to making them. But it also means fleet operators have to learn how to keep all those vehicles fueled up, factoring in hours of charging time per day for each; how they maintain them; and avoid charging them at times that stress the grid or when power costs the most.
A lot of companies will be learning these lessons in the coming decade. Retail giant Amazon is putting 100,000 electric Rivian vans into its fleet over the next few years and will also begin using battery-powered Ram vehicles from Stellantis in 2023.
“We are exploring a variety of options,” Daniel Gross, director of Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, told. “One thing to keep in mind, particularly with respect to our last-mile fleet, is that we don't deliver packages overnight and in the middle of the night when the grid is not strained. Therefore it would be safe to assume that a significant amount of our recharging is at a time when the grid is not taxed.
Another question is: how easy will it be for smaller businesses to go electric? Big fleet operators like Amazon, FedEx and UPS will be able to invest in staff and technology to manage their new EVs, like software to monitor the state of charge of individual vehicles, and they’ll also have their own dedicated charging stations. Smaller players won’t always have these luxuries, said Rajagopal.