Going electric, one fleet at a time
Fuel-efficient and low-carbon cars hold one key to dramatically reducing our reliance on petroleum, but can we make the transition quickly enough? With plug-in vehicles like the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt just now becoming available to consumers, what’s the best way to speed up adoption of these newer, smaller-footprint models?
Countries like the UK, the US and China have offered incentives like “Cash for Clunkers” to encourage drivers to replace their old gas-guzzlers with more efficient cars. But these have tended to be one-time-only and limited-time offers, and often didn’t apply to the motorists who need greener vehicles the most: people without a lot of money who continue to drive aged, inefficient cars and trucks because they can’t afford to replace them … period.
In recent years, in fact, the average age of cars on US roads has been trending nowhere but up, most recently reaching a high of 10.2 years, according to R.L. Polk & Co. So if individual car-owners are hanging onto their jalopies longer than ever, what’s the answer to getting more hybrids and plug-ins on the road as quickly as possible?
Look to big business fleets to lead the way.
FedEx, for example, began adding hybrid vehicles to its fleet way back in the early Noughties. And earlier this year, it began using its first all-electric parcel delivery trucks in the US.
The US Postal Service also began testing three-wheeled electric delivery vehicles this year, and has more than 43,000 alternate fuel-capable vehicles in its fleet of nearly 220,000.
With petrol prices much higher than they’ve historically been in the US, it makes sense that delivery businesses would today have the largest hybrid-vehicle fleet in the transportation industry. However, the green fleet trend is expanding beyond the obvious realms of postal and package delivery.
Siemens has just begun a pilot project at its locations in Munich and Erlangen in which it plans to build up a fleet of 100 electric vehicles to be tested and used by employees. The 4-S (4-Sustainelectromobility) project is aimed at not only demonstrating the viability of plug-in cars themselves, but at developing new business models that support electromobility as part of the larger smart-grid vision.
In the first stage, which starts this month, employees will test 20 electric vehicles with a focus on infrastructure: where cars can be charged, how far they can travel, and so on. The following stage, set to begin next spring, will extend the research to another 15 plug-in vehicles that will feature a drive system developed by Corporate Technology. That phase will also see Siemens’ Berlin facility setting up an in-house electric car-sharing system.
Siemens is also participating in several other fleet-focused plug-in vehicle pilot projects, including one being run in cooperation with BMW and SWM, a Munich utility company. One focus of that project, which is testing 40 electric MINI E cars, is to test the possibility of fast-charging cars with direct current, which could help significantly extend the practical range of electric vehicles.
Just this week, GE also made a splash in the alternative-fuel fleet scene with the announcement it would buy 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015. The purchase commitment is the largest-yet for an electric car fleet. GE plans to get the programme under way next year with the acquisition of 12,000 GM cars, starting with the Chevy Volt. As plug-in models become available from other companies, they’ll also be added to the fleets of GE and its 65,000 global fleet partners.
“By electrifying our own fleet, we will accelerate the adoption curve, drive scale, and move electric vehicles from anticipation to action,” says Jeff Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO. “Wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles will also drive clean-energy innovation, strengthen energy security and deliver economic value.”
GE’s multiple businesses make a number of technologies that are part of the electric-car infrastructure, including the WattStation charging station.
