When looking at the changing face of the automobile industry and designs to move drivers toward a greater ratio of hybrid or electric vehicles we tend to consider what consumers will purchase and select. While naturally consumer purchases of cars and trucks dominates the market, fleet vehicles for government, businesses, car rental companies and service/delivery trucks and vans also corner a sizable portion of what is on our roads. In the US and Canada around 20% of all vehicles on the road fall into the ‘fleet’ category, estimates would place that total at somewhere around 60 million cars and trucks in total.

With that in mind a recent poll amongst decision makers at fleet operations makes for rather grim reading. Over 60% of 100 private and government fleets answered that they were ‘not likely’ to be purchasing a vehicle that fell into the categories of ‘plug-in hybrid or all electric’. The reasons given were incomplete data to assess operating costs, pricing, resale and fuel efficiency. The message I take from that is two fold, the industry needs to make rapid improvements in terms of educating their potential buyers and providing the specifications that address these concerns; and companies/government need to be making a more positive step in helping to demonstrate more environmental commitments with regards to their vehicle programs. Fleet vehicles are important purchases, the cars are in high demand and use and need replacing and maintenance on a consistent basis. The automobile industry needs to take an active role with government and fleet management to increase the market share of alternate fuel vehicles in a way that makes sense for both manufacturer and fleets.  Chelsea Mathis, an environmental consultant within the strategic consulting services group of Northbrook, IL-based fleet leasing and management firm Donlen added more insight:

“Without the specifics, fleets are concerned about the potential for these vehicles to meet application demands, including driving range, battery and fuel efficiency, Companies would have to establish a policy around vehicle charging including identifying charging locations, potentially investing in the construction of charging stations on location, determining after-hour charging policies, and the charging level of stations available—i.e. will it take 20 minutes or one hour to complete?”

When a survey such as this does actually pinpoint the reasons why these purchases are not likely it gives car makers the advantage of knowing what needs to be addressed. Changing a way of thinking and thus purchasing will take a lot of added information to eliminate the unknowns for those who make the purchasing decisions. Production also needs to increase, if a hypothetical delivery company such as Fedex were to make a four year commitment to change all of their vehicles to electric there is no evidence that the industry is ready to support such demand. Fedex for example currently operate 71,000 vehicles within the international fleet.

Electric vehicles seems to be the most likely to gain long term support – if the vehicle range and performance can meet the needs of a business it becomes an ideal fit as each vehicle could then be recharged at the end of each session at the main garage/depot location. Ideally we would be further along the path to fleet vehicles becoming electric but we are now at the point where evaluation and sample testing is the most likely next step to be considered by fleet management companies. I think one of the major automakers has the potential to gain a huge advantage in being the most ambitious in creating plans that lend themselves to real market enivoronments and testing as soon as possible. Purpose built or modified vehicles such as mail trucks, delivery vans and taxis all stand to be huge markets and opportunities for an industry that states it is in the process of reinventing itself. The proof may be in what changes can be made to fleet operations over the next few years. One fleet I routinely find fascination with due to the immense size of the operation is the US Postal Service who are actually making healthy progress. Of the 215,000 USPS vehicles in operation some 44,000 are currently designated as alternate fuel vehicles – that constitutes 20% at present, which is above the industry norm.

Tags: alternate fuel vehicles, commercial vehicles, electric vehicles, fedex, fleet car market share, fleet car purchasing, fleet cars, fleet vehicles, fuel efficiency, hybrid cars, hybrid trucks, hybrid vehicles, planet forward, renewable energy, USPS