Give us some background about Michelin Connected Fleet?
Michelin Connected Fleet, launched in the UK last year, is a new brand bringing together all the fleet management services and solutions of the Michelin Group under one banner. As a business we bring significant expertise to the market, processing data from approximately 300 million journeys per year. We comprise Masternaut in Europe, NexTraq in North America and Sascar in South America – meaning that we are collectively responsible for 600,000 vehicles operated by 70,000 customers, spanning 48 countries.
Michelin Connected Fleet has found that electric vehicles are being worked less than their diesel and petrol equivalents in fleets. Can you tell us more?
Our data science team carried out detailed analysis of more than 85,000 vehicle records to reveal that petrol and diesel-powered light commercial vehicles are being worked more than twice as hard as electric vans within the same customer fleets – despite the average daily mileage being well within the range of an electric LCV.
To put this into perspective, the average internal combustion engine van travels 63 miles per day, compared with just 28 miles for an electric LCV.
We also found that 59 per cent of electric vehicles are being plugged in when the state of charge is greater than 50 per cent – which negatively impacts driver productivity, particularly given half of charging events occur during the daytime.
This overcharging is also putting lithium-ion batteries through unnecessary charging cycles, which could cause them to deteriorate faster, negatively impacting range and residuals. Range anxiety is clearly impacting the fleet market’s confidence in electric vans, resulting in EVs being overcharged and under-worked.
In most applications, the EVs you buy today have the range to do the job of a petrol or diesel-powered van in and around cities, but they’re being deployed on the lightest duty work – whilst ICE assets are being worked harder, which is less efficient and increases emissions.
What did the survey find regarding charging habits?
Our analysis revealed that van drivers charged batteries to 90 per cent or more in 76 per cent of the charging events studied – in comparison with car drivers who hit 90 per cent or more in only 58 per cent of instances.
We know lithium-ion batteries perform best when the state of charge is maintained between 20 to 80 per cent, and the general advice is to only charge the battery fully if you need that additional range for a particularly long journey.
What we’re seeing points to more guidance being needed for fleets to ensure they are maximising the benefits which transitioning to EVs offer, and not storing up issues which could impact performance and residuals down the line.
Describe Michelin Connected Fleet’s MoveElectric service?
Here at Michelin Connected Fleet we offer a dedicated EV fleet management service called MoveElectric, designed to help businesses of all sizes to effectively transition to EVs and manage EVs in the fleet efficiently, which ultimately can lead to equal or better total cost of ownership than diesel or petrol vehicles.
MoveElectric brings easy-to-use tools to help fleets plan, grow and master all aspects of EV fleet management, from removing range anxiety to optimising charging behaviour. It forms part of a comprehensive fleet management solution to help connect vehicles, optimise performance, and gain greater visibility across an entire fleet that is based on informed data-driven choices.
Alberto De Monte, Business Segment Director for EV and OEM at MICHELIN Connected Fleet.
