The Time is Now

Good morning everyone and welcome. Welcome to the 3 rd annual Wheels Virtual EV Summit! I am grateful for the opportunity to kick off today’s sessions and talk about EVs. We want you to learn from our speakers AND enjoy yourselves as well as we continue the electrification journey together. If you have been to any fleet conference or summit over the past five years, you may have heard a little bit about electric vehicles! In fact, most of the content has been about the electrification of the fleet industry – the vehicles, the batteries, the infrastructure, the software, the energy requirements, the total cost of ownership and the transition from our mature and familiar world of using internal combustion engines for fleet applications. In fact, there are now hundreds of EV conferences and summits – you could attend one every week so, again, we are glad you are here.

The market for EV’s and EV charging solutions is nascent but with huge potential and it is attracting multiple new entrants ranging from startups with ten employees to fortune 100 global corporations. As a fleet professional, it can be daunting and feel risky and that is why we hold this Summit. We want you to know we are here to help you understand the benefits and challenges around electrification and help you make the right decisions for you and your businesses.

So, we’ve all been talking about EV’s, but we have not seen the fleet market for EV’s explode yet. The overall market now has a penetration of EV sales around 7% which has grown from 3.2% in 2021. However, the activity for most fleets (outside of large last mile delivery companies) is limited to smaller pilots due vehicle availability, infrastructure, operational and cost questions.

When is the fleet EV revolution going to happen?

Well, I think the time is now and let me tell you why:

The global automotive manufacturers have invested billions in the development of electric vehicles, and they are all in – they are not going to stop. Yes, they will continue to make internal combustion vehicles alongside EV’s for the foreseeable future, but the EV product offering is expanding exponentially and there are many more suitable choices for fleet vehicles at lower price points and this trend will only continue with vehicles such as the Equinox, Silverado, F150 Lightning and Ram Promaster to name but a few.

Government funding – tax incentives for individuals buying EV’s have been available for a long time, and they have worked. The government also recognized the importance of the supporting infrastructure required. The bipartisan infrastructure law has introduced the national electric vehicle infrastructure program, NEVI as it is known, for sites near our major corridors and the charging and fueling infrastructure, or CFI program, is focused on the community charging. The funding for these programs is huge (billions) and will accelerate EV adoption. Next year is an election year so things could change but I refer back to my first point – the OEM’s are all in so while federal investment may slow or speed up with an administration change, but the overall direction is not going to change.

Following on from my previous point, infrastructure for EV charging is not there yet. Social media is littered with stories about poor experience with public charging and fleets are still in the process of building out their depots and installing chargers in peoples’ homes. However, it is improving and there is significant investment in this space. Major OEMs have announced their own planned fast charging networks and some have even created joint ventures on top of their own efforts in a bid to increase the network of reliable fast charging across North America. We are also seeing companies entering the market to create charging hubs purely for fleets. It’s happening…and it is happening now.

And finally, the Utility companies are also in the mix, most of them have multiple programs for consumers and programs designed specifically to encourage fleets to invest in charging and infrastructure. Adding extra power to a site is complicated and has a long lead time with respect to switchgear, transformers etc. as well as getting in line behind other local fleets who acted early. The subsidies may not last so it’s time to talk to your local utility if you have not already. So….as fleet professionals the time to act is now, but you also need help and advice. Wheels already has 58,000 EVs in our customer fleets and we are seeing the numbers grow. We have X number of fleets installing chargers in people’s homes and reimbursing electricity and I think this is going to be a key growth area – not just for sales vehicles but also for personally assigned service vehicles such as pick up trucks and smaller cargo vans.

Wheels has the experience, expertise and partnerships to help you and I hope you will see that today.

We need to take action together to create the infrastructure and plan for the future.

And the time is now…..