Rocky Mountain Institute and The Mobility House Underscore Critical Role Charging Management Plays in Scaling Fleet Electrification

New report and blog series examine value of proactive energy management to solve complexities of electric vehicle integration

A new RMI report, and supporting blog series created in partnership with The Mobility House, defines the challenges, opportunities and requirements of fleet managers to successfully scale electric vehicle fleets and charging infrastructure. Most significantly, the report, Steep Climb Ahead—How Fleet Managers Can Prepare for the Coming Wave of Electrified Vehicles, revealed the organizational complexity of accommodating fleets with multiple chargers and the critical need to effectively manage charging loads. The Mobility House collaborated with RMI to assess the U.S. managed charging market, as reflected in the report, and also provided real-world examples of cost-effective charging and future-proofing electrification plans for the blog series. 

“Electrifying fleets represents the biggest near-term opportunity to drive EV adoption with large buyers and cut transportation emissions,” said Britta Gross, the managing director of RMI’s Carbon Free Mobility program. “And the sheer size of these fleets can be leveraged to remove market barriers and drive down costs that are hampering electrification across all transportation sectors.”

The blog article, Cost-Effectively Transitioning Fleets to EVs without Disrupting Operations, demonstrates how managing charging expenditures is essential for fleet operators to maintain cost-effective operations. The Mobility House, for instance, delivered $40,000 in monthly savings to a public transit fleet operator with over 50 buses by optimizing charging times based on local utility rate structures. Also covered in the post are the advantages of Charging as a Service and Energy as a Service models, which are delivering new opportunities for effective fleet management. 

Nicole Geneau, SVP development at AlphaStruxure, a leading Energy as a Service provider that collaborates with The Mobility House, commented, “Energy as a Service can provide a comprehensive electrification solution that eliminates upfront capital costs, technical complexities, and execution and operational risks associated with migrating fleets from fossil to electric. On-site energy resources can give fleets resilient, sustainable and cost-effective energy solutions they need, with appropriately-sized and expertly-managed charging infrastructure wrapped in, at no upfront cost. This approach ensures fleet owners can manage total cost of ownership, meet service obligations and not worry about matching charging schedules with low time-of-use electricity rates, thus maintaining needed operating flexibility.” 

In the blog article, Fleet Owners: For Big Savings, Plan Now for Electrification, key components of long-term electrification plans are described, such as determining proper vehicle to charger ratios, future-proofing fleet depots and developing a comprehensive energy management strategy. Examples from The Mobility House show how the company effectively reduced the number of needed chargers for a public transit operator from 20 to 14 as well as saved a projected $98,000 for the Stockton Unified School District (SUSD) through effective planning and fleet charging management. 

“Our success in guiding fleet operators through the sophisticated stages of developing the most cost-effective charging infrastructure, while also ensuring future-readiness as fleets scale, has been demonstrated at over 500 commercial sites around the world,” said The Mobility House U.S. Managing Director Gregor Hintler. “The aim in sharing real-world scenarios fleet managers have encountered is so the industry can build upon lessons learned around the importance of proactive planning and ongoing smart charging management.”

The Mobility House’s Charging and Energy Management system ChargePilot allows fleet operators to manage the charging of electric transit, school bus, logistics, delivery and municipal fleet depots of all sizes through a secure local and cloud-based solution that is modular, scalable and hardware-agnostic.

Category: Driver Stuff, Electric Vehicles, Equipment, Featured, Fuel & Oil, General Update, Green, News