If you’re an EV enthusiast but can’t get your corporate leadership to budge on electrifying your company fleet, don’t give up and look for a more forward-thinking employer. Instead, use these four strategies to sell your C-suite on fleet electrification.
1. Before You Dream Up a Roadmap, Brush Up on Your Sales Spiel
You’ve probably researched a dozen ways to electrify your organization’s fleet. But before you develop a plan to do all the nuts-and-bolts stuff to go from diesel or CNG-powered fleet vehicles, you have to convince your corporate leadership that fleet electrification will prove worthwhile.
Your background might be in logistics, engineering, or another field with a primary concern of getting things and people from point A to point B without incident. But sales? Don’t the numbers speak for themselves?
Well, sort of. To sell your bosses on a new idea, you need to turn those numbers into what Harvard Business Review’s Peter Mulford calls an “idea resume.”
As Mulford advises, state your points in a “clear, concise, and controlled” document you can refer to during those meetings where the most reluctant leaders will pose tough questions to you at a rapid-fire pace.
Research organizations that have already electrified at least part of their fleet. Distill them down into the numbers that will convince each leader according to their specific area of expertise. For example, your CFO will want to see how electric fleet vehicles cut expenses and drive revenue.
On the other hand, your chief operating officer will want to see data showing that electrification reduces vehicle downtime and streamlines scheduling. Your CEO will need evidence that going electric will grow your organization’s customer base and positive public perception.
Start with the challenges your fleet faces that electrification could solve. Then, show how electric vehicles can solve those problems.
Tailoring your approach to each executive’s specific concerns helps you nip at least some of your bosses’ possible objections in the bud. Anticipate questions about each point you make and prepare data-driven responses to support it.
Finally, you’ll need to tackle some of the challenges in transitioning to an all-electric fleet. Showing how your organization can create a smooth path to electrification can go a long way toward convincing your C-suite that moving toward a zero-emissions fleet will reap way more benefits than downsides.
2. Show Them What Problems Fleet Electrification Can Solve
Whether you’re a transit agency transporting passengers across town or a trucking firm moving products across the country, your vehicles will likely pass through some heavily populated urban areas on the way to their destinations. The last thing you want to do is to pollute the very air your customers depend on to breathe.
When you electrify your logistics company’s fleet, you’ll reduce your vehicles’ emissions to zero, as an Exro post points out. That’s a great step in the right direction toward cleaner air across every destination you travel to.
Healthier Passengers
Transit fleets, including school buses, have an even more important job: keeping their passengers safe. Recent studies have shown that diesel fumes have a detrimental effect on human health — not only the respiratory system but also the cardiovascular and neurological systems. Bus passengers, unfortunately, breathe in four times the exhaust fumes than those in vehicles ahead of buses.
For students, the news is even more startling. As another study found, there is “no known safe exposure to diesel exhaust” for children, particularly those with asthma and other respiratory issues. A child’s airway is narrower than an adult’s, making children even more vulnerable to respiratory damage.
Healthier Drivers
Those same diesel fumes could also affect your semi-truck drivers’ health. Fewer sick days due to respiratory issues mean greater productivity for your company. Even more importantly, as more studies on the effects of diesel exhaust come in, your company could face legal challenges from drivers whose respiratory health has gone downhill after years of driving diesel vehicles.
Fewer Fuel and Maintenance Costs
As the Exro post cited earlier shows, fueling electric fleet vehicles cuts your fueling costs almost in half. Maintenance costs also tumble since EVs “have fewer moving parts and do not require oil changes or other routine maintenance tasks.”
Better Brand Reputation
As more facts about diesel exhaust fumes emerge, companies that cling to diesel-powered fleet vehicles will suffer damage to their reputation. By adopting an all-electric fleet, your company can enjoy a significant boost to its brand image over its competitors.
Energy Savings Through V2G Capability
When you replace at least part of your fleet with electric vehicles, you can take advantage of their vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capabilities. Semis, buses, or other commercial EVs can serve as battery storage that can help keep the heat and light on during outages. And you can sell their batteries’ unused energy back to the grid for an additional source of revenue when your EV fleet vehicles aren’t in use, such as during school vacations or overnight storage.
