Automotive Business Magazine – Q3 2026 – Digital edition - Flipbook - Page 78
OPI N I O N
FLEET
The hidden
efficiency crisis
→ Dr Amir Soltani is founder and CEO at KAN Engineering Ltd
B
ritain's commercial fleet
sector is in the middle of
a profound transition. The
ZEV Mandate is reshaping
procurement decisions across
the industry, and electric vans
are arriving on fleets at a
pace that would have seemed
ambitious just a few years
ago. The infrastructure is following. The
policy intent is clear.
But beneath that headline progress, a
significant operational problem is taking
shape – one that doesn't appear in
procurement budgets and rarely surfaces
in board-level sustainability reports.
New vehicle, same habits
A diesel van is relatively forgiving of
aggressive driving – fuel consumption
rises, but the mechanical systems
absorb a great deal of the inefficiency.
Electric is a different proposition entirely.
Performance, range, operating cost, and
long-term asset value are all acutely
sensitive to how it is driven.
The physics are unambiguous.
Aggressive acceleration and late, heavy
braking dramatically increase energy
consumption. Research consistently
shows a 30% to 50% variance in energy
use between efficient and inefficient
driving styles across comparable routes.
Battery State of Health declines
up to 81% faster in vehicles driven
aggressively. Even auxiliary systems carry
consequences that diesel drivers rarely
considered: air conditioning alone can
reduce operational range by nearly a
quarter. For a single vehicle, these figures
are concerning. Scaled across a fleet
of 30, 50, or 100 vans, they represent a
substantial and largely invisible drain on
operational performance.
Most commercial drivers are
experienced, professional, and genuinely
committed to doing their jobs well.
The problem is structural. The driving
habits that feel natural and efficient in a
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q3 2026
combustion vehicle are, in many cases,
precisely the wrong instincts for an
electric one.
Regenerative braking, for instance, is
one of the most powerful efficiency tools
available to an EV driver, but it requires
anticipation, forward planning, and a
deliberate change in braking technique.
Thermal management of battery
systems, energy recovery on descents,
the relationship between speed,
load, and consumption – these are all
dimensions of driving that simply didn't
exist in the diesel world.
The industry has been so focused on
the hardware side that the human side
has been left largely unaddressed.
Simulation-driven methodology
The most promising development in this
space isn't a new vehicle technology.
It's the application of long established
simulation-driven methodologies: a
controlled, repeatable environment
in which drivers can explore the full
dynamic range of EV operation without
cost, risk, or variability.
Critically, feedback can be delivered in
real time, not as a post-trip report, but
in the moment when the behaviour is
occurring and can actually be changed.
The data that emerges also changes
the conversation at a fleet management
level. When driving behaviour is
quantified in range impact, energy cost
per mile, battery degradation rate, it
becomes possible to set benchmarks,
track improvement, and make the
business case for ongoing investment in
driver development.
The electric transition represents
an extraordinary opportunity: lower
fuel costs, reduced emissions, better
sustainability credentials. But that
opportunity is only fully realised when
the operational layer keeps pace with the
hardware. The vehicles have changed.
The question now is whether driver
development will change with them.
