A leading financial institution ‘banks’ the value of our Journey to Carbon Zero.
FleetPartners has delivered a well-planned, strategic and future-proofed pathway to a leading financial institution facilitating their transition to a more sustainable fleet to deliver their carbon strategy of zero emissions by 2025.
1. Carbon strategy
Operating across Australia and New Zealand, this leading financial services customer was grappling with the prospect of achieving their carbon fleet strategy in the timeframe laid down by their Board. Working together, we embarked on the FleetPartners 5-step ‘Journey to Carbon Zero’, ultimately delivering an insights-lead pathway. The journey started by understanding their objectives and documenting their carbon strategy, their goals and timeframes.
1. Your fleet Carbon strategy 
2. Your fleet Mission 
3. Vehicle selection and funding 
4. Charging and infrastructure 
5. Vehicle policy and employee engagement 2. Fleet mission
With a clearly defined carbon strategy, we moved to step 2 of the journey - a critical step to achieve optimal utilisation and a fleet construct which works for the intended purpose. We set out to understand the mobility needs of the customer both now and in the future and the implications of vehicle policy changes. Leveraging existing fleet data to gain invaluable insights into current vehicle usage, our analysis identified a number of key considerations which informed our recommendations.
- Fuel usage among a sub-set of drivers was up to 35% higher than the manufacturer guidelines.
Establishing this usage pattern and knowing the current single charge kilometre range on a Hyundai Kona battery electric vehicle (the equivalent to their current internal combustion engine [ICE] vehicles) is only 449km, we concluded that these particular drivers would be better suited to hybrids. - 39% of the Australian fleet are driving a large 4WD SUV, typically a Toyota Prado.
We identified an opportunity to transition some of these large fossil-fuel emitting vehicles to a hybrid equivalent – the Toyota Kluger AWD. This reduced carbon emissions whilst meeting driver expectations around vehicle type, leading to greater employee acceptance and adoption of the carbon strategy. - Agri-business team members are required to travel off-road when visiting rural customers with the requirement for AWD, towing capability and high ground clearance.
The intended use, together with work, health and safety considerations lead to us recommend the Toyota Kluger Hybrid - a vehicle that is more suited to rugged conditions and offers key safety features including front and rear sensors and lane assistance with straight and narrow alerts.
3. Vehicle selection
Understanding both the carbon strategy and purpose of the fleet, we were well positioned to put forth a strategically sound, phased transition plan which was supported by data. This plan consisted of 3 phases:
Initial phase (immediate – 6 months)
The initial phase would see the introduction of hybrid electric vehicles in the same vehicle category class as current ICE fleet vehicles, yielding an estimated carbon emission reduction of 48 tonnes per month. Achieving this outcome was through the introduction of the Toyota Rav4 Hybrid and Toyota Kluger Hybrid.
Mid-term (6 – 48 months)
We identified the opportunity for further carbon reductions in the mid-term, through the introduction of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). The mid-term fleet construct would be:
- 46 BEVs (Hyundai Kona) for capital cities and large metropolitan hubs
- 69 BEVs (Hyundai Kona) in semi-regional locations where infrastructure is available
- 173 Hybrid vehicles (Toyota Rav4 & Toyota Kluger) across regional operations
- 87 ICE (large 4WDs) for exception vehicles servicing remote communities
To 2025 and beyond
Working closely with the major vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) provides us with visibility of new models entering the market. Supported by fleet data collected by our fleet management platform and telematics, we are in a strong position to proactively evaluate options and make recommendations to support the achievement of customers’ carbon reduction goal of a 100% zero emission fleet across ANZ by 2025.
Vehicle funding and whole-of-life calculations
We are uniquely positioned to provide our customer one of Australia’s most competitive electric vehicle (EV) financial solutions. Working alongside the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) who invest on behalf of the Australian Government, we’ve offered a 0.5% finance discount1 on a wide range of currentlybavailable and emerging electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles - this offer is the only one of its kind in Australia.
We offer a 0.5% interest rate discount for qualifying vehicles, in addition to already highly competitive fleet operating lease interest rates.
Furthermore, we have designed a vehicle replacement schedule aligned with the effective dates of Australian and New Zealand government subsides, ensuring our customer maximises these benefits as soon as they become available.
Our commitment to more sustainable fleets is demonstrated through our actions - we also guarantee highly competitive residual values on EVs2 and other zero emission green vehicles.
In practical terms, the combination of these financial measures will deliver our customer very competitive monthly operating lease rentals and compelling financial rationale to undertake the transition.
Financial modelling
Throughout our engagement, we undertook comprehensive data modelling to compare and assess the effectiveness of multiple scenarios. We presented a range of options which incorporated whole-of-life estimates and carbon reductions (CO2) based on vehicle, location and time horizon variables.
This sound data approach provided our customer with confidence in our recommended solution and robust grounds on which to present the solution to their Board.
- Whole-of-Life expenditure and CO2 emissions modelling
Converting Fleet to Hybrid
Converting Fleet to Battery Electric Vehicles
4. Charging and infrastructure
Partnering with Australia’s largest providers of charging hardware and public changing infrastructure, we mapped the customers’ sites and identified that existing public infrastructure would support 69% and 97% of their charging needs across Australia and New Zealand respectively.
Coupled with this information, we applied insights from completed steps 1 – 3 of the journey, to formulate a robust and future-proofed charging infrastructure proposal which incorporated:
- a review of electricity demand in the regions and electricity supply capacity at each site;
- a review of the charging requirements for personal property / garaging address;
- determination of where electricity supply capacity augmentation is required to facilitate EV charging and set out options to avoid augmentations (including capacity sharing with the rest of the site if the site overnight demand profile is suitable);
- delivery of a high-level design for the charging solution - number, location and type of chargers over the strategic timeline defined by the customer.
Direct integration of this charging solution into the FleetPartners fleet management platform offers our customer with real-time fleet usage insights - informing decisions for further fleet optimisation. 5. Vehicle policy and engagement. Our ‘Journey to Carbon Zero’ is a highly collaborative approach which considered the needs of stakeholders throughout the program of work – from the initial requirements of the Board in the design and definition of the carbon strategy, through to careful vehicle selection and policy changes to meet the needs and expectations of drivers. Together with our support in communications, stakeholder education and change management, our customer is confident in achieving high levels of acceptance of and compliance with their carbon strategy.
