decarbonisation targets, that collaborative approach is becoming essential.
Fleet electrification is no longer just about replacing vehicles. It is about integrating vehicles, infrastructure, energy and data into a single strategy that touches multiple parts of the organisation.
