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When operating a fleet, every minute that a vehicle spends off, or at the side of the road is valuable time wasted and income missed, as well as causing stress for drivers. It’s therefore understandable that some fleet managers may be hesitant about embracing new technology in case it grinds to a halt unexpectedly, leaving them or their team members stranded in inconvenient locations at inopportune times. Electric vehicles may be viewed with caution by some who think that they are an overly complex space-age technology with a plethora of unproven components to potentially go wrong, but is this actually the case?
Beneath the futuristic exterior of EVs lies a deceptively basic powertrain. An electric powertrain has only a handful of moving components, with the motor itself having just the one: the rotor. Compare and contrast this with the hundreds of moving components in a petrol or diesel engine. On top of this, electric motors are highly efficient, so don’t get as hot as internal combustion engines. The more moving components that a powertrain has, and the hotter they get, the more likely it is that one of them shall fail. Furthermore, electric motors don’t emit exhaust pollution, so don’t require complex emissions control systems that can cause issues on Euro 6 engines. As such, electric motors easily surpass the lifespan of internal combustion engines and should exceed 1 million kilometres with minimal maintenance requirements.
Unlike internal combustion engines, electric motors deliver maximum torque from a standstill, and so don’t risk stalling if they’re not paired with a clutch and gearbox. As a result, electric vehicles don’t have a clutch or gearbox, which further simplifies their powertrain and improves its reliability. The torquey nature of electric vehicles also makes them adept at hill starts and steep climbs, without a clutch to burn out.
Aside from the contactors and coolant pump, the traction battery in an electric vehicle has no moving components. As shall be discussed in a future article, the lithium-ion cells found in electric vehicles are exceptionally reliable and well-managed, which leads to a lifespan of several hundred thousand kilometres, with a strong chance of outlasting the vehicle’s chassis, even with high mileage and regular fast charging.
An extreme example of this is Ember’s electric intercity buses in Scotland, which endure a brutal 24/7 schedule of motorway driving with fast charging in between journeys. Their 3-year-old buses have exceeded 700,000 km on their original battery packs – each. Not only this, but the buses’ full powertrains have shown excellent reliability over that distance: Ember states that their breakdown rates are “substantially lower” than equivalent diesel fleets.
Furthermore, such is the reliability of EV batteries that most manufacturers offer a battery warranty of at least eight years or 160,000 km, far surpassing the warranty on a petrol or diesel engine. Manufacturers are highly cautious when setting warranty limits, so they would not offer such generous warranties if they expected the battery to fail anywhere near those age and mileage limits.
EVs not only offer outstanding reliability, but also reduced downtime for servicing and maintenance. Regenerative braking allows the brake pads and discs on EVs to achieve around 2.5x the lifespan of those fitted to internal combustion engine vehicles, and services are typically conducted at longer intervals with less tasks to perform. For example, the UK service intervals for the Hyundai IONIQ 5 are every two years or 32,000 km, compared to annual/16,000km services required for petrol models.
Aside from some basic checks and inspections, Hyundai’s bi-annual EV services involve the replacement of the cabin filter, coolant (every four years), brake fluid and the battery – in the remote key fob. Official dealerships often factor in the reduced servicing requirements of EVs by offering lower prices for their servicing than for their internal combustion engine vehicles; for example, in the UK, Nissan’s major EV services are over 30% cheaper than for petrol and hybrid models, and nearly 40% cheaper than for diesel models.
The reliability of EVs has also been verified by the breakdown providers. The AA notes that the main EV breakdowns that it encounters are the same as their petrol and diesel counterparts: tyres, wheels and the 12V auxiliary battery. The rate of EVs running out of charge dropped by 80% within eight years, and in June 2024 represented just 1.4% of total EV callouts. Start Rescue has found that EVs are 59% less likely to break down than internal combustion engine vehicles.
So, the simplicity and efficiency of EVs means that they’ll spend more time on the road and less time in the workshop than petrol and diesel vehicles, while saving you money on parts and maintenance as well as fuel. This has been proven by large, high-mileage electric fleets operating in very similar conditions to those found in the Republic of Ireland, and by breakdown providers who attend to thousands of stranded vehicles of all fuel types every day. If you were previously hesitant about the reliability of EVs for your fleet, the evidence of their dependability amassed by these fleets should give any fleet manager the confidence to make the switch, and go electric.