Electrifying a fleet changes what you need to measure and what your routing system must know. Most of the existing telematics stack still applies; the additions are specific and consequential.
New data points
| Data | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| State of charge (SoC) | The equivalent of fuel level, but far more operationally binding |
| Battery state of health (SoH) | Degradation affects usable range and residual value |
| Energy consumption (kWh/mile or km) | The cost-per-distance basis |
| Regenerative braking recovery | Efficiency and driver coaching |
| Charging sessions | Where, when, how long, how much, at what cost |
| Charging power and rate | Diagnosing slow charges and depot bottlenecks |
| Cabin preconditioning | Energy used before departure, which is worth doing on grid power |
| Battery temperature | Affects charge rate and available power |
State of health matters more than fleets expect. A vehicle at 88% of original capacity has a materially different operational range from a new one, and route planning that treats all vehicles as identical will fail on the oldest ones first.
Range planning is a routing constraint
Diesel routing rarely models fuel because range exceeds any daily route. Electric routing must model energy, because it does not.
Requirements for a routing engine handling EVs:
- Vehicle-specific energy model rather than a single fleet figure
- Payload effect — energy consumption rises with load, and it matters
- Terrain — elevation change has a large effect, partly recovered through regeneration
- Temperature — cold weather can reduce usable range substantially, and cabin heating is a significant draw
- Charging stops as routable events with duration dependent on charge rate and current SoC
- Reserve buffer — a minimum arrival SoC, because a plan that arrives at 2% is not a plan
- Depot charging capacity as a constraint on overnight turnaround
Charging management
Depot charging is a scheduling problem in its own right:
- Connector-to-vehicle allocation — more vehicles than chargers is the normal situation.
- Load management — drawing full power on every charger simultaneously often exceeds the site's electrical capacity. Smart charging staggers and throttles.
- Tariff optimisation — charging during cheap periods, which can halve energy cost.
- Departure-time-aware charging — prioritising vehicles that leave first.
- Vehicle-to-grid and demand response, where the commercial arrangement supports it.
Public charging adds cost variability, availability risk and a reconciliation task. Payment cards, roaming networks and per-session fees produce a cost picture that is much harder to reconcile than fuel cards. Ask how your telematics or fleet platform consolidates charging costs across networks.
Cost per mile changes shape
Electric vehicles shift cost from variable to fixed:
| Cost | Diesel | Electric |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | Higher, volatile | Lower, tariff-dependent |
| Maintenance | Higher — engine, exhaust, more consumables | Lower — fewer moving parts |
| Brakes | Normal wear | Extended by regeneration |
| Tyres | Normal | Faster wear from weight and torque |
| Purchase | Lower | Higher, though narrowing |
| Residual | Established market | Less predictable, SoH-dependent |
| Infrastructure | None | Chargers, electrical works, possible grid upgrade |
Total cost of ownership comparisons must include infrastructure and the cost of any operational changes — extra vehicles to cover charging downtime, for example. See total cost of ownership.
Driver behaviour matters differently
Efficient EV driving is not identical to efficient diesel driving. Smooth anticipation to maximise regeneration matters more; coasting behaviour differs; heavy acceleration is more costly in energy terms than drivers expect from the effortless torque.
Behaviour programmes should retune their coaching content when a fleet electrifies, and consumption benchmarks must be rebuilt — old diesel-era efficiency targets are meaningless.
Telematics compatibility
Not all telematics devices read EV-specific parameters, and support varies by manufacturer and model. Before committing:
- Ask which EV parameters are available for your specific models
- Confirm state of charge and charging session data are included, not just position
- Check whether charging session data can be reconciled with energy billing
- Confirm the platform can report energy cost per mile alongside diesel vehicles for mixed fleets
Mixed fleets are the normal state for years during transition, and reporting that cannot compare them consistently makes the transition harder to manage.
Questions readers send us
How much range should we plan as a buffer? Plan against a realistic worst case — cold weather, full payload, degraded battery — with a meaningful arrival reserve. Fleets commonly plan routes well below nominal range in the first year and tighten as their own data accumulates.
Can existing routing software handle electric vehicles? Increasingly yes, but the depth varies. Ask specifically about vehicle-specific energy models, temperature and payload effects, and charging stops as routable events. Products that only apply a flat range limit will produce plans that fail in winter.
Is charging cheaper than diesel? Depot charging on a commercial tariff, especially off-peak, is usually substantially cheaper per mile. Public rapid charging can be considerably more expensive and occasionally comparable to diesel. The blend of the two determines your actual energy cost, and it is worth measuring rather than assuming.
How do we handle vehicles that cannot complete a route? Options are route redesign around shorter duties, opportunity charging during the day, assigning electric vehicles to the shortest routes first, or retaining diesel for the longest duties. Most fleets electrify by duty cycle rather than by vehicle age.
What happens to battery health over time? Capacity declines gradually, with the rate depending on charging patterns, rapid charge frequency, temperature and depth of discharge. Monitor state of health across the fleet, plan for reduced range on older vehicles, and factor it into replacement decisions.
