If you want to learn about the perils of car ownership, you’d do well to talk to people who own hundreds of them. When you own one copy of a particular pickup truck, you might experience a common maintenance problem. When you own 200, you will experience it, and likely many times.
Fleet operators learn a lot about what’s wrong with a design and how easy a vehicle is to live with. They’re starting to prefer electric vehicles (EVs). A new study from Cox Automotive finds that “fleet owners operating both electric vehicles (EVs) and their traditional, fuel-burning counterparts have higher levels of satisfaction with their EVs.”
Cox Automotive owns Kelley Blue Book.
About the Study
Researchers talked to operators of 502 fleets nationwide, ranging in size from five vehicles to more than 500. Seventy-one had added EVs to their fleets, and 87% expect to add EVs to their stables in the next five years.
The researchers found that a striking 90% of fleet operators who own EVs expect to buy more at their next opportunity.
Among fleet operators who run both powertrains, EVs have the highest “overall satisfaction” and “total costs of ownership” satisfaction scores.
Related: How Much Does It Cost To Charge An Electric Car?
Forty-one percent of fleet operators who own both EVs and gas-powered cars said they were more satisfied with their EVs. Twenty-four percent said they were more satisfied with their gas-powered cars. Thirty-five percent said they felt the two were “about the same.”
EVs Outscore Gas-Powered Vehicles Despite Higher Maintenance Frequency
EVs are not yet living up to their promise in one important way. EV advocates often say that electric cars, with fewer moving parts, should need less maintenance than gas-powered cars.
Related: Study – Apart From Tesla, EV Repairs Not Much More Costly
But 63% of EV operators said they service the vehicles “often” or “regularly.” Fifty-seven percent said the same about gas-powered vehicles. Fifty-four percent reported servicing diesel-powered models that often.
Same Complaints As Individual Shoppers
Fleet owners reported the same concerns as common car shoppers about going electric. Their biggest worry was the limited availability of public charging stations. Other common worries cited were battery degradation and the limited number of EV models available.
Related: Public EV Chargers Will Surpass Gas Stations By 2032
Many said they limited EVs to shorter trips because of charging concerns.
“The electric-vehicle story is much larger than just the retail story,” said Zo Rahim, senior analyst of Research and Market Intelligence at Cox Automotive. “In many ways, electric vehicles can be an ideal solution for many fleet operations, which often have set routes of known distances, vehicles that routinely overnight in the same location, and operations that prioritize the cost of ownership.”
Those same conditions, however, describe how many of us use our cars most of the time.
