How to Increase the Attractiveness of Electric Cars as Fleet Cars?

Abstract

Both in public and scientific discussion, electric cars are claimed to suit as company cars (Rother and Eisert 2013). Particularly larger fleets may allow for the application of diversified carriers and within others of short distance vehicles. Here electric cars seem to fit. Due to increasing pressure on companies to save carbon dioxide, interest in alternative drive technologies has increased. Recent surveys however indicate that companies particularly base acquisition decisions on budget and image criteria (Holzer 2012). Since the electric car is neither known to be cheap, even from a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) point of view (Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität 2011), nor particularly fancy (exceptions like Tesla’s famous sports cars aside) initial interest in the technology in many cases doesn’t materialize. The paper therefore explores ways to increase the attractiveness of electric cars. Services provide benefits; their targeted design in order to increase economic payoff is however crucial. The paper therefore first analyzes promising applications of the electric car within company fleets, which are then aggregated to five key purchase motives. It then elaborates service concepts tackling image and TCO issues of the electric car. Discussion of added value reveals potential for the successful integration of electric cars into corporate fleets and includes several best practice examples.