3. Address Objections to an EV Fleet Transition with Facts
As the Exro post states, fleet electrification is not without its challenges. They include:
- EV fleet vehicles’ higher upfront costs
- Limited range
- Sparse EV charging infrastructure in some localities
- Vehicle availability issues
But What About High Upfront Costs?
Certainly, electric fleet vehicles’ high upfront costs will be a sticking point among skeptical executives. However, as more heavy-duty electric vehicles enter the market, prices will likely fall. The law of supply and demand rarely fails, after all.
Battery prices, too, are going down, as an August 2024 Yahoo! Finance article pointed out. Since batteries make up a significant portion of an EV’s cost, that’s a good sign that EV prices will drop soon.
Meanwhile, many utilities and some governmental agencies will provide funding, such as vouchers, grants, and other incentives, to offset your organization’s upfront costs. Research what’s available in your area before you make your pitch, and your corporate leadership will be more open to your ideas.
Can Electric Fleet Vehicles Go the Distance?
While naysayers kvetch about heavy-duty electric vehicles’ limited range — a maximum of 500 miles per charge versus its diesel counterpart’s 1,000 miles — the absolute limit is the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety standard. According to this statute, “drivers must take a 30-minute break when they have driven for a period of 8 cumulative hours without at least a 30-minute interruption.”
Indeed, that 30-minute break provides an adequate time for drivers to charge their vehicles with a DC fast charger. No matter how many miles a diesel truck can go before taking a break, their drivers cannot.
Some states even require drivers to take a 30-minute break more often than every eight hours. Safety experts would agree. To avoid driver fatigue, 45-minute rest stops should occur at 4.5-hour intervals.
Additionally, both range-extending and charging technologies continue to emerge at a rapid pace, bringing heavy-duty electric vehicles closer and closer to their diesel-fueled counterparts in both range and charging speed.
Where Can Our EV Fleet Charge?
Local transit fleets shouldn’t have issues finding charging stations if their agencies have installed EV charging infrastructure in their bus depots. Some localities even have charging stations along their regular routes where buses can charge while waiting to load and unload passengers.
As for long-distance passenger vehicles and semi-trucks hauling freight, the landscape looks brighter with every passing year. As a January 2024 Atlas EV Hub article points out, local, state, and federal government agencies set $30 billion aside to support charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty (MDHD) vehicles across the United States. That doesn’t even include funding sources from utilities and private-sector investors.
While there are still areas where MDHD EV charging facilities are few and far between, the number is growing. As the Atlas EV Hub post noted, there are “39 large MDHD charging sites with at least five direct current fast charging (DCFC) ports…planned, in construction, or operational” across the U.S. Some of these stations had “as many as 120 DCFC ports.”
Even more importantly, 4,800 DC fast charging ports located at 600 sites can already support MDHD charging, according to the Atlas EV Hub piece. Several projects to create a nationwide grid of MDHD charging infrastructure are already afoot, including one in the heavily industrialized Northeastern United States.
Will Heavy-Duty EVs Be Available to Buy?
With major auto, bus, and truck manufacturers jumping feetfirst into the heavy-duty EV market, 2025 looks like an excellent year to initiate the move toward fleet electrification. These automakers include heavy hitters like Tesla, Daimler, Nikola, Proterra, BYD, Thomas Built, Volvo, and more — making it unlikely for the supply to dry up.
Case studies show that companies that have already deployed heavy-duty vehicles in their fleets have experienced unbridled success, saving money while reducing toxic emissions as they roll down the highways.
4. Invite Your C-Suite Executives to Attend an EV Charging Summit Event
After you’ve done the groundwork and softened some attitudes toward fleet electrification, there’s nothing like an event where all the presenters are EV charging professionals with a world-class track record to convince your C-suite to consider transitioning your fleet to EVs. Besides the informative presentations, they can mingle with some of the finest minds in the EV industry, building relationships while getting answers to their questions.
Don’t wait to register yourself, your team, and your top executives for the next Summit. Sign up for our next event today!
