The start point for the best source of fleet information |
Public charging employers' biggest EV concern, but most fears reducing, Arval finds
Date: 24 June 2021 | Author: Sean Keywood
A lack of public charging infrastructure is the most commonly-named barrier to fleet EV adoption, according to leasing company Arval.
However, it said that most fears employers had about EV adoption were less prevalent now than they were a year ago.
As part of its Mobility Observatory Barometer research, Arval asked fleets who were not considering EVs what was putting them off, and found 59% named charging infrastructure as a concern.
However, while the second-most-named issue was a higher purchase price than petrol or diesel cars, on 43%, this was down from 65% when the same question was asked last year.
The same was true of limited model availability, named by 39% but down from 64%, and a lack of employee home charging, down from 55% to 37%.
Concerns over reliability were named by 27%, down from 34%, while employees' reluctance to drive EVs was named by 15%.
Discussing the findings, head of Arval's Mobility Observatory in the UK Shaun Sadlier said it was encouraging that so many perceived barriers to fleet electrification were being raised less often than last year.
He said: "Our view of this is that businesses are becoming more and more accustomed to, and enthusiastic about, EV adoption.
"The technology, which was previously new to many of them, now holds fewer fears as they can see more and more of these vehicles being successfully used day-to-day on their own fleets, by other businesses, and by private motorists.
"We fully expect these objections to fall even further or disappear in next year's Arval Mobility Observatory Barometer."
Sadlier suggested employers' continuing worries about public charging could be because this was an area outside their direct control, although he said there were still ways they could work to overcome this.
He said: "Although public charging is seen by businesses as the biggest problem when it comes to EV adoption, to a great extent the charging issue that they face can be solved by those employers themselves. They can choose to invest in office and home charging for example.
"However, difficulties surrounding public charging are very much in the hands of others, but the regular updates on significant investment in the charging infrastructure indicate that this will become less of an issue in the future.
"This issue is especially difficult for the four out of ten motorists who do not have driveways and rely on third parties such as local authorities and commercial charging providers to fit facilities on the streets near their homes.
"While this is not happening as quickly as these fleets would like, the continued investment in new rapid-charging infrastructure will make operating an EV much easier for those who can't charge at home in the future."
