Will fleet managers really help vehicle fleets to become electric?

Résumé En

Over the last few years, obligations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have led European States to propose ambitious targets concerning electrifying car fleets. In France for instance, electric vehicles are required to cover a quarter of all new car purchases in big companies and public administrations. In these organizations, departments that are traditionally in charge of company vehicles have thus been tasked to implement these policy decisions. General Resources have become de facto responsible for testing and managing these new EVs. Illustrating our results through five case-studies that took place in France in 2012-2015, we will show how these departments, and notably fleet managers, carry out the numerous tasks accompanying the spreading of EVs in their organizations: acquiring these vehicles (and the charging infrastructure), allocating them and managing the charging of the cars. The allocation, whether as fleet cars or executive ones, is an important step for the success of their implementation in these companies. We will also point out the contradictory significations and powerful constraints that complicate the performance of these tasks. Their achievement strengthens the role of the fleet managers, who turn out to be crucial but unexpected players in electricity demand.