Data plays a central role in enabling fleet electrification by driving smarter, more sustainable decisions. By leveraging data-driven insights, fleet operators can optimize operations, reduce costs, and accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs).
As governments and municipalities prioritize the electrification of public transport fleets, the importance of data in this transition is evident. From the initial decision to go electric to the optimization of fully electric fleet operations, different categories of data play a critical role in each phase.
Tailwinds Driving the Transition to Electric Fleets
The transport sector accounts for around one-fifth of total global COâ‚‚ emissions.
Road transport accounts for three-quarters of all transport emissions.
Electrification of road transport is seen as a key solution to reduce emissions. Governments worldwide are setting ambitious goals to speed up this shift. The EU, for example, aims to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. To achieve this, the EU plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. This goal is broken down into targets for individual countries, cities, and municipalities. In fact, 54 European cities have committed to having zero-emission bus fleets by 2035.
Public transport has been a major contributor to emissions due to its widespread use. This is why it leads to electrification efforts, as shown in the graph below. Focusing on electrifying public transport makes these goals achievable. By focusing on electrification, these environmental goals become more achievable. With strong backing from governments and municipalities, many cities worldwide are prioritizing the shift to electric public transport fleets through investments and policies.
In 2023, batteries surpassed diesel as the most common fuel for buses in the EU, marking a significant milestone for electrification. In Europe, over 63 million fleet vehicles make up more than 20% of all vehicles on the road. Fleets powered by internal combustion engines (ICE) are responsible for around 25% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Transitioning these fleets into zero-emission vehicles will play a key role in achieving national GHG reduction goals. [Source: https://driivz.com/glossary/fleet-electrification/]
Impetus and Hurdles in the Electrification Journey
A major reason city authorities push for electrification is the significant reduction in noise levels within city limits. Additionally, fleet vehicle usage tends to be predictable, and charging locations are often consistent – typically at fleet yards. This predictability makes infrastructure planning easier and more efficient.
The challenge is that fleet EVs need more electricity to charge, and bus fleets, in particular, require more energy for each trip.
As our roads become more electrified, business owners and fleet managers must understand this shift. Electrification is more than just replacing fossil fuels with clean energy through new vehicles and chargers. It’s about rethinking our entire approach to mobility, energy consumption, and environmental impact. At the core of this shift is data – data that informs decisions, optimizes operations, and ultimately, drives meaningful change.
The Electrification Journey: A Data-Driven Approach
The journey of a bus fleet transitioning from fully diesel-powered to fully electric, and continuously optimizing its operations, involves several key phases. At the core of every phase lies data, a deeper understanding of which brings in possibilities not only to add more value to every phase, but also accelerate electrification.
Given that public transport businesses typically operate on low margins, it’s important to utilize the data at hand to minimize costs and optimize performance. Upfront analysis, including understanding when to charge vehicles, can help avoid or reduce the need for costly and time-consuming grid upgrades.
Determining the optimal times and locations for charging is often the biggest challenge for electric fleet operators. Here are the phases involved in a fleet’s electrification journey:
- In the Aware phase, fleet operators gain awareness of rising fuel costs, frequent repairs, unsustainable practices, and even fines for environmental violations in some cases, depending on the regions they operate in. This drives the business decision to move away from diesel.
- In the Assess phase, fleet operators assess electrification investment readiness by understanding purchase costs, potential savings in operating costs and maintenance costs by going electric and government incentives, depending on where they operate.
- In the Pilot phase, fleet operators create a phased electrification plan by identifying routes that are best electrified based on vehicle-specific and trip-specific details. (cost-effective routes are ones that can be optimized with the longer range of electric vehicles, reducing overall mileage)
- In the Measure phase, fleet operators monitor different data points about their fleet, the primary ones being real-time fuel savings and emissions reduction. This helps in discovering new efficiencies in routing, further boosting their bottom line.
- In the Evaluate phase, the monitored and tracked data is weighed against set targets in savings in operating costs and maintenance costs and progress towards carbon footprint targets. This leads to the outcomes of being perceived as a leader in sustainable practices and in upholding high levels of regulatory compliance, leading to an enhanced perception of brand value.
- In the Accelerate phase, the fleet focuses on scaling up adoption in manageable steps. The fleet also continues to optimize operations using tracked data. The focus is on continuous measurement and recalibration leading to cost savings and emissions reduction.
Enabling Services and Solutions
Different services and solutions are required to enable the fleets to become fully electric. Let’s take a look at some of those:
Telematics System provides real-time data on the fleet to analyze current operations, to plan routes that optimize battery use, and to monitor electric bus performance. Some of the data includes vehicle location, fuel/energy consumption, driver behavior, and overall fleet performance.
