Tesla's Semi freight truck deliveries will being in late 2019, and will have different charging needs from Tesla's cars with the possibility of a private network of "Megachargers" available to smaller customers.
Anheuser-Busch, PepsiCo, and United Parcel Service will build private charging stations on their own sites, in partnerships with Tesla whose terms are still being negotiated.
Read the article at Fortune.
According to various studies, the U.S. is developing something of a driver’s education gap between socio-economic boundaries.
Not only is the number of teenagers getting their license by before the age of 18 declining, it’s doing so disproportionately among those without the financial resources to pay for the cost of private driver’s education courses.
A drop in government funding for driver’s education may be a potential cause of the emerging gap. The cost of driver’s education can top $300 making it difficult for a family that can barely put food on the table to scrape together the cash for a course.
Read the article at Car Connection.
A recent study published in the journal Applied Energy, revealed that the total cost of ownership (TCO) is lower for EVs than comparable traditional vehicles, due to incentives, savings on fuel, less wear on the brakes and fewer moving parts.
Of the three types of electrified vehicle, the pure EV wins out.
The TCO for hybrids was higher than that of traditional vehicles in all regions studied, because they still use fuel, and receive less in the way of incentives. Plug-in hybrids were the most expensive type of vehicle.
Read the article at CleanTechnica.
By Steve Saltzgiver, BSBM, MAOM, CAFS, Fleet Management Consultant, Mercury Associates
The two best ways for a fleet to reduce its costs are to implement a sound replacement program and a departmental charge-back process. A well-designed and managed vehicle replacement program avoids the common problem of holding a vehicle so long that maintenance and repair costs make its total cost of ownership higher than that of a new vehicle.
On the other hand, experience shows that a charge-back program holds down operating costs by making the departments that operate the vehicles financially accountable.
Many predict that mobility management is the future of fleet. So, when FMW interviewed Stuart Donnelly, Sixt’s Director of Group International Sales for Northern Europe and the U.S., we were eager to learn about the company’s fleet mobility management solution, which Sixt will launch in the U.S this year. The article Want to Morph from ‘Fleet’ to ‘Mobility’ Manager? introduces us to Sixt’s mobility management platform and the flexibility it offers employees.
Fleet mobility is an engrossing topic at the International Fleet Academy, preceding the annual NAFA I&E. NAFA CEO Phillip E. Russo, CAE says,. “Fleet managers who don’t embrace and lead in mobility will risk obsolescence." We don't want that!
FMW's home page FleetManagementWeekly.com is sporting a new look -- check it out!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief