A Geotab Marketplace Add-In

September 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA)?

The Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA) is a MyGeotab Marketplace Add-In intended to help fleet managers go electric by identifying fleet vehicles that are good candidates for EV.

The EVSA analyses fleet vehicle driving data and recommends an EV replacement when three conditions are met:

1. There is an electric vehicle replacement that has enough range to perform the required drive cycle without needing to charge during the day.
2. The vehicle can be adequately charged because it stops regularly in a uniform location (workplace and/or driver's home) where charging infrastructure can be installed.
3. The lifetime cost of the electric vehicle is less than that of an equivalent non-electric vehicle replacement.

Who is the EVSA for?

The EVSA is designed to help fleet managers figure out whether electric vehicles are a suitable option for their fleet. The EVSA is intended to be completed when a set of vehicles are near their end of life and are due for replacement. The fleet manager then completes the EVSA to learn what EV options are available in their markets, what the base prices are and to get a recommendation on whether selected vehicles are good candidates for EV replacements.

What questions does the EVSA help answer?

The EVSA is designed to help fleet managers answer the following questions:

1. Which electric vehicle models are available in my local market? Are they able to perform the job?
2. Is switching to EVs viable from an operational and financial perspective?
3. Which of my current fleet vehicles are good candidates to be replaced by EVs?
4. Do my vehicles dwell long enough in a uniform location so that the EV replacements can be charged adequately on an ongoing basis?
5. What would the greenhouse gas reduction be if I switch?

How does the EVSA work?

The EVSA leverages two data sources to make a recommendation:

1. Driving telematics data collected by in-vehicle GO devices.
2. Geotab's simulation data for various EV makes and models.

Telematics data is used to get an accurate view of each vehicle's daily driving distance, fuel consumption, dwell locations and stopping durations. Each vehicle's daily driving distance is calculated and compared to the real-world battery consumption of selected EVs. When the vehicle stops in a designated charging location (workplace or driver's home), then the EVSA simulates a charging session in that location. If an EV satisfies the daily range requirements while not exceeding the on-route charging threshold, then the EV goes through a lifetime cost analysis.

To determine whether an EV is cost effective, the lifetime cost of the candidate EV is compared to the lifetime cost of an equivalent brand-new non-EV. If the EV's lifetime cost is lower than that of the non-EV, then that EV is recommended as a replacement for the fleet vehicle.

How does the EVSA perform range analysis?

For an EV to be recommended as a replacement to an existing fleet vehicle, the EV must be able to meet daily driving distance requirements without needing to charge on-route before going back to a charging-capable location.

For this analysis, the EVSA compares the vehicle’s trip distances to the projected EV range on a monthly basis, taking the local monthly temperature into consideration. If the number of required on-route charging events is within the allowed limit, then the EV is considered to be range-capable.

How does the EVSA perform full-year range capability analysis when the vehicle has less than 12 months of driving data?

If the vehicle being evaluated reports trip data for less than 12 calendar months, then the EVSA will replay trips from other months to cover the entire year. The months that have trip data filled from trips occurring in other months are labelled as Assumed data on the range capability charts.

How does the EVSA perform cost analysis?

The EVSA calculates the lifetime cost of replacing a vehicle with an EV and compares it with replacing it with a non-EV. The following cost components are usually considered:

1. Vehicle acquisition costs (whether it is a purchase or lease)
2. Maintenance
3. Fuel and electricity
4. EV procurement incentives
5. Low Emission Zone charges (where applicable)

If the EV lifetime cost is higher than the non-EV equivalent, then the EV is not recommended as a replacement.

How does the EVSA perform a charging viability analysis?

The EV Suitability Assessment can perform a charging viability analysis of the fleet vehicles by checking whether the selected vehicles stop long enough in locations where charging infrastructure is (or will be) available in order to fulfil their charging needs. Once the charging locations are defined, the analysis evaluates every stop to determine whether it is in a charging zone. The analysis then simulates the amount of energy that will go into the battery (based on 7.6-kW charging power) and compares it to the amount of energy that the vehicle will need for the next set of trips.

The EVSA supports two analysis scenarios:

1. Charge at designated workplace locations
2. Charge at designated workplace locations and drivers' homes

To perform a charging viability analysis, the user is asked to select the workplace location zones where they plan to install a charging infrastructure. The user does not need to create or select zones for drivers' homes as these locations will be automatically detected. The user may also opt to skip the charging viability analysis while running an assessment.

What happens if I skip the charging viability analysis?

When the user chooses to skip the charging viability analysis, the EV Suitability Assessment will not ask the user to select zones where charging infrastructure is planned and will assume that the vehicle starts the day with a full battery charge at the beginning of every day.

What vehicle types does the EVSA support?

The EV Suitability Assessment add-in supports the following vehicle types:

1. Passenger Cars (Saloon)
2. Crossover/SUV
3. Light-Duty Vans
4. Multi-purpose Vehicles/Minivans
5. Pickup Trucks

What countries are supported by the EVSA?

The EV Suitability Assessment is available officially in the following countries:

1. United Kingdom
2. Germany
3. The Netherlands
4. Spain
5. France
6. Italy
7. Ireland
8. Singapore
9. Mexico
10. Brazil
11. Colombia
12. Chile
13. Australia
14. New Zealand

Country support covers the following:

1. Electric vehicle models availability in the local market
2. Country-specific default costs
3. User interface language
4. Units of measurement
5. Currency

If I live in an unsupported country, can I still run the EVSA?

If you reside in an unsupported country, the EVSA will still work with the following caveats:

1. The EV model selection will not be restricted to the user's local market.
2. The user will also need to review and update the default costs to better match their locale.
3. The currency used for the assessment will be the US Dollar.
4. The units of measurement for data elements will be in metric.

How much driving data do I need to collect before running the EVSA?

We recommend that each vehicle selected for the EVSA has at least four weeks of driving data to get meaningful results. Fleets with seasonal drive cycles are advised to include more driving data to account for seasonality.

What access level do I need to install the EVSA Marketplace add-in?

The EVSA Add-In requires a service account to communicate with MyGeotab. The service account retrieves trip data—required by the Add-In—to run the suitability analysis. The user installing the Add-In must have the authorisation to create user accounts; otherwise, the installation fails. The Service Account has access to the same vehicles and groups as the user who creates the account. To ensure that all users have access to the EVSA Add-In, an Administrator with access to all groups and vehicles in the database should install the Add-In (i.e. the "Data Access" property of the Service Account must be set to "Everything" in the Edit User screen).

What access level do I need to run the EVSA Marketplace Add-In?

The EVSA Add-In requires that the user completing the EVSA has access to all vehicles in the database. In other words, the user's Data Access property must be set to Everything in the MyGeotab Edit User screen.

Who do I contact if I have a support issue?

Please reach out to your Geotab support prime. Contact information can be retrieved by navigating to Getting Started & Help > Support… > Contact from the main menu.

You may also reach out to Geotab Support on the following phone numbers:

1. USA/Canada: +1 800 245 0517
2. Germany: +49 (0) 800 000 4510
3. Spain: +34 900 535 371
4. UK: +44 (0) 800 368 9647