User Guide

August 2024

Introduction

The Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA) is a Geotab Marketplace Add-In intended to help fleet managers identify a variety of suitable Electric Vehicles (EV) to replace their current non-electric fleet vehicles. To perform the analysis, the EVSA Add-In utilizes your fleet telematics data to get an accurate view of the fleet’s drive cycle.

✱ NOTE: Vehicles should have at least one month of data collected in MyGeotab for a suitable recommendation. Fleets with seasonal drive cycles should run the EV Suitability Assessment using data collected over long periods of time.

The EVSA analyzes the driving data for fleet vehicles and recommends an EV replacement that meets the criteria in the table below.

✱ NOTE: The range analysis considers degraded real-world range of the EVs — defined as the expected EV range in cold weather conditions when battery efficiency is diminished and the heating system remains on.

Supported vehicle types

The EV Suitability Assessment Add-In supports the following vehicle types:

1. Passenger Cars
2. Crossover/SUVs
3. Minivans
4. Pickup Trucks
5. Light Duty Vans

Supported countries

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

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

Support in the countries listed above includes the user interface language, the units of measurement, currency, local vehicle model availability, and default costs.

✱ NOTE: If the user resides in a country that is not supported, the EVSA will not restrict the EV model selection to the user’s local market. The user must also review and update the default costs to match their locale.

Installing the EVSA Add-In

To install the Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment (EVSA) Add-In, follow the steps below:

The EVSA Add-In creates a Service Account to communicate with MyGeotab. The Service Account retrieves trip data required by the Add-In to run the stability analysis. The Service Account name in the database is: GEOTAB-EVSA-ADDIN. To complete the installation, click the Create Service Account button to allow the creation of the service account.

! IMPORTANT: The user installing the Add-In must have the authorization 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 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.

! IMPORTANT: If the Service Account is deleted, the EV Suitability Assessment stops working for all the MyGeotab users on the database. Before the EVSA Add-In is used again, the user is prompted to re-install the Service Account.

Starting a new assessment

To start a new assessment, follow the steps below:

The Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment is divided into four sections: Vehicles to Assess, EV Models, Charging Locations, and Preferences.

Vehicles to Assess

Under Vehicles to Assess, select the vehicles you want to include in your assessment. By default, all the vehicles are listed, and none are selected. Use filters to refine the vehicle list and select the set of vehicles you are interested in assessing.

Vehicle filtering

You may use the following tools and filters to refine the list of vehicles you wish to select for the assessment:

1. Filter by group… — Refine the vehicle list based on the groups to which they belong on MyGeotab.
2. Search — Filter the vehicles list by asset name, make and model, or vehicle type. Filtering starts as soon as you type into the search box.
3. Make and model… — Refine vehicle lists based on their make and model. You can select multiple values from the list.
4. Vehicle type… — Refine the fleet vehicles list based on their detected vehicle type. You can select multiple values from the filter list.
5. All filters — Open All filters to filter the list by Vehicle age. The Vehicle Age filter allows you to select vehicles that are older than a specific number of years based on their decoded VINs.

Vehicle selection

EV Models

In the EV models step, review the electric vehicles that will be considered as replacement candidates for your selected vehicles. All EV models are selected by default. You can refine the list of EVs using the Powertrain, Vehicle Type, or Vehicle Size filters.

After selecting the EV models, click Continue.

Charging Locations

Select the locations where you plan to install chargers. The assessment will perform a charging viability analysis by checking whether the fleet vehicles stop long enough in the selected locations to fulfill their charging needs.

Selecting locations

Preferences

In this step, you can modify the report preferences related to the procurement model, default costs, and analysis period.

Procurement

Under Procurement, select whether you intend to purchase or lease the EVs. Then, from the dropdown menu, select the expected vehicle retention period.

Non-EV Costs

Under Non-EV Costs, review the Average fuel price and update it if necessary.

Click on Non-EV Cost Estimates review and modify the estimated costs related to non-electric vehicles used in the assessment. On this page, you can modify cost and fuel economy values related to the generic Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles used for cost comparisons with electric vehicles.

You can select multiple vehicles from the list and select Bulk edit to change values for all selected vehicles.

EV Costs

Under EV Costs, review the Average electricity price and update it if necessary.

Click EV Models Cost Estimates to review and modify the estimated costs related to the electric vehicle models used in the assessment.

You can select multiple vehicles from the list and select Bulk edit to change values for all selected vehicles.

Use the filters if you need to narrow down your selection before using Bulk edit. You can filter by the EV make or model, vehicle type, powertrain, or vehicle size.

Analysis Period

Under Analysis Period, select the desired number of months from the dropdown menu to provide telematics data for the assessment. To accurately evaluate duty cycle and usage patterns for fleet vehicles, the assessment requires telematics data from the existing fleet vehicles.

Click Finish button to submit the assessment for evaluation.

✱ NOTE: Vehicles should have at least one month of data collected in MyGeotab for a suitable recommendation. Fleets with seasonal drive cycles should run the EV Suitability Assessment using data collected over longer periods of time.

Viewing assessment results

The assessment recommendation report provides detailed summaries for the recommended electric vehicles. To open a specific assessment, click the assessment’s tile from the Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment page.

Each assessment is divided into three sections: Summary, Recommended EV replacements, and Fleet vehicles without EV fit. Select the tab corresponding to each section to view details.

Summary

Under the Summary tab, you can find several charts that summarize the assessment results.

Recommendation Summary

The chart under Recommendation Summary provides a quick overview of the assessment recommendations. The chart displays the number of vehicles assessed and the number of recommended vehicles based on vehicle type: Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), and vehicles recommended for replacement by new non-electric vehicles.

