Unless fleets prepare for the Mobility as a Service era by harnessing the latest software technology, they’ll never optimise operations, says Joe Jones, commercial lead of WAE’s battery intelligence company, Elysia.

Battery intelligence can ensure a shared vehicle operator is able to get the most out of an electric fleet

We all know that electric vehicles have the potential to dramatically improve air quality, but just swapping the entire ICE fleet over to one powered by electricity isn’t quite the best route to net zero. What we really need is fewer cars and vans on our roads and in our cities, used more often.

That’s what shared urban mobility – otherwise known as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – will deliver and it is becoming increasingly common in many European cities. Indeed, as the deadline for the ban on new ICE cars approaches, the market for shared mobility is set to be worth up to €5bn (£4.4bn) in Europe alone by the end of the decade.

As increasing emissions-based regulation such as London’s ULEZ begins to bite in big cities – and with further iterations planned across the UK in the coming years – there is a big drive towards cleaner, fewer vehicles. And it’s not hard to see why. Private cars get used for just nine hours a week on average (or 5% of their life), while a single shared EV parked on a street in a city can replace 10 of those vehicles, drastically reducing embedded emissions from manufacturing, with the potential to reduce automotive carbon footprint by more than 40% by 2050.

So MaaS makes all sorts of sense but, with the growth in shared fleets, there also comes many challenges. Up until recently, mobility companies have managed predominantly ICE fleets with the physical condition and mileage of the hundreds of VW Golfs (or Ford Transits) on fleet being the primary concern, as those two metrics determine the vehicle’s ultimate value.

As that fleet becomes increasingly electrified, the business model of ‘sweating the asset’ becomes inextricably linked to one key component: the battery. And so does the value of the vehicle. With increased utilisation of a shared EV, it becomes imperative to have real-time visibility and a full understanding of the health of the batteries at any one point and over its lifetime across the fleet.

Better batteries

Greater use of an electric vehicle leads to not only more mileage over a shorter period, but also more frequent charging – often high-power ‘rapid’ charges – which can accelerate battery degradation. Fleet telematics software today can tell an operator where an EV is and how it is being used, but it can’t dive deep into understanding what truly is happening within the battery. Nor can it communicate how differing usage impacts battery life and thus overall return on investment for MaaS asset owners.

That’s where battery intelligence comes in. A battery intelligence cloud platform comprises of intelligent algorithms, sitting in the cloud, which use telematics data from fleets of vehicles to accurately understand a number of factors. Specifically it looks at the health of those batteries, how long they are expected to last and, crucially, what usage behaviours are causing those batteries to degrade. The system integrates with fleet management, telematics and deployment platforms to unlock the full potential of an electrified MaaS.

How? By enabling fleet operators to have actionable insights. In other words, not just allowing fleet owners to view electric vehicle data but to be able to act on that data to manage and even improve the life of those vehicles. For instance, through understanding the effect of rapid charging and how an electric car or van is used by a shared fleet customer – and optimising these parameters – battery intelligence can recommend charging strategies that enable the life of the vehicle to be prolonged. These strategies ultimately reduce fleet total cost of ownership (TCO) and improve ROI for owner-operators.

As well as forecasting and enabling longer battery lifetimes, battery intelligence gives MaaS providers a complete picture of the battery’s health over its life on fleet, supporting residual value protection as well as foresight of battery reliability or safety concerns before they materialise in the hands of customers.

Simply put, battery intelligence can ensure a shared vehicle operator is able to get the most out of an electric fleet, which not only will impact on the bottom line of the MaaS business, but more importantly, maximise the positive impact on our climate.