are among the companies looking to expand or begin adding electric vehicles to their fleets.
The latest data from Geotab show the company, which provides vehicle tracking to help businesses achieve their sustainability goals, has seen 72 per cent growth on its platform in Canada between August 2022 and August 2023, compared to 60 per cent growth in the U.S. Charlotte Argue, senior manager of Sustainable Mobility at Geotab, told BNNBloomberg.ca that companies still face hurdles to commercial EV adoption.
“One big barrier that still exists is the relative cost, so the capital upfront cost of an electric truck compared to an equivalent gas or diesel truck,” she said in a recent telephone interview. “In jurisdictions where there's additional incentives to support that price differential, that's helping those fleets make the case in these early days.” Argue also highlighted the infrastructure upgrades that are required when a company begins to ramp up its EV fleet, specifically charging capabilities.
“As the fleet starts to scale, it's a lot more investment both in terms of capital costs, but also just learning internal capacity,” she said. “Any jurisdiction that has programs that are both incentivizing infrastructure, but also supporting with advisory services or where the utility is being more proactive, this is also where we're seeing the hotspots for accelerated EV uptake.”