Tracking your Electric Vehicles

Business Insights
15/12/2021

With the continuation of EV sales figures rising sharply, the message is clear – it’s now a matter of when, not if, your company will look to electrify their fleet. To make sure you’re receiving the full benefits of going electric, you need to make sure that you can track your performance and make data-driven decisions to optimise.


Fleet operators have access to more data than ever before, be it telematics, diagnostics and software. This enables them to understand and assess current behaviour, performance and costs but the potential is there to identify trends, opportunities, mitigate risk and build resilience into future fleet plans.


The danger is that with all this data out there ready to be captured, it exists and is recorded in multiple places which adds an administrative and operational cost that could easily be eliminated. Additionally, you may only be getting half of the full picture about your fleet. We’ve no doubt you’ve captured vehicle and driver data but what about charge point usage and availability and energy consumption information? This would allow you to be able to optimise and plan your usage based on data, eliminating the need to rely on trial and error.


What data should you be looking to capture?


Driver, telematics and route planning data

This is the data that’ll allow you to understand and improve driver behaviour. Some drivers may need help transitioning to a style that better suits an EV over an ICE. To do this, you’ll need to able to monitor data relating to driver behaviour and it reported on a dashboard by the fleet management software. Telematics are required for this as they’re the mechanism needed to enable data collection from vehicles.


Vehicle type, condition and maintenance data

Live vehicle data will help you monitor the condition and allow you to stay ahead of and plan for any vehicle downtime and maintenance which may need to be scheduled.


Local grid condition data

Can the local power grid accommodate your fleet’s charging needs? If you’re finding that the answer is no, the best step to rectify this would be to look outside your organisation for an external energy partner. The grid condition will also allow you to assess routes and plan for any shortages.


Charge point and charge station data

Any energy provider you choose to go with should be expected to provide you with a way to collect and track data relating to operating charge points, preferably in real-time. You’ll need a strong understanding of the costs involved in installing the charge stations, as well as the daily energy consumption of your fleet. This will again allow you to make future-facing decisions when looking at expanding the size and complexity of your fleet.


When gathered and analysed correctly, either in-house or through your external energy partner, data becomes invaluable insight. This insight allows you to identify patterns and behaviours that ultimately will lead to influential change and optimisation across your fleet’s performance and operating costs.


You can see how vehicle, fleet, and energy management data are brought together in one place in the Drax portal. Just search ‘My Electric Vehicles’ on our website to find out more and to watch a demo to see exactly how easy it is to get powerful data and insights all in one place.


Visit energy.drax.com/