EV Charger Availability Biggest Barrier For Fleet Managers: Study

Though consumer demand for EVs has lagged behind expected levels of growth as of late, that isn’t necessarily the case in the commercial fleet world. There, customers continue to gravitate toward EVs, largely because of their lower operating costs when compared to ICE equivalents, and in that regard, Ford Pro offers a full suite of things like supporting software and chargers as well. However, it seems as if EV charger availability, in general, remains a big barrier for fleet managers.

This information comes to us from a recent study conducted by Cox Automotive – Future of Fleets: Path to EV Adoption – which found that the availability of EV charger stations remains the biggest barrier in terms of managing an electric vehicle fleet as compared to an ICE fleet. Behind that, fleet customers also indicated that battery degradation concerns, limited makes and models, higher operating costs, the weather’s impact on range, a lack of EV technicians, towing capacity, driver training, higher total costs of ownership, optimizing routes, and higher rates of depreciation remain barriers to EV adoption as well.

“The electric-vehicle story is much larger than just the retail story,” said Zo Rahim, senior analyst of Research and Market Intelligence at Cox Automotive. “In many ways, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution for many fleet operations, which often have set routes of known distances, vehicles that routinely overnight in the same location, and operations that prioritize the cost of ownership. The fleet business is significant in the U.S. market, and we expect the EV share of the fleet market to expand in the coming years.”

In spite of these concerns, Ford has enjoyed a tremendous boost in demand for its EVs from commercial fleet customers, prompting it to focus on creating larger all-electric vehicles specifically for those entities, and Ford Pro is also offering complimentary chargers for customers in select states. Regardless, these concerns over a lack of charging infrastructure are ones that are echoed in the retail market, though EV charger reliability has reportedly improved in recent months, at least.

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