i247 has published a report exploring how the automotive industry can improve fleet sustainability beyond electric vehicle (EV) adoption, following an industry round-table that brought together experts to debate how fleets can be more sustainable.
The round table, held on 12th March 2025, and the subsequent ‘Fleet Sustainability – Beyond EV’ report, featured 11 automotive experts’ thoughts on fleet sustainability.
Steve Thornton, commercial director at i247 Group, said: “There are still plenty of businesses that are just looking at fleet sustainability through a purely EV lens and there’s a real opportunity to think about what else fleets can do to really drive the sustainability roadmap.”
The report covered five key areas that fleet managers should address for a more sustainable fleet: maximising electric vehicles and new energy; fleet driver education; fleet optimisation; maximising technology; and cross sector collaboration.
The report highlighted that light commercial vehicles (LCVs) contribute to CO2 emissions, but that adopting electric LCVs presents challenges such as payload capacity, towing requirements, charging infrastructure and take-home vans.
Claire Miller, independent adviser on mobility and energy, said: “We need to be thinking about energy and energy systems – a fleet vehicle is essentially a battery on wheels.
“When an operational vehicle is not doing the job of mobility, what else can you do with it and how do we make that asset work harder?
“That will ultimately reduce the sustainability impact of having that vehicle in the first place.”
The report considered other forms of fuel such as hydro-treated vegetable oil (HVO), which is being piloted by the AA.
Edmund King OBE, president of the AA, said: “The beauty of it is it can go straight into a diesel van or truck and reduce emissions by about 90% straight away.”
Another element of increasing fleet sustainability was education for fleet drivers, which the report identified as vital for fleets to achieve sustainability goals.
Research from the AA found many people still do not understand the fundamentals of electric vehicles.
To support the transition to EVs, drivers must understand how to maximise its sustainability, which may include solutions like better handover from leasing companies at point of delivery and optimising tyre performance to increase efficiency.
It can also include basic information like driving behaviour, and how, where and when to charge the vehicle, especially now the Government infrastructure has allowed for more charging points to be funded.
Samantha Harrison, head of commercial B2B Autoglass®, said: “How can we make people more responsible for the asset they are driving when they don’t understand the impact of the vehicle they operate?
“If you’re driving a hybrid but never plug it in that’s irresponsible, but does the fleet driver understand that?
“As an industry we need to help fleets and drivers understand the benefits.”
Patrick Cresswell, managing director at ClearWatt, said: “The battery in an electric vehicle is up to 40% of the vehicle’s value.
“Driving and charging behaviour have a significant impact on the battery and the majority of people don’t realise that rapid charging all the time is even a problem.
“Journey data shows that you could charge to about 70% and do most trips, as well as protecting the battery.
“Currently, the majority of people who drive an electric vehicle are not the owner of that car – it’s either a company car or through salary sacrifice.
“And so even if they knew they were having an adverse impact on battery health, there’s a question mark as to whether they care because they have zero skin in the game.”
Education is a step toward fleet sustainability, but how education is delivered is equally important.
Catherine Bowen, head of decarbonisation and future mobility for the BVRLA, said: “Part of the BVRLA’s role is to educate our members and their fleet partners.
“The Government is focusing on energy security and considering vehicle to grid (V2G) solutions, where fleets will again play a critical role.
“We have to ensure that this transition works for fleets and drivers alike – education is so important.
“We’ve seen a lot of gamification in the energy space to promote smarter use of energy, but there is more we can do to bring fleet drivers on the decarbonisation journey. How can we make it fun and creative?”
Companies optimising fleet size and improving vehicle utilisation were highlighted in the report as having effective and fast-acting sustainability benefits, above EV adoption.
The issue of reducing journeys was raised by King, as drivers should consider cost and environmental implications of travel, while reducing unnecessary journeys is a core part of any strategy for minimising fleet impact.
He said: “Why have we still got the same number of journeys now as we did before Covid when more people are working from home?
“I think there is a broader, higher-level transportation and logistics question we need to address.
