ESG Metric: GHG Scope 2 emissions
Ease of implementation: Medium
Suitable for: Any company with electric fleet
Suggested functional lead: Facility manager and logistic department
Summary
Lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) can degrade over time, resulting in a shorter distance travelled on a single charge. However, with careful maintenance of the EV-fleet batteries, you can ensure high battery quality and long lifetimes. To do so, set new regulations to ensure the electric fleets’ batteries are depleted no further than 20% and only charged to 80%. This may also require adaptation of existing travel routes to incorporate more charging stations and stops along the way. We suggest setting up training for your fleet drivers and other staff members on the importance of battery life. Additionally, you may want to assign responsibility to a member of staff for tracking battery life and ensuring the optimum emissions reduction is reached. In the long run, this will reduce the charging required and likelihood of battery replacement, decreasing the overall emissions from your electric fleet.
Background Information
According to Geotab, the optimum battery state of charge is between 20% and 80%, especially if the EV is left for a long period of time. They suggest a full charge should only occur when a long-distance trip needs to take place. Enel X, a charging infrastructure provider and grid management service, state that lithium-ion batteries will have a longer lifetime when not charged to the full 100% or drained to fully depleted. EV manufacturers are aware of this and actually set the battery to only charge to 90% when it displays fully charged on the vehicle, which cannot be changed by the driver. Nevertheless, it is still advised to charge to a maximum of 80% for the most sustainable charging and battery health. Additionally, it is often quicker to plan shorter stops for charging than fully charging the vehicle.
Implementation Steps
Set new regulations
Set up new charging regulations for the electric fleet drivers. It outlines that the drivers should charge only when the battery has drained to around 20% and not above or below. It also specifies that charging should stop when it’s at 80% state of charge. You may also want to consider limiting the amount of rapid charging as they also reduce battery life. Rapid charging is an ability some EVs have where it can charge to full capacity within 30-60 minutes, however this decreases the battery lifespan drastically. Similarly, reduce driving in extreme heat where possible as it depletes the battery faster, increasing the need for charging.
Adapt travel routes to pass more charging stations
Work with the logistics department (or whomever is in charge of route planning), to ensure routes are mapped out to include more charging stations. Plan for more stops along the way and potentially longer travel times. Take this into account when adapting the travel routes for your drivers.
Train staff on charging habits
Give the training linked here to the electric fleet drivers to ensure they are aware of the reasoning behind the new regulations and how to ensure efficient travel as a result. Send out this pdf on EV Chargin Best Practices by the Energy Saving Trust.
Monitor battery health
Assign responsibility to a team or member of staff to monitor the battery health of your fleet. Monitoring can be done by recording battery levels at the end of the week or ensuring drivers keep a log of battery % when charging and to what % they charged to. Ensure the battery health is assessed annually by a professional during a MOT as well. This is to ensure the new regulations are being followed and to see where improvements can be made.