Fleets are now having to push back against EV ‘scare stories’ to push ahead with electrification, the Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) has reported.

Handling EV objections is increasingly a key task for fleet managers

Paul Hollick, chair at the industry body, said fleets are now having to reassure drivers going electric following a “flood” of misinformation in both traditional and social media.

“Sadly, it seems to have become quite popular to create scare stories about EVs – that they catch fire easily and cannot be extinguished, that they will all run out of power simultaneously in cold weather and block motorways, that they are more environmentally damaging than ICE cars and vans, that current models will be worthless in a matter of years, and more.

“Most recently, we’ve seen the case of a ‘runaway’ EV that the police had to bring to a stop using their own vehicles which appears to have been nothing of the sort, with the driver reportedly accused of fabricating the emergency.

“Of course, there are now hundreds of thousands of company car drivers happily using EVs who know that this stuff is largely nonsense or based only a few isolated instances, but there tend to be a handful of people in every organisation who will seize on these stories and share them with other employees.”

The AFP – which will be at next month’s Great British Fleet Event to discuss electrification and other challenges – said that handling these objections is increasingly a key task for fleet managers as they continue with EV adoption in the run-up to the 2035 ICE ban.

“We’ve talked quite a lot in recent times about how fleet managers have spent the last couple of years achieving easy wins in terms of EV adoption and we’re now into a phase that is a much more of a grind. That means tackling more difficult areas such as van electrification and building operations in more geographically remote areas.

“Part of this grind involves pushing back against EV misinformation. Fleet managers within the AFP are gathering and sharing EV facts and figures that they can use whenever one of these scare stories is raised by one or more employees. It’s become a process of reassurance.|

Hollick said there was an assumption that the misinformation would decline over time as EVs became just more and more part of everyday life.

“The overwhelming experience of most fleets is that once drivers start using EVs, they love them and few would return to an ICE vehicle. The objections tend to come from those with limited or no exposure. It’s not unknown for fleet managers who are successfully running hundreds of EVs to be solemnly warned by a colleague that electrification will never work.”

But he warned of a potential danger of some “longer-term holdouts” who will continue to believe EV conspiracy theories.

“In those instances, there is little that fleet managers can do other than present them with the facts. No doubt a century or more ago, there were people who stuck with horses rather than drive a Model T.”

• The AFP will be at next month’s Great British Fleet Event to speak to visitors on all things fleet, offer a listening ear/advice to anyone with a challenge or issue, or indeed, on the other side, hear about how fleets are overcoming challenges. GBFE event details are here.