CIMA+ and Altitude by Geotab optimize EV infrastructure planning with commercial transportation insights

To read the original article : CIMA+ and Altitude by Geotab Optimize EV Infrastructure Planning with Commercial Transportation Insights | Altitude by Geotab

As a leading firm in transportation electrification initiatives, we assist our clients with assessing charging needs, developing fleet electrification strategies and designing the required infrastructure to charge the vehicles, which involves working closely with utilities.

We wanted to assess the potential future needs of a Canadian province for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), and as such, we worked with Altitude by Geotab to analyze commercial freight data that would allow the province to make smarter, more informed infrastructure decisions. Our team wanted to accurately determine the energy requirements for new commercial electric vehicle (EV) charging sites. The project’s end goal was to support the decarbonization of both medium- and heavy-duty freight transportation.

The challenge

Identifying quality locations for new commercial EV charging stations.

There are risks and challenges associated with building new electric vehicle charging infrastructure, such as grid demand, climate and traffic patterns. This awareness led the team to adopt a data-driven approach to strategically address EV charging gaps along the region’s roadways. Given recent sustainability requirements and the growing importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, companies are increasingly looking to minimize their carbon footprint and move goods in cleaner ways. There is a need to invest in additional EV charging stations to facilitate a smoother transition to zero-emission vehicles for businesses, but a lack of data about future fleet electrical demand and supporting grid capacity presented a significant challenge. Considering the high cost of installing these stations, careful and strategic analysis of the data was essential in the planning process to generate a successful outcome.

Unique challenges associated with EVs in Canada also needed to be considered. The colder Canadian climate impacts their mileage efficiency, and commercial vehicles in Canada tend to be heavier for added safety on icy or slick roads, which places extra strain on batteries. Electrifying heavy fleets is usually more complicated due to their demanding usage requirements, namely longer trips, unpredictable itineraries and variable schedules. To achieve a successful infrastructure planning outcome, these are important factors to consider. Using Altitude by Geotab’s contextualized freight data in an accurate grid analysis, we analyzed the requirements needed for widespread, yet strategic EV charging station network implementation for MHDVs.

The solution

Leveraging accurate transportation data and an established methodology to optimize EV charging station selection.

Our analysis followed the established methodology from the International Council on Clean Transportation’s (ICCT) “Near-Term Infrastructure Deployment to Support Zero Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles in the United States” to calculate total daily energy needs for new EV chargers. Using Altitude by Geotab aggregated data within this methodology, we discovered that roughly 65% of all daily medium- to heavy-duty intra-provincial trips spanned less than 160 kilometres. To develop our analysis, we looked at the distribution of distance travelled and dwell time comparison by vehicle class in the Altitude platform and converted this into energy consumption profiles, emissions breakdowns and probable average travel distances.

The data highlighted a strong opportunity for these vehicles to charge during higher dwell times across each type of vehicle in classes 3–8. Across classes 3–5, we examined the analysis results and additionally found that approximately 33% of these vehicles would require supplementary charging stations to complete their daily routes if they were to go electric. These charging depots could either be made up of public charging or en route charging stations.

The results

Meeting operational demands for commercial Canadian fleets with strategically placed charging infrastructure.

By providing key transportation information like origin and destination data and commercial vehicle context, Altitude by Geotab helped us uncover valuable insights into how trucks transport goods, enabling our clients to verify where new zero-emission technologies can meet their fleets’ operational needs. These insights enabled us to recommend appropriate plans, infrastructure, and policies to achieve province-wide fleet electrification goals.

As new transportation data becomes available, we can run new calculations and gain additional insights to refine or adapt our sustainability goals. This approach empowers us to test and learn based on our initial findings. Predicting future energy demands using aggregated telematics data from Altitude by Geotab will be critical as more transportation and logistics companies go electric. Although light-duty vehicles are most commonly thought of as the easiest types of vehicles to electrify, there’s a growing opportunity for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets to transition to EVs. The prioritization of data-driven charging infrastructure plans helps provinces account for the unique needs of every commercial vehicle type and maximize their investments, all while avoiding jeopardizing the limits of their power grid. Our study is a benchmark in advancing a greener future for the entire country. It is more important than ever for public sector and utility entities to grasp the intricate ways in which commercial fleets operate if they want to adequately support organizations with vehicle electrification. Doing so helps them plan appropriate charging infrastructure and power requirements to accommodate the MHDV duty cycles their regions regularly see.

In the past, a knowledge gap in using origin and destination data for commercial fleet electrification initiatives meant infrastructure planning was reliant on a minimal understanding of how vehicles actually travel through a region. Altitude by Geotab closed this gap and is propelling the industry forward by working with consultancies, engineering firms and governments to help them accurately understand how trucks are moving throughout their regions. It is with transportation data like that of Altitude by Geotab that organizations like ours can conduct grid assessments and devise better electrification infrastructure plans for their clients.