Features
9 Sep 20

On World EV Day, what are you doing to go electric?

Electrification
Connectivity

Today is the very first World EV Day, celebrating electric mobility across the globe. World EV Day is also a movement, promoting the transition to e-mobility. What are you doing to go electric – and why should you? 

World EV Day is an initiative by dozens of companies with a stake in the electrification of our mobility, including OEMs like Jaguar Land Rover, Polestar, and Nissan, lease companies like ALD Automotive and LeasePlan, and EV infrastructure specialists like Ionity. The aim: to help more of us make the switch – on the World EV Day website, you can sign a pledge to “make your next car electric”. 

Remarkable increase

Do we need a day dedicated to going electric? Yes, everybody’s talking about EVs. But no, we’re not all driving one yet. A recent report by ACEA, the association of European car manufacturers, indicates a remarkable increase in the share of EVs across Europe. In the second quarter of 2020, EVs made up 7.2% of total EU car sales, up from just 2.4% in Q2 2019. 

Yet taking into account that rapid rise, it should be noted that 

  • The rise was most pronounced for plug-in hybrids or PHEVs (+133.9%, to just over 66,000 units), less so for ‘pure’ electrics, or BEVs (+12.7%, to just over 62,000 units); and that
  • Despite losses in absolute and relative numbers, petrol (51.9%) and diesel (29.4%) cars together still make up more than 80% of the EU market. 

So yes, perhaps we do need a World EV Day. Because electric cars hold the promise not only of a cleaner environment, but also of cheaper mobility. The TCO gap with fossil-fuel vehicles is getting smaller every day, and many European countries are helping to bridge it by providing incentives – check out this map to see what’s on offer in your country (overview includes EU and UK only).

Right-sizing your EV fleet

So, how do you go about turning your fleet electric? Or, to rephrase that question more appropriately: How do you right-size the electric share of your overall fleet and make a transition to e-mobility that is not just good for your corporate image, but also great from a purely cost perspective. As the topic of Electrification is close at heart of the Fleet Europe team, your media Fleet Europe will focus on the supertheme of Electric & Connected for one month, from 15 September until 16 October. So, keep an eye on these pages to read much more about the way to electrify and connect your fleet. 

Perhaps World EV Day is the day you start thinking about the advantages of emobility for your fleet. Perhaps not. But let us plant a few seeds in your mind, perhaps they’ll help you electrify your fleet, if not sooner then later:

  • Start with top executives. It helps to get the top brass on board. And how better to do that than to get your company’s top executives to experience the joys and advantages of electric mobility first-hand
  • Make the business case. In a lot of use cases, EVs already have a significantly better TCO than fossil-fuel cars. Identify those cases – and the incentives that will help you overcome the higher upfront cost of EVs.
  • Educate EV drivers. Driving an EV is not enough. Learning to drive one is crucial – especially when it comes to battery management, there’s a lot you can do to optimise its condition and useful life. 
  • Think ahead. If you’re relocating or remodeling your work surroundings, take into account that 10 years from now, your EV fleet will be much larger than it is today. Even if you don’t install chargers now, prepare for the time when you will.


Image: Shutterstock

Authored by: Frank Jacobs
Global