A new AI tool designed to support fleet electrification has been launched by fleet management software firm Teletrac Navman.
The tool can advise fleet operators on how many and what type of chargers are required, as well as the cost of the chargers and where they would be lest located.
Other services include providing information on the feasibility of switching to electric vehicles (EVs) as well as calculating the total cost of ownership of an EV when taking into consideration purchase price, residual value, electricity costs, taxes, insurance and maintenance. It can also calculate the fuel savings a business would make and the total CO2 savings.
To do this, it uses AI alongside historical telematics data, analysing a range of variables including average number of trips overall and per vehicle, distance, regularity, usage times and patterns and time spent moving compared to idle.
Barney Goffer, UK product manager at Teletrac Navman, said: “We all know a major EV transition is coming soon but it’s still an unknown space for a lot of operators. However, in the long-term it’s best practice to start considering which vehicles are already viable for that switch and where financially feasible, begin the changeover.”
Last week, SSE called for mandatory switching of fleets to electric by 2030 in a letter to the Department for Transport (DfT), having already committed to electrifying its own fleet.
A number of solutions are also becoming available to support fleet operators in this change. In September, NewMotion signed a deal with fleet management specialist Fleet Operations to provide EV charging solutions, and in May Octopus Energy launched a payment interoperability service targeted at fleets in a bid to simplify the process.
