Leah O’Dwyer, the visionary CEO of ZeroMission, has been featured in the Technology Insight section of the latest Essential Fleet Group Ltd publication!
TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT – COMMERCIAL EV FLEET MANAGEMENT Q&A
Organisations are under growing pressure to decarbonise their operations, with fleet electrification at the forefront of these efforts. Essential fleets operate a diverse range of commercial vehicles including vans, HGVs and specialist vehicles, and while there is a growing desire to make the switch to Electric vehicles (EVs), many are unsure how best to make this change.
We spoke with Leah O’Dwyer, founder and CEO of ZeroMission, to chat about the transition to commercial EVs. Our discussions covered the difficulties that essential fleets are struggling with and how technology is helping to overcome many of these potential barriers.
What are the EV challenges facing essential fleet operators?
The transition to commercial EVs presents several significant challenges. The limited range remains a major concern for many operators, while those requiring larger or specialised vehicles are yet be accommodated for within the electric vehicle market, although this is changing continually as more and more commercial EVs are introduced. Creating adequate charging infrastructure is another hurdle, with many existing facilities struggling to meet the demands of numerous commercial EVs.
The greater upfront costs of commercial EVs, alongside the expense of installing and maintaining onsite charging and power equipment, is well documented, but fleets also need to consider the financial impact of higher vehicle replacement ratios. Finally, the longer charging times required compared to refuelling traditional vehicles increases the risk of unplanned downtime damaging productivity and profitability.
Is there a common mistake that is being made?
Fleet operators and less experienced sector stakeholders often assume, that larger batteries and more powerful charging stations are necessary for success, when this is almost always not the case. The larger the battery, the more it costs, the heavier it weighs, and the more charging capacity you will potentially need at the depot. Therefore, it is important to size battery requirements in the correct way, taking account of the precise operational requirements. There is no point carrying around extra weight when not needed because you are reducing the payload, while increasing vehicle and infrastructure expenditure unnecessarily.
The same can be said for onsite charging, where it is not unusual for organisations to look at the size of a vehicle’s energy system, multiply this by the number of planned EVs, and use this to calculate the site power requirements. While this may be correct if charging all batteries fully, at the same time, or in a narrow charging window, in reality, it is far more nuanced. The application of intelligent modelling typically results in optimised charging and operational strategies, which ultimately reduces both the capital and operating costs for the power required to electrify a fleet.
What is something that is consistently overlooked?
There needs to be greater recognition that operating commercial EVs is not the same as petrol-and diesel-powered vehicles. The problem is that side by side, the vehicles look the same, but they are not, it is a very different proposition. We are trying to replace a universally established and understood fuelling system with a much more challenging and complex ecosystem. This means an alternative approach is required and fleets will have to adapt to make a successful transition to commercial EVs. A crucial part of this journey will be the adoption of smart tools to ensure essential fleets achieve the day-to-day vehicle performance needed for financial and operational viability.
Why are smart tools so important for effective commercial EV fleet management?
The switch to commercial EVs is such a big change to have to deal with and the transition becomes so much more difficult without smart tools. It is about connecting those different aspects of an EV fleet that together provide organisations with a degree of confidence that they can get the job done. Up until now, fleets have been looking at the vehicle and charger in isolation, while attempting to coordinate the schedule in the same way as before. This is a recipe for failure, because they need to understand the main parameters that contribute to the successful operation of an EV and how they influence each other. Only with an integrated system can they see the complete picture from a fleet, facilities, service delivery and financial perspective to meet the required performance metrics.
What role does big data and AI have?
Vehicles, charging stations, schedules, supply equipment all generate huge volumes of data that can be interrogated and analysed to generate valuable insights. Understanding the interdependencies between different systems will help fleets to see trends within their commercial EV operation – when charging should occur? When is the most efficient time to charge? What is the best type of vehicle to use? What is the impact of different routes, load impacts or driving conditions? This added intelligence also becomes very useful for specifying and implementing the next roll-out of vehicles and infrastructure, while the information can be fed back into the system to finetune processes and target continuous improvements.
AI will enable vast amounts of data to be analysed and acted upon faster and more efficiently than ever before. This means essential fleets can gain very high-quality data insights without the need to employ additional resource to manage and coordinate their commercial EVs. When you are collecting information from thousands of datapoints on an hourly basis, manual analysis is simply not feasible, but with AI there is the potential to streamline and automate this entire process.
Can you tell us something interesting about ZeroMission?
ZeroMission’s commercial EV fleet management platform is the result of over 30 years of collective experience within the electric vehicle industry in North America and Europe. Our senior management team possesses unrivalled electromobility, power-energy infrastructure and software development expertise, working with leading organisations in the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) sector. This includes: ChargePoint, Siemens, ABM, Volvo Bus and Truck, Daimler, New Flyer, GILLIG, STM Montreal, New York MTA, San Francisco MUNI and Translink in Northern Ireland.
As a result, we have been responsible for a host of industry firsts, pioneering innovation across the EV sector. Starting in 2012 I led a team at Siemens, together with Volvo Truck and Bus to develop a high power DC fast charging solution for eBuses (OppCharge), which has since become the defacto standard for on route opportunity charging globally. At ChargePoint, alongside my co-founder Kevin Christopher, we developed and implemented distributed DC charging for the first time, using power blocks and dispensers at San Francisco MUNI in 2020. We also started developing the first integrated software solutions for depot and charge management in 2018.
ENDS
