May 1, 2025
Launching an EV Fleet Pilot Program: 6 Steps to Success
7 Min. Read
While many fleet managers plan to add electric vehicles (EVs) in their next purchasing cycle, replacing an entire fleet at once can feel too risky or expensive.
For many, starting with a pilot program is a more practical approach than transitioning an entire fleet to EVs at once.
An EV fleet pilot program offers a budget-friendly first step, helping you identify your unique needs and challenges while laying a strong foundation for future expansion.
In this article, we’ll explore the key steps to transforming your pilot program into a data-driven roadmap for EV fleet adoption.
Step 1: Choose the Right EV for Your Fleet
Think of your pilot program as an opportunity to test one or more EV models. Once you have put a few miles on it, you’ll know if the EV you’ve picked meets your fleet’s requirements.
With over 70 EV models available, it’s essential to compare range and battery life to determine how far a vehicle can go on a single charge. A higher battery capacity reduces downtime, minimizes charging stops, and keeps your fleet on the road longer.
Next, consider cargo capacity—just like with ICE vehicles, choosing an EV with plenty of space to meet your specific needs is essential.
Lastly, to better plan for the costs of future EV purchases, explore financing and leasing options that align with your fleet’s needs.
Step 2: Your EV Fleet Pilot Program Needs a Charging Strategy
Keeping your EV fleet charged is essential, but developing a charging infrastructure comes with significant upfront costs. That’s why starting small with a pilot program can be a smart, cost-effective approach.
With only a few EVs, you can go electric with just a simple charging infrastructure. At-home charging for your drivers is an affordable way to get started. To start, you’ll only need to invest in a few basic electrical upgrades to install Level 2 EV chargers, which can provide 12 to 80 miles of range per hour. As your fleet grows, you can gradually expand at-home Level 2 charging for more drivers.
Public charging can also be a good way to charge your fleet. As part of your pilot program, have your drivers supplement at-home charging with quick public charging sessions. This will give you a better idea of costs and determine if topping off with public charging is a viable option for your needs.
Public charging can be another effective way to support your fleet’s charging needs. As part of your pilot program, encourage your drivers to supplement at-home charging with quick public charging sessions. This approach will help you better understand costs and assess whether public charging is a viable option for your needs.
You could also leverage your pilot programs to form partnerships with nearby businesses or local entities that offer EV charging. These partnerships can become valuable as you continue to expand your EV fleet.
Step 3: Create Ideal Testing Conditions
To maximize the effectiveness of your pilot program, use your EVs under realistic conditions, such as completing a regular route in a single day. Monitor charging times, track how often drivers need to recharge, and assess the amount of downtime experienced.
Talk to the drivers testing the EVs and learn about their experiences. Do the EVs perform well in bad weather, heavy traffic, or when transporting heavy cargo? You should also keep a close eye on charging and fleet range to determine if these factors affect your fleet’s performance.
Step 4: Get Multiple People Involved
An EV fleet pilot program is an opportunity to build support for fleet electrification at all levels. Once you have a few EVs in your fleet, get drivers, fleet managers, customers, and decision-makers involved in the electrification process.
Gather feedback from drivers and customers on their experiences and perceptions of the EVs. When discussing fleet electrification with key decision-makers, highlight the cost savings and other benefits your pilot program has already demonstrated.
The key is to communicate often about the project and get feedback from all levels – this will be valuable as you scale your fleet electrification project.
Step 5: Set Clear Goals and Measure the Right KPIs
As you plan for further fleet electrification, the data from your pilot program will support better decisions and possibly answer important questions, such as whether you picked the right EV model or if your current charging infrastructure is working well for your fleet.
Tracking costs is essential—monitor charging expenses closely and use this data to calculate the average cost-per-mile or cost-per-delivery for your EVs. Once you have real-world cost data, you can create projections for your total cost of ownership of EV fleet.
You should also track your EVs’ utilization rate and downtime. Refueling takes longer with EVs, and it’s important to ensure charging doesn’t interfere with fleet operations.
Measuring these KPIs can also be a first step toward building a better EV fleet telematics platform for your organization. EVs have significantly more sensors than gas-powered vehicles, and your pilot program can be an opportunity to identify use cases for a data-driven fleet.
Compliance standards for large fleets can vary from region to region. You can turn your EV fleet pilot program into a discovery process to better understand these standards and how they impact electrification costs. By accounting for regional variations, you can turn data from a local test market into accurate predictions for full-scale electrification across several states or even countries.
A successful data-driven pilot program will give you plenty of data to report to decision-makers and guide your organization as you add more EVs to your fleet.
Step 6: What’s Next?
Going fully electric right after your pilot program might not be realistic due to the upfront costs of replacing all vehicles and the need to scale charging infrastructure.
A more strategic approach is to phase out internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles as you retire them or set a goal to replace a certain percentage of your fleet each year.
With insights from your pilot program, you can confidently invest in the right EV models, plan for charging expansion at the right pace, and accurately predict costs and savings.
Case Study: EV Pilot Program for a Pharmaceutical Fleet
One of Qmerit’s customers is a leader in the pharmaceutical space with an international presence – and over 3,500 fleet vehicles on the roads.
What does electrification look like at this scale? This customer opted for an at-home model with drivers taking their EVs home to charge overnight at the end of their daily route.
By launching an EV fleet transition pilot program, this customer was able to unlock crucial data points for better decision-making and found that charging at home proved to be 75% cheaper than refueling gas-powered cars.
The fleet’s total cost of ownership also dropped thanks to lower maintenance costs and incentives on EV purchases. The fleet was insulated from fluctuating gas prices, resulting in more predictable expenses.
“We leveraged Qmerit’s extensive industry experience and standardized installation pricing tiers to support our budget planning for this electric fleet transition. The increasingly competitive total cost of ownership of EVs when factoring in federal, state, and local rebates & incentives gave us the confidence to shift forward with our fleet electrification goals.” – Client
With Qmerit’s help, this fleet engaged in budget planning and got high-quality data from its pilot program, paving the way for a larger electrification project with clear saving projections.
Launch Your EV Fleet Pilot Program with Qmerit
From budget planning to installing safe and reliable at-home charging options for your fleet drivers, Qmerit is the ideal partner for your fleet electrification pilot program – and beyond.
As the largest and most trusted electrification network in North America, our network of certified electricians has installed over 770,000 EV charging stations in homes and businesses across the U.S. and Canada.
We’ve earned our reputation as the most experienced and high-quality electrification service and EV charger installation network and can help make your transition easy with our experience and commitment to your business.
Find out how an electric vehicle fleet can help build your business for the future. With a simple and seamless installation experience and top-quality service you can trust, Qmerit makes driving electric easy no matter where your drivers need to charge.
Contact Qmerit today to learn how we can support your fleet electrification project and help you enjoy the benefits of a seamless EV experience without the typical complexities of EV charger installation.
