When you’re a decision-maker for a business automobile fleet that’s contemplating going electrical, top-of-the-line issues you are able to do is to review the experiences of fleets which have efficiently electrified.
High quality Customized Distribution, a division of Golden State Meals, has been utilizing EVs in its operations for the final couple of years. FleetOwner’s Jade Brasher spoke with Shane Blanchette, Group VP of Operations at QCD, in regards to the firm’s electrification journey.
QCD, which provides distribution providers throughout the US, at present operates 40 Class 8 Volvo VNR Electrical vans and has 4 extra on order. The EVs are break up between two QCD services in California, at La Puente and Fontana.
The corporate started its electrification technique in 2021 with a single Volvo VNL, acquired by Volvo’s Low Impression Inexperienced Heavy Transport Options (LIGHTS) mission, a pilot program designed to collect info on fleet EV deployment. After solely two weeks of working the VNR Electrical, QCD ordered 14 extra with the assistance of a grant from the Cell Supply Air Air pollution Discount Assessment Committee’s Inland Port Program. A 12 months later, QCD determined to order 30 extra VNR Electrical vans.
“The $20-million electrification mission consists of 16 chargers and an industry-first renewable power microgrid to energy the battery-electric fleet and distribution middle in Los Angeles,” Blanchette stated.
A number of OEMs at present provide Class 8 electrical truck fashions, however QCD has caught with Volvo.
“As a Volvo Vans buyer for over 13 years, we knew we may count on the identical stage of security, consolation, and efficiency from the VNR Electrical as we’ve at all times had with the standard VNR,” Mike Douglas, QCD’s former Senior Director of Strategic Procurement, stated on the time of QCD’s first EV supply.
Getting charging infrastructure put in is usually one of many largest challenges for fleets which might be going electrical, and QCD is not any exception. The corporate is at present counting on a short lived charging resolution—moveable 50 kW DC quick chargers leased from Volvo Monetary Providers. The corporate’s everlasting charging resolution, which features a microgrid, is anticipated to be up and working later this 12 months, after two years of labor.
Blanchette instructed FleetOwner that the timeline may have been “lower in half, if allowing and gear lead instances [had been] extra favorable. The key hurdles in constructing out the infrastructure have been gear procurement and allowing timelines, in addition to landlord alignment, as our facility is leased house.”
The corporate is utilizing two totally different charging infrastructure companions for its two services. “On our La Puente mission, we partnered with InCharge and Scale Microgrids, whereas the Fontana mission was coordinated by Volvo and concerned Shell Recharge.”
Each InCharge and Shell Recharge helped facilitate “grant funding identification, allowing, gear procurement, information analytics, infrastructure design and development.”
QCD initially determined to affect for sustainability causes, however has discovered one other profit: drivers love the brand new vans. Electrical automobiles have “made the drivers’ life simpler,” Blanchette stated, “which in flip, has helped with greater retention, decrease turnover, and most significantly, improved security.”
QCD’s fleet runs regional supply routes, with a median of lower than 100 miles per route. Class 8 electrical vans are nicely fitted to this obligation cycle. “The brand new technology of EVs in our fleet will get as much as 275 miles,” Blanchette stated. “It’s been good for QCD as a result of when the staff comes again, they nonetheless have anyplace from a 40 to 50% cost remaining on them.”
After two years, QCD has discovered that the upkeep value for its Class 8 EVs has been about half that of its legacy diesel vans. “When evaluating the restore and upkeep value towards similar mannequin 12 months and workload diesel items, we’re seeing the EVs value considerably much less,” Blanchette stated.
Supply: FleetOwner
