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Tools that help fleet managers and drivers evaluate how suitable electric vehicles (EVs) are for their specific needs could become central to wider adoption, according to fleet software firm Fleetcheck.
However, managing director Peter Golding thinks that while some such products are already available, they need to become much more thorough and accurate.
He said this would help with the complex assessments involved in deciding if a company car driver can run an EV, such as their access to charging, and how their commute and daily work journeys match up with the available range.
Golding said: "This is not necessarily the easiest task and getting these kinds of calculations wrong could potentially have not just a negative impact on individual cars and drivers but on wider corporate perception of EVs.
"As fleets start to adopt these cars, their acceptance is very much going to be based on how they are rated by the earlier adopters in each company.
"If you have a handful of drivers who end up spending a lot of time in motorway service stations because their car doesn't have the range they need, it is likely to affect EV adoption right across your organisation."
Golding said that while currently available products were a step in the right direction, more sophisticated ones were sorely needed.
He said: "We hope to soon see assessment products that, for example, will incorporate telematics data from individual driver journey patterns over time that can tell them whether a specific EV with a certain range is likely to meet their requirements.
"It might even do this using information about the geographical distribution of specific charging points.
"Our view of the EV situation is that it is all about making adoption as easy as possible, so technology of this kind should be a definite priority. Really, all a driver or a fleet manager wants is a yes or no answer to the question of whether a specific EV will work for them."
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