“Not enough is being done about the purpose of the journey and I think for individual consumers as well as fleets, that is a big question.”
Philip Wilbraham, managing director at Pendragon Vehicle Management, said: “Right sizing the fleet is probably one of the quickest wins for sustainability.
“We can also use other things like telematics and utilisation reports, to give those insights to fleet managers to ensure the vehicle is maximised.
“This can also help demystify real life EV range and show that almost all car-use cases do stack up.”
Businesses could consider options such as car sharing to look at ensuring a more effective use of each fleet asset and reduce the number of vehicles needed.
Chris Horbowyj, commercial director at Targa Viasat UK, said: “Smart mobility models are very effective ways to reduce the corporate mobility footprint.
“Car sharing is a tremendous opportunity for fleet sustainability and the UK is in its early adoption stages.
“It’s a solution which helps optimise fleet usage by reducing the number of vehicles and ensuring the right vehicle is available for the right job.”
Maximising technology was a key focus in the report, outlining the use of technology to support fleet operations with data measurements and insights.
Miller said: “It’s really important that we always consider the job of the vehicle when piloting new technologies.
“How do we make the technology we have available today stretch a bit further and work a bit harder.
“Fleets shouldn’t be afraid to jump in now and use the available technology to decarbonise faster.”
Horbowyj added: “This is such an exciting time for connected data.
“We’re in a world now where new vehicles come with embedded sensors allowing true diagnostic information.
“In the case of multi-brand and multi-model fleets, however, this data often needs to be complemented with data from installed telematics boxes to ensure full integration.
“But data availability alone isn’t enough – it must be transformed into actionable insights.
“The technology is there to support sustainable initiatives across everything from car pooling to proactive service, maintenance repair data and driver behaviour.”
He explained that collaboration is also important to combine skill sets and identify relevant indicators; this should help to optimise operations, reduce total cost of ownership and makes fleets more sustainable.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) was also a topic of discussion.
Les Kerjenski, technical director at i247 Group, said: “I believe there’s a massive part for AI and telematics technology to play in predicting when a vehicle might need a repair and being more proactive in that area.
“Understanding that a vehicle is not performing optimally or has a certain component that will potentially fail in the near term is critical fleet information.
“Using that data will mean more efficient vehicles on the road which also drives benefits through increased fleet uptime and fleet right sizing.”
Cross sector collaboration was the final key section found in the report, with a focus on a holistic approach across the whole supply chain.
Wilbraham added: “Electric vehicles are going to be the most visible and the biggest and quickest wins for fleet sustainability in the short term, but you’ve got to look at the whole supply chain.
“If we’re not creative enough as an industry, we risk missing a huge opportunity”
Fleets can benefit from advances made elsewhere in the supply chain to help decarbonise and improve sustainability.
James Hopkins, strategy director at Enso Tyres, said: “Good processes and practices are key.
“Even if you decarbonise a vehicle at the tailpipe, there are still all these things you can do to reduce the environmental impact.
“For example, focusing on helping EV fleets address the issue of particulate matter pollution from tyres.
“And those wider sustainability principles are critical, whether it’s an internal combustion engine or EV fleet.”
Another element to cross-sector collaboration is repair over replacement, focusing on companies budgeting for repairs as they become more expensive.
Emma Courtney, head of insurance at Motability Operations, said: “From an insurance perspective, we always try to fix the vehicle rather than replace it.
“ESG underpins this approach, but it is also cheaper for the insurance company and the customer.
“That way of working can be challenging with some new OEMs, what we’ve learned is that some new OEMs have a different approach to parts distribution and repair, and in some cases appear not to have considered it.
“The knock-on impact can be long vehicle off road times which is a serious issue.”
David Legg, director of i247 Group summarised the round-table discussion by reflecting on collaboration within the industry.
Though he recognised that sustainability will not be solved with one single solution, he also said that this should not stop fleets from adopting new sustainability methods.
He urged the industry to be more creative and go further to achieve fleet sustainability.
