How do you know if an electric vehicle will work for you?

By Eric Mallia, Business Manager at FleetCarma
This year, vehicle manufacturers are introducing a wide range of electric vehicles (EVs) to Canada.  Some EVs have large batteries to take you so far – and others have ‘back up’ gasoline engines to take you even farther.  The challenge with choosing which vehicle will work best for you is that their efficiency, driving range, and total cost of ownership are highly dependent on how and where the vehicle is being used.
My colleagues and I work closely with fleet operators in Canada and the U.S. to determine when an EV would meet their driving needs and also be cost-effective in the long-term.

An electric vehicle being charged. Photo credit: FleetCarma

We recently hosted a webinar about the real-world performance of electric vehicles in various applications.  The most important conclusion from the data we gathered was that actual mileage and driving range varies a lot depending on how the vehicle is driven.  For example, we found that a specific electric vehicle was able to go 160 kilometres one day but then went less than 50 kilometres another – both days with a full battery.  This is a huge variance that fleet operators and individuals need to understand when considering EVs.
Electric vehicles are far more sensitive to the way they are driven than their gasoline counterparts, so drivers often have the ability to maximize the potential of these vehicles.  For example, drivers that anticipate a stop and smoothly decelerate will maximize regenerative braking offered by these vehicles.  Similarly, individuals that have steadier acceleration will also see higher efficiency throughout their usage pattern. As a general rule, safe driving (avoiding aggressive behaviours) will also mean efficient driving.
Lots of folks ask if cold weather has an impact on how far they can go.  The answer is yes – with a caveat.  Cold weather will impact a vehicle’s efficiency, whether that vehicle is powered by electricity or gasoline.  Powertrain components just don’t work as well when they are not toasty warm.  Drivers of EVs have the ability to mitigate this impact by programming the vehicle to warm-up its systems automatically before driving on colder days.
Using the heater in the winter can also have a big impact on an EV’s range. We have seen that drivers that prefer higher cabin heat and spend more time idling will  are generally the ones with the lowest potential range.  Knowing this, drivers can keep their range high by using the heater intermittently or by using their heated seats rather than cranking the heater for the entire trip.
The bottom line is that electric vehicles are not for everyone yet, but in many cases they do offer enough energy savings to justify their current purchase premiums.  Each individual in the real-world has a unique usage pattern over time, and the suitability of a vehicle will be dependent on these usage patterns.
So whether it is an all-electric, a plug-in hybrid or something else, there is one vehicle that will be most suitable for each one of us.
To learn more about determining whether an EV will work for you, you are welcome to visit us at www.fleetcarma.com.