Enterprise uncovers the potential of fleet electrification

With the impending transition to electric vehicles (EVs) on the horizon and real-world factors informing decision-making, the team at Enterprise Fleet Management recognised the importance of basing their long-term business strategy on reliable data — not assumptions. Working together, Enterprise Fleet Management and Geotab conducted one of the largest fleet EV Suitability Assessments (EVSA). This massive study was designed to better understand how the shift to EVs will affect Enterprise Fleet Management’s business today and in the future. By taking action on this data, Enterprise Fleet Management can continue to provide its customers with the industry-leading support they’ve come to expect. 

In all, 91,252 Enterprise Fleet Management leased vehicles were included in the study. The results surprised both teams:

• 13% (approximately 12,000) of the analysed vehicles could be economically replaced by EVs today.
• Near-term electrification could achieve a total potential saving of US$33 million (AU$45 million)  and 194,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions over four years.
• Up to 45% (approximately 42,000) of the analysed vehicles could be electrified as EV utilities enter the market.

The Challenge: Look at the big picture to understand how the shift to EVs will affect their fleet

The transition to EVs is underway across North America, a fact not lost on the team at Enterprise Fleet Management. As a leading fleet management provider with more than 649,000 managed vehicles and a presence in over 50 local markets in North America, Enterprise Fleet Management partners with companies, government agencies and organisations operating medium-sized fleets of 20 or more vehicles. The Enterprise Fleet Management team provides industry-leading expertise to customers through local, hands-on account management and personalised support during a vehicle’s full life cycle. They understand the importance of putting the right pieces in place in the short term to aid in long-term success — and a successful EV transition is top of mind for this forward-thinking team. 

“Our goal with this study was to map out what we need to know and what we need to provide our customers now and in the near future so we can continue to be the best fleet management provider possible”, explains Dain Giesie, Assistant Vice President at Enterprise Fleet Management. Together with their affiliate, the world’s largest car rental operator Enterprise Holdings, they offer total transportation solutions to customers. They are also well positioned to build awareness and understanding of electric vehicles along with their supporting technology. 

Enterprise Fleet Management and Geotab’s long-standing relationship led to a unique opportunity for the two innovative companies to do something that had never been done before. 

“Working together, we started to better understand the big data capabilities Geotab has”, explained Chris Haffenreffer, Assistant Vice President of Innovation at Enterprise Holdings. “We realised that if we could combine Geotab’s analytics with Enterprise Fleet Management’s real-world data on a large scale, we could develop a unique perspective on how we expect our fleet to evolve in the coming years”.

The Solution: Conduct a massive Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment

Calling it a large-scale study might actually be underplaying the enormity of what they were able to accomplish. Not only did the study of over 91,000 vehicles allow the team at Enterprise Fleet Management to better understand the market opportunity today, but it also provided valuable insights to further support their customers into the future. 

“This wasn’t just a study on vehicle availability today versus tomorrow”, explains Giesie. “We contributed real-world experience that informed data inputs for depreciation, fuel costs, vehicle costs, after-market costs and more to give us a deeper perspective into our customers’ potential future needs and how we can best support those needs”. 

Using aggregated data from Geotab to show how vehicles were being used by Enterprise Fleet Management clients, the two teams were able to produce a factual and reliable suitability assessment on a scale never attempted before. 

“Having accurate, real-world data from the fleet helps us reduce as many assumptions as we can for our analysis and projections”, explains Hani Hawari, Senior EV Product Manager at Geotab. 

Giesie adds, “The study highlighted the opportunities and needs of our customers for us, so we could keep our strategic planning process on track and continue to be a fleet management leader for those we serve”.

As Enterprise Fleet Management’s fleet is largely made up of medium-duty work vehicles and utilities, they were interested to learn what data the EVSA could provide to help them compare the EV opportunity today, versus what the opportunity would be in the near future with the coming wave of commercial EVs. 

“Doing this type of analysis across the entire fleet was an enormous opportunity for us”, explains Haffenreffer. “We believe that EV pickups (utilities) will play a huge role in the future, but we wanted to use this study to help quantify that opportunity to better understand how EV pickup introductions will impact Enterprise Fleet Management”. 

Utilities will be a game changer

One of the biggest eye openers was data that showed what could be a monumental shift when electric utilities become available in the market. The initial results of the study showed that of the 91,252 vehicles they ran through the study, 13% were good candidates to be electrified today, resulting in a sum of exhaust CO2 reduction of 194,000 tonnes over four years. The cost savings associated with swapping 13% of Enterprise Fleet Management’s fleet equalled US$33 million (AU$45 million).

However, when the study shifted to look at the opportunity once electric utilities become available — the number increased to 45%. This shift would equal 1.3 million tonnes of exhaust-emission reductions across the entire fleet, over a four-year service life. With half the fleet electrified, the cost savings would equal an impressive US$167 million (AU$232 million) or $4,056.20 (AU$5,635.21) per vehicle.

“When we start to see numbers like that, and where that inflexion is, we get a sense of what we need to plan for today versus what to plan for two years from now”, explains Haffenreffer. “It gives us a lot of good data to inform our strategy and ultimately simplify what was a relatively complex situation we are navigating”.

The Results: Providing customers with industry-leading expertise now and into the future

As the team at Enterprise Fleet Management advances their strategic, long-term plans, they will continue to offer industry-leading expertise to their customers. 

“We are absolutely committed to fulfilling our mission to provide our customers with the best possible information to make the best decisions for their businesses”, says Giesie. 

Now armed with the data from this large-scale study, Enterprise Fleet Management has the information they need to stay in front of industry EV trends and understand the landscape. This allows their local teams to make informed recommendations to customers both in the present and the future. This study also gives them a timeline to understand the impact EVs can have on their business, fleet operations and customers.

Driving customer success using real-world data

With some of the most robust tools in the industry for understanding total cost of ownership, like Geotab’s EVSA, Enterprise Fleet Management enables their customers to make informed decisions for their business by understanding what their fleet costs look like today versus what they’ll look like in the near future. “This is critical today with ICE vehicles, and the same will be true for EVs”, says Giesie. He goes on to explain, “Our customers need the right vehicles—and the right number of vehicles—to achieve their business goals”. 

Each year, Enterprise Fleet Management re-evaluates their customers’ fleets in addition to looking at different factors like market and business fluctuations, to determine if adjustments need to be made. 

“The market and macroeconomic factors change. And you’ve got to have an expert like Geotab that can help you with that every year, or you’re going to miss an opportunity”, states Giesie. 

From the Fleet Manager

“As more vehicles become connected, and more reliable information is gathered, this type of study can only get better. We’re not in the business of guessing how things will impact our fleet. We want to use real-world data to help our customers any way we can”. — Dain Giesie, Assistant Vice President, Enterprise Fleet Management

Drive the future of your fleet forward with confidence: Visit www.geotab.com/au/ev.

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See also: Exploring the varied benefits of fleet electrification