✱ NOTE: For each vehicle selected in the assessment creation phase, an EV is recommended if the following conditions are true:

1. Recommended EVs — The sum of costs of the recommended BEVs and PHEVs.
2. Comparable ICEs — The sum of costs of replacing the fleet vehicles that have a suitable EV replacement with new Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle.

The total cost is composed of the following categories: Procurement, Maintenance, Fuel, Electricity, and Other.

✱ NOTE: The Other category includes the following costs: vehicle registration and taxes, insurance, and low emission zone changes. The term Lifetime is based on the number of years selected on the Preferences page.

Annual Fuel and Electricity

The chart under Annual Fuel and Electricity compares the annual energy costs or fuel volume of two scenarios: Recommended EVs and Replacement Candidates.

When Cost is selected, the cost for each scenario is computed as described below:

1. Recommended EVs — The sum of fuel and electricity costs of the recommended BEVs and PHEVs EV replacement vehicles, averaged over a one-year period.
2. Replacement Candidates — The total fuel costs of the selected fleet vehicles that have an EV replacement candidate, averaged over a period of one year.

When Fuel Volume is selected, the amounts for each scenario are computed as described below:

1. Recommended EVs — The sum of the projected fuel consumption of the recommended PHEVs averaged over a period of one year.
2. Replacement Candidates — The total projected fuel consumption of the selected fleet vehicles that have an EV replacement candidate, averaged over a period of one year.

! IMPORTANT: The EVSA attempts to use the actual fuel consumption from the vehicle when possible. If a vehicle does not report fuel consumption through the GO device, then a default fuel efficiency value is used for that vehicle.

Annual CO2 Tailpipe Emissions

The chart under Annual CO₂ Tailpipe Emissions compares the annual carbon dioxide tailpipe emissions between two scenarios:

1. Recommended EVs — The total projected CO₂ emissions of the recommended PHEVs averaged over a one-year period.
2. Replacement Candidates — The total of CO₂ emissions of the vehicles that have an EV replacement candidate, averaged over a one-year period.

✱ NOTE: Battery Electric Vehicles are not considered because they do not emit carbon dioxide.

Recommended EV replacements

The table under Recommended EV replacements lists all vehicles that have a suitable EV recommendation, either a BEV or PHEV. For each vehicle, the table displays the following data:

1. Vehicle name — Name of existing non-EV.
2. Year, Make, Model — Year and vehicle model of existing non-EV (from MyGeotab).
3. Vehicle type — Vehicle type of existing non-EV.
4. Recommended EV — EV recommended as a replacement for existing non-EV.
5. Powertrain — The powertrain of the EV recommended for replacement, either a BEV or PHEV.
6. En-route charging events due to distance — The number of days when the BEV fails to fulfill the range requirements without having to charge during the day, either due to long trips or due to insufficient charging time before making the trips.
7. Lifetime savings — Projected savings of recommended EV compared to new non-EV replacement.

Click View details after the last row to open more information about Range Assurance and Lifetime Cost.

Monthly Range Assurance

The Monthly Range Assurance chart gives Fleet Managers the ability to understand, based on the current Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle’s driving activity, the range capability of the recommended Electric Vehicle throughout the year.

The chart shows, for every calendar month, the following data points:

1. The longest daily distance driven by the selected ICE vehicle.
2. The range of the recommended EV, factoring in the average monthly temperature of where the vehicle is driven.
3. The monthly average temperature of the region where the vehicle is driven the most.

If the assessed fleet vehicle does not report trip data for 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 labeled as Assumed Data on the chart.

The accompanying Monthly en-route charging events chart tracks the number of times the recommended EV would need to charge en-route before being able to return to a charge-capable location.

✱ NOTE: By default, an EV is considered the best fit when the no en-route charging events are required in any calendar month. The user may change this behavior by specifying the number of acceptable en-route charging events per month using the En-route charging setting under Preferences.

Fleet vehicles without EV fit

The table under Fleet vehicles without EV fit lists all the vehicles that do not have a suitable EV recommendation, if the following conditions are true:

1. The EV cannot fulfill the daily driving range requirements — compared with the EV range under local monthly conditions.
2. The EV does not have lifetime savings that are within a predefined limit compared to an equivalent non-EV.

Customize Preferences

To modify the preferences for a specific assessment:

EV Fit Preference

With the Prioritize BEV over PHEV option, the EV Suitability Assessment recommends a BEV over a PHEV when both options result in positive lifetime cost saving, even if the BEV option has lower lifetime cost savings compared to the PHEV.

EV Premium

EV Premium refers to the additional lifetime amount that you are willing to spend for an EV compared to a new equivalent non-EV. If lifetime savings are not a primary factor in your decision, you have the option to instruct the EVSA to recommend EVs, even when the EV lifetime cost savings is negative when compared to a new equivalent non-EV.

For example, if the lifetime cost of an EV is $ 4000 more than a new equivalent non-EV, the EV is not recommended by default. If an EV Premium value of $4000 or more is entered, then the EV is recommended for that vehicle.

En-Route Charging

By default, the EVSA does not recommend vehicles that cannot perform their longest driven daily route on a single charge of a full battery. The En-Route Charging option allows you to specify the number of days per month when it is acceptable for a vehicle to have to stop and recharge during operational hours.

For example, if a vehicle listed in the Fleet vehicles without EV fit table has positive EV lifetime savings, but the En-Route charging count is 3, it means that an EV was not recommended for that vehicle because the EV is projected to require an en-route charge for three days in a calendar month.

Warnings and Exceptions

The table below provides more information about the warnings and exceptions that the EV Suitability Assessment may encounter while processing fleet data. The warnings and exceptions can be reviewed in the detailed recommendation table — if raised for any fleet vehicle.

FAQ

For more information about the Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment Add-In, please see the EVSA FAQ.