There has been a 67% increase in EV adoption among Canadian commercial fleets year-over-year, concluded Geotab’s recent global report on the state of commercial transportation in Q1, 2024.

This edition of the report highlighted key trends, challenges, and potential within the industry. While the report found that fleets using proactive safety features through Geotab – including predictive data intelligence – saw a 40% reduction in collision rates globally, it has also recorded Canadian fleets’ achievements in enhancing operations and moving towards achieving their sustainability goals. 

Fleet efficiency metrics 

For example, a higher trips-to-hour ratio, a metric reflecting the number of trips made per hour of operation, indicates more efficient fleet use, with more trips completed in less time.

In Canada, this ratio has increased by 1.19% from 2022 to 2023. This can be attributed to enhanced logistical planning, adoption of more efficient route management technologies, or changes in fleet management strategies aimed at optimizing trip schedules.

An average duration in hours of drive time per day, which reflects the total hours spent driving each day, has also improved among Canadian fleets in Geotab’s study, showing a decrease of 2.53%. 

Sustainability

There is a promising movement toward sustainability in Canada as well. While EV adoption among commercial fleets has increased by 67% from 2022 to 2023, fleets have also reduced idling time by 5.73% in the same timeframe, down to 0.41 hours daily. 

Meanehile, the U.S. has seen an 81% increase in EV adoption and a 3.75% reduction in idling times. 

“EV sales set a new record in 2023, surpassing 1 million EVs sold in a year in the United States, and that growth will continue throughout 2024,” Geotab predicts, saying that despite concerns that EV sales are slowing due to economic pressure, several factors will drive both consumer and commercial EV adoption. 

“The average price of EV batteries globally is expected to fall over the next few years, and the availability of vehicle options continues to rise. Interest in EVs is not waning, new registrations in the United States increased in the last quarter of 2023, up by 40% from the same quarter in the previous year, and they will rise further as EVs approach price-parity with gas vehicles (predicted to happen in Europe as early as 2024),” the report reads.  

“On the commercial side, EV adoption is growing year-over-year, supported by government mandates, incentives, large enterprise sustainability commitments and performance results.”