Dubbed “Transportation Electrification – Utility Fleets Leading the Charge”, the white paper was written by a steering committee comprised of utility fleet directors from across the country and says that electrification is the biggest opportunity for the transportation sector.

The white paper encourages investor-owned electric utilities to meet an industry-wide goal to spend at least 5% of annual fleet acquisition budgets on plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and technologies.

It says: ‘Stagnant growth, rising costs, and a need for even greater infrastructure investment represent major challenges to the utility industry. To maintain our critical energy infrastructure while investing for the future, today’s electric utilities need a new source of load growth— one that fits within the political, economic and social environment.

‘Electrification of the transportation sector is a potential “quadruple win” for electric utilities and society, and will enable companies to support environmental goals, build customer satisfaction, reduce operating costs and assure the future value of existing assets.’

The white paper says that technology is available and becoming more mainstream and that plug-in vehicles now make good business sense, offering significant operational savings in the way of fuel cost and maintenance over conventional vehicles.

It adds that the longer-term outlook on regulation necessitates an increasing percentage of electric vehicles in order to meet long term public health, petroleum displacement and climate protection goals.

The white paper has been greeted by NAFA Fleet Management. CEO Phillip E Russo said: ‘NAFA is enthusiastic about the potential for electric vehicles with respect to fleet usage, and we encourage all the stakeholders in the entire energy industry to look into how the fleet profession can spur on growth. Sustainability is an important subject in the fleet world and EVs are key to making that happen.’