5 Tips to Optimize Your EV Fleet Management
At Standard Fleet, we understand that your electric vehicles are the most crucial aspect of your business. Therefore, it’s important to maintain the longevity of your vehicles by reducing wear and tear. This will not only allow your EVs to last longer, but will also help optimize the EV fleet management experience for all parties involved. Here are some tips we recommend to get the most out of your EV fleet:
Implement Performance Restrictions
If you’re working with a higher-risk rental, utilizing performance restrictions can be helpful. Electric vehicles deliver instant torque, even on lower-end vehicles. This means that an EV has as much torque at a standstill as it does at high speed because the power is immediately ready when you step on the pedal. This immediate torque can lead to significantly increased tire wear and other deterioration. With performance restrictions, you can limit the amount of wear and tear your EV experiences during each ride.
Set Up Geofence Alerts
When managing an EV fleet, your electric vehicles are the most valuable assets to your business. Therefore, it’s important to monitor where they are being driven, especially if you’re renting the vehicles out to other drivers. EVs can often be difficult to retrieve, should a renter of the vehicle take it outside state lines without the owner realizing. Being able to set up geofence boundaries and be notified when the car is leaving a certain area is a great and immediate indicator to fleet operators that your car may be in danger, and to take necessary actions to ensure the safety of the vehicle.
Set Up Battery Level Alerts For EV Fleet Charging
Just like any piece of battery-powered technology, it is important to monitor the battery health of your electric vehicle. Allowing your EV’s battery to drain all the way to zero percent is potentially damaging to the battery long-term. Because EV batteries are an incredibly important asset and can be expensive to replace, having battery alerts set up is crucial to conserving the battery’s lifespan. On the other hand, some EV batteries can also be damaged if they are charged completely to 100% on a regular basis, and you’d want to be alerted to this as well.
We recommend identifying the optimal percentage range for your EV’s battery. For example, setting reminders for when your battery drops below 20% allows yourself or a renter to know when to charge the vehicle. You can also set up an alert to notify you when the battery has reached the recommended charging limit so that you don’t overcharge your EV. Because some electric vehicles have different battery technologies, this percentage range may vary for each EV used in your fleet.
Charge to the Recommended Levels
A great way to identify the percentage range that your battery should be charging to is to look at your EV’s battery chemistry. Tesla, for example, currently uses a battery chemistry called LFP for some of their models and recommends charging an LFP pack to 100% once a week, or as often as possible. This is in complete opposition to more traditional EV battery packs, which are typically recommended to be limited to an 80% charge. We expect to see the diversity in battery chemistry grow as battery technology continues to develop, and different batteries are used for different purposes. This variation in the EV market will be impacted by price point, practicality, and use case which can make it difficult to keep track of how to best charge your vehicle, especially in a fleet setting. Monitoring and tracking battery health in addition to following best practices for different battery chemistries is essential in protecting your vehicles.
Utilize the Standard Fleet “Fully Charged Range” Stat
Although much less monitoring is required of an EV than a gas-powered car, it is still important to be aware of how your vehicle is performing over time. This statistic tracking from Standard Fleet allows you to monitor your EV’s battery in order to track degradation over time. Naturally, batteries will degrade over time, but bad practices can lead to battery degradation being dramatically accelerated. Keeping an eye on the fully charged range of your battery can ensure a longer-lasting asset and help the operator better monitor and maintain confidence that the best practices are being taken to maintain the health of the battery.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Standard Fleet can help optimize your EV fleet management process, check out this previous blog, or send a message through our website!
