What to Expect When Adopting Electric Vehicles

As electric vehicles (EVs) continue to gain popularity in the automotive industry, commercial fleet managers face the same question many consumers ponder: Should we adopt EVs now? In May 2023 alone, more than 113,000 plug-in vehicles were sold in the United States, indicating many are answering “yes” to the question of EVs.¹¹¹³

 

However, fleet managers’ path to EV adoption looks a little different than that of consumers because, generally speaking, commercial customers must consider factors that aren’t necessarily relevant to consumers. With that, here’s how to make the transition as seamless as possible.

1. Bring Your Drivers Into the Fold

 

According to a Ford Pro^TM commercial fleet decision-maker survey, respondents see C-suite leaders and themselves as EVs’ biggest cheerleaders and their drivers as EVs’ most vocal critics.¹⁰⁴⁶ If drivers are skeptical of EV adoption, consider giving them some hands-on experience with the vehicles. Doubtful drivers may change their perspective once they test-drive an EV.

 

When Grade A Construction electrified its fleet by adding 11 F-150® Lightning® pickups, employees were initially skeptical, according to Jessica Cox, vice president of corporate services. “We had some interesting reactions when we purchased our 11 EVs,” said Cox. “Everybody was a little skeptical, a little nervous. Once we got them in, we did training on the EVs and showed them the benefits, the dynamic shifted drastically.”

Our survey results showed that EV adopters with hands-on experience are more likely to appreciate the benefits of EVs, such as using the EV as a power source.¹⁰⁴⁶ Lance Lannom, senior vice president and president of operations at Grade A, was floored by the available F-150 Lightning Pro Power Onboard feature, which turns the vehicle into a power source.

 

He wasn’t the only one. “People were stopping by on the street, looking and asking questions like, ‘Is that the new Lightning? Are you really running a saw off that thing?’” Lannom said. “It was just blowing people’s minds.”

2. Let Software Do the Heavy Lifting

 

 

Our survey also showed that almost half of U.S. fleet managers are worried about training fleet drivers to take care of their EVs.¹⁰⁴⁶ While fleet driver training is an important step in EV adoption, the process doesn’t have to be a headache—especially when you have software powered by intelligence from telematics on your side.

 

Ford Pro E-Telematics¹²⁹ can help fleet managers unlock operational efficiencies and cost savings through optimization efforts. This includes asset management to maximize vehicles’ life span, help reduce downtime and foster a positive driving experience.

 

Consider preconditioning, for example. This might be a term that some in the organization have never heard, but it’s crucial to long-term battery health. Here’s how it works: While an EV is plugged into a charger or wall box, the charger preheats (or precools) the cabin and heats the battery to the optimal temperature so the EV has the maximum potential range each time it’s unplugged. If you skip this process, the battery will have to use kilowatts to heat itself or preheat/precool the cabin.

 

With Ford Pro E-Telematics,¹²⁹ you don’t have to rely on drivers to remember to precondition their EVs before the start of each workday. Instead, you can schedule departure times remotely. You can allow drivers to manage their own departure preconditioning, but if you want full control of preconditioning, you can disable driver editing on one or more vehicles. Regardless, once a departure time is set, battery and cabin preconditioning will automatically start up to one hour before departure and 15 minutes before departure, respectively.