Is There A Benefit to The EV Procurement Delay? | Utilimarc Fleet FYIs

Gretchen Reese (00:24):

Hey there. Welcome to the Fleet FYIs podcast, the weekly podcast by Utilimarc that reveals how you can make the most of your data for smarter fleet management. My name is Gretchen, and every week you'll hear from me or some of the industry's finest in candid conversations that will not only shed some light on over two decades' worth of fleet data insights, but also some of the industry's hottest talking points and key metric analysis with the aim to help you better understand your fleet from every angle.

(00:52):

But before we begin, if this is the first time you've heard our show, thanks for stopping by. I'm so glad you decided to come along for the ride with us, but I've got a quick favor to ask you. Once you finish today's episode, if you could take a few minutes to leave us a review on your favorite podcasting platform, we would really appreciate it. Give us a rating, five stars I hope, or tell us what you liked, or leave us a comment or a question about what you've heard in today's episode. If we haven't yet covered a topic that you're interested in hearing more about, let us know. We would be happy to go over it in detail in a later show.

(01:34):

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. Today's show brings up an interesting question that I wouldn't doubt if at least a few of you have asked, and perhaps even more. And the question is, is there any benefit to the electric vehicle procurement delay? I know the immediate answer's probably, "Well no, duh. Why would you even ask?" But we all know that being mandated or encouraged to electrify is undoubtedly frustrating, especially when the wait time after purchase could be 400 days or more. That actually might be the internal combustion engine wait time, but still. Due to supply chain shortages, the same rings true for these ICE vehicles as well. But all order woes and delivery times aside, it has a lot of people wondering as to whether there's actually a benefit in experiencing a delay like this, and rightly so.

(02:26):

Because here's the thing; everyone's experiencing this delay. It's not just one region or another, one country or another, and a lot of people are talking about it; and my friends, that's exactly what we're chatting about in today's episode. So if you're ready, let's dig in.

(03:13):

So delays can be really frustrating, and I'm sure we all know this at this point. Whether you're waiting for an online order, me personally I tend to think my online orders take far too long if it's more than five days let alone 400 or more waiting for a plane or public transit. No matter what, we are all accustomed to how delays make us feel. But what if there's actually a benefit to the delays surrounding electric vehicle availability and delivery? I'll argue that there actually is one, and even though there's a little bit of angst surrounding it, and here's why.

(03:49):

It gives us a chance to catch up, and I'm a big advocate for trying to get ahead of the game rather than playing catch up, but in some instances playing a little bit of catch up is necessary; especially when mandates and policies tend to outpace the installation of certain pieces of movements and efforts. And now we're given a pretty good chance to be able to play the catch up game. And in this case, you probably guessed it, I'm talking about infrastructure installation, and this is both public and private, right? Also understanding public policies is a big piece of this, learning about which models can suit different types of fleet tasks and requirements, mapping out infrastructure locations for charging yards or allowing the public charging points to improve, especially if you right now only have access to level one or level two chargers and you really need a direct current fast charger.

(04:42):

There's so much that goes into this, and charging infrastructure, as we all know by now, is a hugely critical element of electrification; but surprisingly, a lot of people leave it as an afterthought to EV adoption, though we all know we need the infrastructure and we need the power to be able to move the cars. Unless you have a hybrid, then I guess you have a little bit of flexibility with your fuel tank too. But my point is, is this can be a really big mistake and potentially your Achilles heel in EV movement, because the installation of EV infrastructure can take up to months, depending on the amount and type of stations needed, and also what your charging plan is.

(05:21):

And this piece, this charging strategy, you need to be able to think about it and consider it before you even decide on the type of equipment you need; especially when it comes to budget, available space, and the infrastructure company you'll want to work with. Whether it's a leader in charging infrastructure installation, we talked about that on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, so if you haven't yet listened to that episode I highly recommend that you do after you finish listening to this one of course.

(05:47):

But my point is, is you could either do that, you could do something like your in your hands in 90 days and you figure out the plug piece, like Beam Global does with their solar powered charging panels. You could do something like what a newer company called Electrada is doing, where you lease EV infrastructure through them, and they almost create not quite a micro grid, but something pretty close to it, to where you actually have everything you need including the upgrading and the modernization of your equipment as you go, and you work out a lease plan with them. There's a lot that goes into it, and now we actually have the time to really do a deep dive and figure it out.

(06:23):

My point again in all of this is that when you're given time to take this deep dive into understanding what infrastructure you really need before the vehicles arrive on your lot or in your fleet yard, it could be an unforeseen benefit, allowing you to complete a thorough analysis for location, type, the amount of infrastructure that would best suit your fleet. And if you think about it, if you already have the vehicles but not enough infrastructure, that creates another pain point that could be potentially equally as frustrating as the delay itself, because then you're in between a rock and a hard place of, now I have the vehicles, but how in the world do I charge them in an efficient manner when I don't have enough chargers to suit the amount of vehicles that I have? You catch my drift here?

(07:04):

Another thing you might've heard folks around the industry speaking about is grid load, charge times, or even energy management. We've all heard these words probably quite a bit in the last few months; I've also been chatting with a few people about a dirty or coal powered grid causing sustainability concerns. But we'll talk about that a little bit more in a future episode, that's not something I'm going to dig into today. But energy management I think is a top concern of many when it comes to the incoming influx of the owning and operating of EVs. And whether it's to better protect the grid in terms of how much load it can take without blackouts or simply managing charge times to avoid peak energy costs, usually think in the evenings when people finish work and we're all on devices or cooking meals, trying to avoid grid overload whilst also being smart about the cost of charging and energy usage can prove to be a big challenge. And it's one we'll be facing for a while, as energy companies continue stepping up to the plate to ensure that consumer and service provider needs are met; and who knows? Maybe renewable energy will be one of the ways that this happens. Only time will tell.

(08:43):

I'd love to hear your thoughts, though; are you interested in seeing what potential benefits this EV procurement delay could bring about, or are you still sitting on the frustration fence, so we'll now dub it? I think most of us are somewhere in between, especially if there's mandate timelines coming up sooner than we like and breathing down our neck. But I'm curious. Do you think there's more benefits or more frustrations linked to this? And also, do you think it will resolve itself anytime soon? Let me know what you think. Send me an email, tag me on LinkedIn, or use the hashtag #UtilimarcFleetFYIs. You can send me a carrier pigeon if you really feel like it; there's no judgment here. We've already been over all of that. But anyways, that's all from me this week. I will chat to you again next Friday. Ciao.

(09:31):

Hey there. I think this is the time that I should cue the virtual high five, because you've just finished listening to another episode of the Fleet FYIs podcast. If you're already wanting more content, head over to Utilimarc.com, which is Utilimarc with a C, U-T-I-L-I-M-A-R-C, for this episode's show notes and extra insights coming straight form our analysts to you. That's all from me this week, so until next time, I'll catch you later.