Are Irish businesses ready for fleet electrification?

When it comes to the question of commercial EV fleet management in Ireland and the UK, how ready businesses are comes down to how equipped they are to maintain them. For example, a fleet manager may have relied on a particular workshop for years. Now, they’re suddenly faced with the problem of their established service partner not being set up to service their new electric vehicles. The idea of having to move over some (or all) of your fleet to a new service partner may seem overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be, however, as this article will explore.

How Irish businesses can transition to electric fleets

Transitioning your fleet to electric, whether partially or completely, does not need to be a big challenge. The key is to have an effective maintenance system in place. ForWare has already done the work towards establishing a consolidated system that can deal with multiple garages, warranties, and billing setups. All your business needs to do is plug into it. With the right system, your business will have no more difficulty in transitioning to an electric fleet than it would managing an ICE fleet.

Human factors come into play too, of course. Commercial EV fleet managers should ensure that their drivers are familiar with their EVs’ range, and encourage them to plan routes based around this and available charging points.

Fleet managers should study their EVs’ warranties.

Fleet managers should also familiarise themselves with their EVs’ warranties. Ensure that your EVs attend VHCs and services just as you would with petrol or diesel vehicles. Heed should be paid to battery warranties too, as they may differ from that of the vehicle itself.

Fleet electrification challenges in Ireland

Integrating EVs into your existing fleet maintenance system can pose a challenge, especially if you’re relying on old, manual systems, spread across different platforms. The challenge is compounded if you need to find new or additional service partners to handle your electric vehicles.

However, ForWare has been developed with this in mind, making it easier for businesses to maintain their fleets across multiple garage networks. You can simply use the ForWare Workshop Network to find a suitable workshop and book your vehicles in using our system. Even if you end up using a range of different garages, the system consolidates the different bills into one per month.

In fact, it makes it as easy to deal with ten garages as it does with one.

Put simply, once you have a good automotive fleet management system in place, changing over to EV operation need not be a hard learning curve. ForWare provides all-in fleet management software so that managing any fleet is efficient and hassle-free, be it fully electric, mixed, or fully ICE. It’s also completely compatible with DMS systems such as KeyLoop and AutoView.

For a free demo, call Alan on 021 484 5550 or email alan@forware.io.

FAQ

What is fleet electrification?

Fleet electrification refers to the transition of a fleet from ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles to electric vehicles.

Are EV fleets cheaper or more expensive to maintain?

While this will vary from fleet to fleet, as a general rule, EVs are cheaper to maintain in the long run. They have fewer moving parts than petrol- or diesel-powered vehicles, which means lower maintenance costs and fewer consumables.

Do EVs with regenerative braking save money?

Again, this will vary from vehicle to vehicle, but in essence, yes. Vehicles with regenerative braking tend to suffer less wear and tear, not only on the brakes themselves, but also on tyres. This should help keep fleet maintenance costs down in the long run.

Is it difficult to find an EV service partner?

No. More and more workshops are becoming equipped to handle EV servicing and repair. Most dealers who sell EVs will also be capable of servicing them. And if your existing service partner can’t yet facilitate EVs, you can use the ForWare Workshop Network to find an alternative workshop for your EVs.

How long do EVs take to charge?

This will vary, depending on the charger type. One of the more common types found in public areas is known as Level 2 Chargers. These can add roughly 15-30 miles per charging hour. There are also DC Fast Chargers, which can take about half an hour to charge an EV. These are more common in motorway service areas.