What Wales’ £3.7m diesel saving tells us about the future of fleet electrification

The shift to electric vehicles across Wales’ public sector is no longer just about future targets. It is already having a measurable impact on running costs, diesel consumption and emissions.

New analysis from the Welsh Government Energy Service estimates that the Welsh public sector’s electric vehicle fleet is avoiding the purchase of around 2.4 million litres of diesel every year, worth up to £3.7 million.

Those are significant numbers. But for fleet operators, perhaps the more interesting question is what they tell us about the next stage of the transition.

More than 2,000 EVs are already making a difference

The analysis covers 2,045 electric vehicles operating across the Welsh public sector, from cars and light commercial vehicles through to minibuses, refuse collection vehicles, buses, HGVs and specialist plant.

Based on fleet-category assumptions, those vehicles are estimated to be avoiding 2.423 million litres of diesel purchases each year, while consuming around 8.6 GWh of electricity.

The financial impact is considerable. At current fuel and electricity prices, the Welsh Government Energy Service estimates the fleet is delivering net energy cost savings of between £1.4 million and £1.9 million annually.

For organisations still considering how and when to electrify their fleets, it provides useful real-world context. Moving to electric can deliver operational savings, but those savings depend heavily on choosing the right vehicles to transition.

And that is an important distinction.

Electrification does not mean replacing everything at once

One of the biggest mistakes an organisation can make is to treat fleet electrification as an all-or-nothing exercise.

A fleet may contain dozens or hundreds of vehicles, all doing different jobs. Some might travel relatively short and predictable distances each day. Others could cover much higher mileage, have irregular duty cycles or spend long periods away from a depot.

That means a vehicle that is ideally suited to electrification today could sit alongside another vehicle where switching does not yet make operational or financial sense.

The challenge for fleet managers is identifying the difference.

That was one of the reasons FleetEV developed Switch, our EV readiness platform.

Switch uses existing telematics data, including daily mileage, duty cycles, dwell times and usage patterns, to assess individual vehicles rather than relying on whole-fleet averages.

It identifies vehicles which could move to electric now, those where a switch should be considered later and those where retaining the existing vehicle or fuel type may currently be the most practical option.

That allows organisations to build a phased electrification plan based on how their fleet actually operates.

The business case goes beyond the price of diesel

The latest Welsh public sector figures also highlight another increasingly important consideration: energy resilience.

Diesel prices are influenced by international oil markets and geopolitical events. The Welsh Government Energy Service estimates that during a 100-day oil price shock, the existing public sector EV fleet could avoid between £200,000 and £280,000 of additional diesel costs.

That does not mean electricity prices are fixed or immune from wider energy market pressures.

But electrification gives fleet operators different options.

Charging can increasingly be considered alongside smart depot systems, on-site renewable generation, battery storage and shared infrastructure. For larger fleets in particular, the conversation can therefore move beyond simply replacing diesel vehicles with electric equivalents.

It becomes a question of how vehicles, charging and energy can work together.

That is also why vehicle and charging decisions should not be made separately.

By understanding where vehicles stop, how long they remain there and their likely charging requirements, organisations can start matching infrastructure investment to the actual needs of their fleet. FleetEV and sister company PLUG Charging use this approach to help organisations consider vehicles and charging as part of the same transition plan.

Installing rapid charging without upgrading the grid

For many depots, the limiting factor has never been the vehicles. It has been the electricity supply coming into the site.

Rapid charging normally requires a large incoming supply because chargers draw their full power from the grid when a vehicle plugs in. Where a site does not have that capacity, the usual answer is a grid upgrade, which can cost six figures and take years to deliver. Many electrification plans have stalled at exactly that point.

Battery storage offers a way around it. A battery installed at the depot charges gradually from the existing supply, then delivers power quickly when vehicles need it.

That means rapid charging can be installed on much smaller supplies, including single phase and modest three phase connections, without reinforcement or waiting for a new connection.

PLUG Charging delivers this as a turnkey battery storage and EV charging solution. The battery, chargers, design, installation and ongoing maintenance all come from one place. Systems can be fixed at a depot or moved between sites where charging needs to follow the work.

The same system can also reduce peak demand charges, work alongside on-site solar and keep vehicles charging through a power cut.

Some depots need standard charging and a sensible overnight schedule. Others need rapid charging, battery storage or solar, or a combination of all three. FleetEV and PLUG Charging look at each site individually and match the solution to the vehicles, how they are used and the supply already in place.

Where a vehicle’s real-world use makes it suitable for electrification, limitations in depot power supply should no longer be a reason to keep it running on diesel.

There is an emissions benefit too

The financial case is only part of the picture.

According to the Welsh Government Energy Service analysis, the Welsh public sector EV fleet is estimated to save around 6,151 tonnes of CO2e in well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions each year.

It is also removing diesel exhaust emissions from the locations where public sector vehicles operate every day, including schools, hospitals, depots, residential areas and town centres.

For organisations with carbon reduction targets, those savings can become another important part of the business case for transitioning suitable vehicles.

But again, the word “suitable” matters.

The next stage is about making better decisions

The latest figures from Wales demonstrate what can happen when EV adoption moves beyond small-scale trials and becomes part of everyday fleet operations.

The next challenge is scaling that transition while making sure investment is targeted in the right places. 

For some fleets, there may already be a significant number of vehicles which could switch to electric without compromising their operational requirements. Others may need to wait for particular vehicles, budget availability or replacement cycles to catch up.

The important thing is knowing which is which.

Rather than asking, “Can we electrify our fleet?”, organisations should increasingly be asking: “Which vehicles should we electrify, when should we do it, and what infrastructure will we need to support them?” And where the grid at that site cannot yet support it, what else can?

That requires evidence rather than assumptions.

FleetEV’s Switch platform provides fleet managers with a live view of EV readiness across their organisation, including potential running cost and CO2 savings, current fuel mix and vehicles approaching their replacement date. It can then compare potential electric replacements against the real-world duty cycle of the existing vehicle.

The Welsh public sector figures show that fleet electrification can deliver meaningful financial, environmental and energy resilience benefits. 

For the next wave of organisations making the transition, the opportunity is to make sure every vehicle that switches does so for the right reasons, at the right time.