Insights / The importance of data to your electrification investment

The importance of data to your electrification investment

Generating the right data and understanding its impact is crucial to setting up and managing your electrification investment effectively. If you’re transitioning a vehicle fleet, you’ll need data relating to operational requirements.

But whether you’re installing charging facilities for fleet drivers, customers, visitors or staff, you’ll need to gather additional data, too. This includes information originating from telematics devices in vehicles, from existing chargers and supporting back-office software – and from distribution network operators (DNOs).

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Data sources

Let’s look at the various sources of data and how they can help you.

Existing operations

To plan the electrification of your fleet and the supporting charging infrastructure, you’ll need to have a clear picture of operational requirements.

Data relating to payload’s crucial as it’ll influence your choice of EV, based on its capacity. But payload data will also affect decisions you make about chargers. High payloads affect EVs’ range, so this may influence decision-making regarding the locations and specifications of chargers you install.

You’ll also need data relating to vehicle mileage and routes. It’s easiest to use telematics devices to generate this data.

Telematics devices

Vehicles can carry onboard devices that send information about their whereabouts, conditions and behaviours. These devices can communicate with electrification management tools like portals so that the data’s easy to view, understand and interpret.

Helping plan your electrification investment

Before you decide which electric vehicles (EVs) to buy or hire, which charge stations to install or how you’re going to go about transitioning your vehicle fleets, gather the data.

Carrying out assessments is key to understanding the practicalities of electrification and planning your speed of change. And – particularly if you’re aiming to electrify vehicle fleets – there’s no better tool to help with planning than a telematics device.

Installing devices in your existing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles can provide all manner of useful data that helps you avoid making expensive electrification mistakes.

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Telematics in action

Fleet management organisation Webfleet used the recent EV Rally to simulate the requirements of one of its clients. It matched existing payloads, chose an EV model likely to replace the existing ICE vehicle, and collected telematics data to assess the practicality of electrification. The organisation was able to use the results as real-life evidence – to back up assumptions and desktop research – to prove the case for making the switch. The vehicle travelled 1,500 miles so had to stop to charge numerous times during the rally. Details of range and of dwell times and locations gave the client visibility of the EV’s capabilities. They also showed the impact – both for the organisation and for the driver – of transitioning that vehicle.

Helping optimise your fleet’s performance

When you’ve converted fleet vehicles from ICE to EV, you’ll be able to use telematics data to boost efficiencies, save money and prove the environmental impact of your investment.

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Charge points

Chargers and their supporting software can provide charge point operators (CPOs) with valuable data too.

For fleet managers and drivers, understanding live charger status – whether available, in use or not working, for example – is crucial for routing EVs to optimise operational efficiencies. It’s also important for fleet and facilities managers to recognise when chargers need repair or a firmware update. Data communicating this information enables CPOs to schedule works to minimise downtime and disruption.

For destination managers, the most important data charge points provide will relate to revenue. They support payment platforms (such as Payter, for example), to process driver payments and direct them to owners.

Understanding charger use through historical charging session data means CPOs can see number of total charging sessions, average session duration and more detailed charger performance metrics. This information’s vital when organisations need to plan charging infrastructure expansion to support increasing numbers of EVs – within their fleets or among their customers, staff or visitors. Historical data can also enable CPOs to calculate the potential environmental impact of their charging investment based on comparisons with equivalent ICE-vehicle fuelling.

Distribution Network Operators

When determining what charging approach suits an organisation’s needs best, it’s vital to understand the limitations of each site’s electrical capacity. Engaging an energy expert like Drax can help you recognise your capacity and your consumption, plan energy savings or capacity expansion and manage DNO communications.

DNOs can advise the power available for charging installations. They can also provide an idea of the practicality and associated cost of increasing electrical capacity.

Analysing this data alongside energy requirements and simulated consumption patterns will inform your infrastructure decisions. It may be that – while installing dozens of chargers immediately isn’t financially viable – expanding electrical capacity now saves cost and disruption in the future.

Data interpretation and visualisation

Data’s only of use if you can analyse it and understand its significance easily.

Systems and platforms that present data in a simple-to-consume manner – and ideally visualise it impactfully – are invaluable. They enable fleet and facilities managers to not just understand the data, but to share and explain it more widely – with drivers and senior managers, for example.

Electrification management portals can provide topline visibility of key challenges for easy interpretation and quick response. They can also process detailed data to create insightful reports.

For fleet managers, the most useful portals will collate and present information from vehicle from telematics devices and data from chargers via connected software. In that way, they’ll be able to coordinate fleet activities effectively on a day-to-day basis – and make longer-term decisions based on historical patterns.

It’s even possible for portals to incorporate non-EV energy consumption data, so users can see their charging infrastructure’s impact in the context of overall energy use. Load balancing solutions can flex the amount of energy available to different parts of a business – like offices and charging facilities, for example. This can help optimise consumption, minimise costs and protect assets.

Finally, portals can act as communication tools for fleet managers, facilities managers, energy managers and drivers. The ability to upload real-time data through messages enables organisations to manage issues and optimise efficiencies.

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