Fleet Electrification: Defining What’s Possible Today

The road to electrification is a journey. Every fleet will have a different path, but many of the pit stops along the way will be the same.

In the beginning phase, you’ll likely spend a lot of time getting comfortable with the idea of electrification by doing research, attending webinars and events, reading case studies and talking to other fleets about their first-hand experiences. Phase 2 involves applying this knowledge to your specific situation to assess what’s possible for your fleet today. You’re ready to analyze how today’s electric vehicle and charging technologies fit together with your current routes, duty cycles, cost estimates and timelines.

To get started, every fleet professional should consider the three following things: range, cost and infrastructure.   

What are your operational considerations?

To identify what vehicles can be electrified now, fleet managers need to know everything they can about how their current vehicles operate and identify which duty cycles and routes are best suited for electrification. 

The Fleet Electrification Solutions Center (FESC) is a free resource that can help with this process. It walks through what information to collect and how to do the analysis, which can help fleet operators learn from industry leaders that have driven the road to electrification ahead of them.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) is a great case study of how one organization helped a local school district navigate phase two of electrification. NCTCOG brought on a Fellow through Environmental Defense Fund’s Climate Corps program to conduct an analysis of Rockwall Independent School District’s fleet of school buses to determine the viability of deploying electric school buses as well as quantify the financial and health benefits of electrification.

“To identify what is possible to electrify, a fleet manager needs to understand what their current fleet profile looks like,” shared Savana Nance, with NCTCOG. “Fleets can use that data to select electric vehicles with the specifications to do the job and then model how that vehicle will perform on the route.”

In the case of Rockwall ISD, route analysis showed that the ranges of three different electric buses, each running three route lengths (short, medium, and long) were more than capable of doing the job. When modeling remaining battery capacity after operating on these routes, analysis showed that the three electric buses could travel both short and medium routes with over 50% battery remaining by the end of the day. For the longest routes, two of the three buses were able to complete their routes with over 50% battery by end of day. For all three route scenarios, the route analysis demonstrated that the battery electric buses are more than capable of meeting the fleet’s operational needs.

Fleet managers will identify what vehicles can be electrified through these fleet and route analyses. The next step in identifying what is possible now is to run financial analyses to identify what vehicles should be electrified. 

What can you afford?

Once a fleet identifies electric models that can meet their operational needs, it’s time to run some numbers to determine which vehicles make financial sense to electrify. Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the FESC walk through the process of conducting financial feasibility analyses and using that information to secure project approval and apply for funding to meet financial and sustainability goals.

Iron Mountain’s fleet electrification work has shown that the transition to an electric fleet is good for their bottom line, as well as the planet. 

Iron Mountain has set ambitious climate goals to be 100% climate neutral by 2040. With a global fleet of over 5,000 vehicles in 60+ countries, fleet electrification will play a significant role in their decarbonization plan. Beyond meeting their climate goals, analysis has indicated clear financial benefits of switching to EVs. 

"There is a strong business case for EVs when you look at the total cost of ownership," said Yulia Roman, Program Manager, Global Operations Support at Iron Mountain, who oversees the EV Program. "They can help us save money, not just break even."

To support their fleet electrification goals, Iron Mountain brought on skilled Fellows from the EDF Climate Corps program in 2020 and 2021. Fellows worked to identify opportunities for electrification across the 60 countries in which the company operates and conducted analysis on incentives and cost benefit scenarios to build a business case for their electrification efforts. This work demonstrated total cost of ownership benefits from the lower cost of operating, maintaining, and fueling EVs in their fleet. From those learnings, Iron Mountain developed achievable milestones in their journey towards fleet electrification with three dozen electric vans rolling in Europe and an upcoming launch in the U.S.

How can you plan for charging and infrastructure?

As fleets work on their vehicle and route analysis, this data will also inform their charging and infrastructure planning. 

“Transitioning a fleet’s fuel source is not an easy task but having a guide will help fleets get the necessary charging infrastructure in place to power their electric fleet,” said Steve Russell, retired Clean Cities Coordinator, who assisted fleets’ transition to clean, alternative fuels throughout his 30-year career. 

It is key to start planning for charging and infrastructure early and the FESC walks users through best practices. EDF’s work with transit agencies, one of the most complex use cases to electrify, drives home this message. Our research determined four best practices in charging infrastructure planning for transit fleet electrification projects:

1. Leverage available funding support,
2. Work with your utility as early as possible,
3. Design, pilot, and repeat,
4. Start with contracts to ensure charging reliability

The FESC guides fleets through these critical steps. While charging and infrastructure planning will be woven throughout the entire electrification journey, Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the FESC also include important steps and resources on working with your utility, planning charging infrastructure, procuring charging stations, and managing timelines.

Electric trucks are already a first choice for many fleets today. But as costs come down and technology continues to advance, demand for electric trucks and all their associated charging infrastructure will accelerate in the coming years. This is exactly why you should jumpstart your electrification plan today – and the FESC can help guide the way.

One of the world’s leading international nonprofit organizations, Environmental Defense Fund creates pragmatic solutions to the most serious environmental problems. EDF has collaborated with FedEx to introduce their hybrid electric truck nearly 20 years ago, GM to eliminate emissions from its new passenger vehicles by 2035, and Iron Mountain to develop a fleet electrification plan – all with the goal of helping companies reduce their climate and air pollution footprints. Learn more at edf.org and connect with us on Twitter @EDFEnergyEX.