Exploring fleet electrification for a global energy and commodities company
Illuminating a complex, fast-evolving landscape
Our client wanted to understand how commercial fleet managers are preparing for the accelerating shift toward electrification. While consumer EV adoption is growing steadily, the commercial sector faces a far more intricate challenge; one shaped by infrastructure gaps, operational constraints and the realities of running diverse fleets across industries.
To define the true opportunity and guide a new business unit, they needed a clear view of how different types of fleet operators are thinking about the future, where electrification feels viable today, and what barriers remain.
The challenge: Making sense of a diverse, fragmented audience
Commercial fleets are anything but uniform. Our client needed insight that could stretch across:
- Micro‑fleets of 1–5 vehicles through to large fleets numbering in the thousands
- A mix of cars, vans, lorries, buses and plant machinery; each with distinct operational demands
- A wide range of roles, from owner‑operators to CFOs to specialist fleet managers
The biggest challenge was exploring a future that many respondents were still grappling to define. Expectations around electrification vary dramatically, and predicting adoption confidently is difficult.
Our client needed a research approach capable of bringing structure, clarity and confidence to an inherently ambiguous topic.
Services used:
The solution: Achieving clarity, through grounded real-world insight
We ran a series of online depth interviews with fleet managers across roles, fleet types and organisational contexts.
Alongside this qualitative work, we reached the audience quantitatively, allowing us to size the opportunity and pinpoint where electrification is gaining traction, and where it lags behind.
This dual approach revealed not just what fleet managers say, but how they truly feel about the transition.
The impact: A strategic foundation for a new business unit
The work gave our client:
- A clear, evidence‑based understanding of the electrification landscape across fleet segments
- Confidence in where opportunity lies today and where it is likely to emerge next
- A set of rapid toplines to inform early strategy, followed by a comprehensive debrief delivered through a collaborative stakeholder workshop
- A robust grounding for a new business unit focused on supporting commercial fleet electrification
