BetterFleet’s Software Helps Fleets Transition to Electric Vehicles – CleanTechnica

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On the surface, the transition to electric vehicles for a fleet seems straightforward. Fleet managers are used to ordering new vehicles, managing transitions, and building budgets around fuel cost and maintenance, and those same variables need to be managed for an electric fleet.

In reality, though, transitioning a diesel or natural gas fleet to a zero emission fleet of electric vehicles is full of nuance and complexity that often results in inflated costs, longer lead times, poor project execution, and ultimately higher costs for customers.

Buying vehicles is easy enough, but mapping out the necessary depot charging solutions, finding public chargers along routes, and optimizing fueling costs are non-trivial.

Software solution provider BetterFleet has built an entire end-to-end suite of software that helps fleet managers model and forecast the impact of an electric fleet running their exact routes, taking into account weather and charging using real-world data to inform and improve the model over time.

Asset planning

They have accomplished this by leveraging the strength of digital twins. A digital twin is a simulated model of the real world that allows them to build actual routes being run into a virtual world. From there, fleet managers can simulate their vehicles running along the routes they already drive to model out the ideal mix of electric vehicles to meet their real-world needs.

Modeling the routes already being run with actual data gives fleet owners the confidence to transition the first routes in their fleet to zero emission vehicles. Over time, fleet managers are able to, with increasing confidence, transition their fleets to a BetterFleet operating with lower expenses, lower downtime, and more predictable operations.

BetterFleet’s understanding of combustion and zero emission fleets gives them the data needed to model out how an electric truck or van might perform on a customer’s existing routes. The digital twin can even take into account different driver behavior, changing weather conditions through the seasons, and different loads being hauled in the vehicle.

Using data modeled off of real-world routes with actual data from EVs means BetterFleet can help fleet managers pick the right vehicle, or even compare how available electric vehicles would perform on the same routes.

Fully Charged

Unlike traditional combustion vehicles, electric vehicles do need to be charged, and that is no simple matter for a fleet. BetterFleet took this into account with its charge management system and is able to forecast the exact charging needs of a fully converted electric vehicle fleet or even a mixed fleet with only a portion of the fleet being electric.

BetterFleet uses the data from its digital twin model to create a forecast and ultimately create a new business model for fleet managers to use as part of their regular fleet management, financial forecasting, and infrastructure planning processes. It’s a holistic fleet management solution for electrified and partially electrified fleets.

Creating the digital twin is no small feat, but it lays the foundation for fleet managers to not only see the current state of their fleet but to accurately forecast the impact any number of changes might have. Instead of piloting solutions and hoping they’ll work out, fleet managers can instead model any number of potential changes in BetterFleet’s software and see with a high degree of accuracy how the changes will impact their capital and expense budgets, return on investments, fleet emissions, and more.

Charging infrastructure is a completely foreign language for most fleet managers, and BetterFleet built its solution to help. Using actual driving data from the current fleet, BetterFleet’s software helps fleet managers determine the ideal mix of chargers to meet their fleet’s current and future charging needs.

Mixed fleet management is coming for multiple fuel types to allow fleet managers to have a one-stop shop for all of their diesel, natural gas, propane, and electric vehicles in one dashboard.

For more information about BetterFleet and its fleet management solutions, head over to the company’s website.