Evaluation of the effectiveness of integrating electric vehicles into fleet operations

This article presents an approach to decision-making for the implementation of electric passenger cars in enterprise fleets, considering both economic and environmental factors. The literature review is focused on fleet composition and the impacts of technological change. The paper examines practical aspects of introducing alternatively powered vehicles into corporate fleets and proposes a model for optimal fleet composition. The final section provides a case study on the adoption of electric vehicles (BEV, HEV) in selected fleets in Poland. The conclusion highlights key opportunities and constraints associated with integrating electric vehicles into fleet operations. The model proposed in the article incorporates Total Cost Ownership (TCO) of fleet and environmental criteria, as well as various forms of vehicle financing and the resulting limitations on vehicle mileage and duration of use, together with budget constraints and the discounting of cash flows over time. Importantly, vehicle depreciation and several other parameters are treated as nonlinear functions of multiple variables. As the research presented in the paper demonstrates, the introduction of electric vehicles into fleets is currently unprofitable in Poland, particularly for short-term use in company car fleets. The persistently higher purchase prices of such vehicles compared with internal combustion vehicles of a similar standard, combined with their substantially higher depreciation during the initial period of use, are not offset by lower operating costs. Electric vehicles gain an advantage only when environmental objectives are assigned a sufficiently high weighting. At the same time, over sufficiently long operating periods, the economic performance of electric vehicles may prove more favourable, although there remains considerable market uncertainty concerning price formation and the residual values of these vehicles.