Fleet Management System helps manage fleet operations, including energy consumption tracking, cost analysis, compliance, maintenance schedules and charging schedules. Some of the data includes maintenance schedules, vehicle tracking, cost analysis, compliance data, charging schedules, battery health monitoring and energy consumption tracking.
Charging Infrastructure Management Tool supports deployment, monitoring, and maintenance of charging stations, for planning and optimizing charging schedules to minimize downtime and costs. Some of the key data includes data on charging times, station availability, and energy consumption.
TCO Calculator offers detailed analysis of costs of owning and operating electric buses compared to diesel ones, considering acquisition, fuel, maintenance costs and incentives. Some of the factors considered are acquisition costs, fuel savings, maintenance costs, and potential incentives, helping operators make informed financial decisions.
Environmental Impact Analysis Tool analyzes environmental impact of electrification, including reductions in emissions and pollutants, useful for meeting regulatory requirements and achieving sustainability goals.
Energy Management System monitors and manages energy consumption of the entire fleet, including energy usage analytics, demand response and renewable energy integration. Energy usage analytics (energy consumption patterns), Demand response (adjusting energy usage based on grid demand to reduce costs), Renewable energy integration (managing use of renewable energy sources for charging) are also taken into account.
The Role of Ecosystem Players
Harnessing the power of data to secure a more sustainable future requires the right tools and solutions in every phase. It’s important to invest in the right resources at the right time during the electrification journey.
Access to vehicle-generated data is essential for continuously improving products and services. OEMs, being closest to the physical vehicles, have several important roles to play in the electrification journey. Some of these include:
- Telematics provider – By equipping electric buses with advanced telematics and IoT systems that collect real-time data on vehicle performance, energy consumption, battery health, remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance services.
- Data access service provider – By offering access to vehicle-generated data, either via a physical connector in the bus or via system-to-system communication.
- Analytics platform provider – By analyzing fleet data and assessing aspects like route efficiency and energy consumption
- Predictive maintenance service provider – By using data analytics to predict and prevent maintenance issues, to reduce downtime and to extend life of the buses.
- Fleet management system provider – In the creation of schedules, production of daily road maps for drivers, route optimization that help fleet operators plan the most efficient routes, thereby minimizing energy consumption and maximizing service reliability.
We cannot belittle the role of third parties. Indeed, they have specialized expertise that helps them address specific challenges in the electrification process. With their razor-sharp focus, they’re able to ease specific pain points in the customer’s electrification journey. These gaps in capabilities are best revealed by operators taking a holistic overview of what’s needed to electrify their fleet and compare it with their in-house capabilities. OEMs and third parties will likely form partnerships to help electrify fleets.
We should always follow governance and compliance rules. After electrifying city public transport, we expect electrification to expand to intercity coaches and other bus fleets.
To Wrap Up
As our roads get more and more electrified, data becomes an indispensable resource fueling this transition. We are still in the early phase of this journey. As we move forward, this transition is likely to unearth previously unthought-of business needs and thereby, previously unthought-of business opportunities. Ecosystem players who understand the true value of data and can enable a smooth transition are well-positioned. Those adept at developing useful data-based services and solutions stand to gain manifold. It is these players who recognize that it is neither diesel nor electricity, but rather data that powers fleets!
About the Author
Charanya Thangaraj is Service Area Manager of Data Access Services at Connected Services in Volvo Buses. She leads efforts to commercialize products built from connected vehicle data. Charanya is a seasoned data professional in fintech and automotive, dedicated to leveraging data for driving business value effectively. Her data leadership in the automotive industry includes leading enterprise-wide data governance efforts in the autonomous driving space. This enhances transparency of electromobility supply chains with blockchain-traced data and creating value-adding data products.
Discover how data drives the future of electrification by tuning into Charanya’s presentation! Her presentation at this year’s Data Innovation Summit is titled Usher in the Electric Era with Data. Don’t miss out on insights that can fuel your data journey!
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Embracing Data Regulations. Charanya explores how industries like FinTech and Automotive approach evolving data regulations. Moreover, she highlights their benefits and how businesses can integrate them into core operations for better interoperability, security, and access.
Building Value-Adding Data Products. Data products create value by aligning with business goals, improving data access, and enhancing utility. Organizations should prioritize facts, analytics, and insights while maintaining a customer focus. They should also measure the impact of their data products and help customers recognize their value to core operations.
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