More than 85 percent of respondents expect to add an EV to their stable in five years, but some say their headquarters and routes are still not suitable for electric transportation
A majority of EV and ICE fleet operators say they prefer EVs, according to a new study.
That preference comes despite the fact that EVs cost more and require more maintenance, Cox Automotive says.
Fleet owners predict that EVs will account for 43 percent of the market in five years, and 87 percent expect to add an EV in the same period.
Households like yours and mine aren’t the only places facing the conundrum of going electric. So are businesses across America, and a new study found that companies with both EVs and ICE vehicles in their fleets prefer zero-emission routes, despite them costing more to buy and requiring more to maintain .
On the face of it, this doesn’t seem to make sense, and fleet operators are swayed by logic and numbers, not emotion. However, they cite the total cost of ownership and capabilities of their electric vans and trucks as reasons to prefer them over the internal combustion vehicles they also have available.
The Cox Automotive survey found that 53 percent of companies help they were likely to buy electric vehicles when they next went on a vehicle shopping spree, up from just 34 percent in the same study in 2022. Respondents predicted that electric vehicles would represent the 43 percent fleet purchase five years from now, while the same question to existing EV owners increased the projected volume to 58 percent.
In addition to the greater availability of electric vehicles in 2024 than in recent years, one of the potential drivers for electric deployment in fleets is a strong awareness of available incentives. A total of 74 percent of those surveyed said they were familiar with the financial aid available.
However, fleet operators still have the same reservations about electric vehicles that we regular retail buyers do. The biggest of these was cost: 32 percent of EVs think EVs are too expensive – though that number has dropped significantly since the 2022 study.
Concerns about driving range, charging options and battery replacement costs also weighed on their minds, and many said their business premises and delivery routes were not set up for EV use. Even those with electric vehicles also said they used them almost exclusively for short trips between cities. A fifth of those considering buying an EV also expressed concern that a battery might not hold a charge, but the fact that only 8 percent of current EV owners have the same concern proves that fear is misplaced.
