Steve Nuttall, a director at research group Fifth Quadrant, in late November 2023 presented findings from a survey of fleet managers about electric vehicle adoption in a webinar hosted by the Australasian Fleet Management Association.
The data shows the growth in EVs in fleets, particularly in government bodies where the percentage of respondents reporting electric vehicles in their fleet has risen to 80 percent in 2023, from 15 percent in 2020, when Fifth Quadrant (formerly ACA Research) conducted a similar survey.
“It’s a strong data set, telling us a really kind of important story about maturity, EV adoption, and infrastructure investment,” said Dr Nuttall in his opening remarks.
The 2023 survey had some 167 fleets as respondents, covering 86,540 vehicles. About one-third of the respondents were government. About half of the respondents were from organisations with less than 100 vehicles. Some 35 of them had fleets of more than 500 vehicles.
The 2023 survey was sponsored by the NSW Government’s Office of Energy and Climate Change, Ampol’s AMPCharge unit. Summit Fleet Leasing and Evenergi got their clients to participate.
Electric vehicle adoption also appeared in more fleets among those identifying as “services”, rising to 74 percent in 2023 compared with 50 percent in 2020.
The biggest driver of the uptake was reported to be the desire by top management and boards to address environmental sustainability and corporate responsibility.
The overarching objective of the research was to understand the current fleet EV landscape in Australia and to identify potential opportunities to simplify the integration of EVs into fleets.
The survey measured buying expectations with intent to purchase electric vehicles trebling in 2023, compared with the 2020 outlook for two-to-five years ahead.
“We see it ramping up,” said Nuttall, adding, “That aligns with expected delivery of a wider range of EVs in that future outlook.”
To be sure, the limited range of EVs available to purchase in Australia — particularly commercial utility style vehicles — was cited as a major constraint on adoption among respondents.
The survey confirmed fleets would like to see policy setting changes to pave the way for increased EV makes and models, such as removing the luxury vehicle tax on EVs, and introducing fuel efficiency standards to bring Australia more into line with competing jurisdictions such as those of Europe.
Another great takeaway from the report is that about half of the current traditional fleet vehicles are being garaged at homes, which portends a big opportunity for at home charging of EV fleet vehicles in the future.
To download a copy of the report titled: 2023 Electric Vehicles in Business Fleets Report go to the link here.
