Accelerating EV Adoption: Insights from Tara Spencer on the Mile Marker Podcast

In this Mile Marker podcast episode, we talk with Tara Spencer, Head of Sales for MoveEV, to explore the evolving landscape of fleet electrification. Tara highlights the steady growth of EV adoption, driven by pilot programs and increasing driver confidence. She discusses the challenges of transitioning fleets to electric, emphasizing the importance of education, flexible charging options, and the long-term benefits of lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The conversation also touches on infrastructure gaps, the significance of home charging, and strategies for overcoming resistance to change, offering a roadmap for fleets embracing EVs.

https://ridecell.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ridecell/
https://twitter.com/ridecell

Transcript

Accelerating EV Adoption: Insights from Tara Spencer on the Mile Marker Podcast

In this Mile Marker podcast episode, we talk with Tara Spencer, Head of Sales for EVs, to explore the evolving landscape of fleet electrification. Tara highlights the steady growth of EV adoption, driven by pilot programs and increasing driver confidence. She discusses the challenges of transitioning fleets to electric, emphasizing the importance of education, flexible charging options, and the long-term benefits of lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The conversation also touches on infrastructure gaps, the significance of home charging, and strategies for overcoming resistance to change, offering a roadmap for fleets embracing EVs.

Angela Simoes: Welcome everyone to another episode of the Mile Marker podcast. I am Angela Simone, your host, and today we are here with Tara Spencer, Head of Sales for MoveEV. Welcome, Tara.

Tara Spencer: Thank you. Happy to be here.

Angela Simoes: So a while back, early this year we had your CEO, Dave Lewis on the show, and we primarily talked about the whole process for getting companies to enable their employees to get reimbursed for charging at home, which is fascinating because I don't think a lot of companies or people even think about that as an option. And so tell us a little bit about this past year and how that's going. Are you seeing a shift kind of in the mindset or people embracing it, or is there still some resistance? Just give us an idea of how that's going.

Tara Spencer: Yeah, it has been a transition, I might call it a slow burn. We saw EV penetration across the market probably grow one to 2% this year. And so I think what we're seeing is some of the very early adopters are the biggest fleets, and they're really wrapping up pilot programs and starting to really put some volume of EVs out there in the world. And then that's giving some confidence to some of the smaller fleets, smaller businesses that have been a little bit slower, I think, to dip their toes in the water with electric vehicles. But the news is getting out, the word is getting out, and I think what we're seeing is the comfort level is improving. And so one of the greatest things about running an electric vehicle is that after you purchase it, it becomes your driver's favorite car. And so a lot of times you can't really recognize what it's going to do from a cost of ownership or bottom line cost until after you've purchased it. So again, I think we're seeing second rounds of EVs starting to hit the market. We're seeing that percentage of fleet or EVs in the fleet start to come out. I think we're going to continue to see it double as.

Angela Simoes: Are you able to talk specifically about some of these pilot projects that you've seeing customers implement and then it went well. So now they're expanding their electrical electric fleet. Has there been any sort data that's come out of that where, I know it's kind of off the top of your head, hard to numbers, but it's kind of like we probably did some case studies out there to show what the results were to build that confidence that you were talking about.

Tara Spencer: Well, you're exactly right. And I think there's a good way to implement electric vehicles and maybe a less good way. And so what we're seeing have the most success is pilots where you get drivers involved, you find those early adopters, those that are willing to put their hand up first and be the test person, and you start to spread goodwill. We actually recently worked on an article with Dr. Allison bets about this and about how you can implement the right strategies to gain driver adoption because change is hard. So it doesn't matter what you're changing someone into or out of, it's just you're disrupting the norm. And so education is important. Finding early adopters that are influential to others, making sure you remain, I would say flexible in your EV choices because there's a lot of new models coming to the market. So testing some out and seeing what works. And if you can bring those drivers along with you, it is easier to expand, it's easier to gain traction and kind of get some early supporters within the fleet.

Angela Simoes: So let's talk about total cost of ownership for a little bit. I think that's probably one of the first places people go with misconceptions. Oh, it's too expensive, right? Yes. Overall, so what are you seeing there as far as what's the aha moment when people finally realize, okay, it's not, is it truly just doing a pilot program or are they seeing some data that comes out of it? What's the shift?

Tara Spencer: Yeah, no, definitely not at the pilot stage. I think what's really interesting about electric vehicles is that the jury is out a little bit on TCO. And what I mean by that is anyone who runs a fleet knows that you're worried about your acquisition costs, you're worried about your operational expenses, you're worried about resale, you're worried about safety, downtime. All of these play into your decision on what vehicles to run in your fleet. And what's unique and what's going to change is for most vehicles that are run by a gas engine, you decide to replace those vehicles because your operational costs start to inflate and you start to experience downtime and your maintenance expenses start to escalate. And electric vehicles have less than 10% of the parts of an ice vehicle. So that's going to play out very differently when you run an electric vehicle instead of worrying about how much your maintenance and fuel escalate over time, the biggest hurdle to get over with an electric vehicle is the acquisition price because that's where the bulk of your cost comes in. So I think it's hard to accelerate adoption when you have a higher sticker price, when more of the benefit to your bottom line is going to happen later. So I think it takes some time.

It takes looking at your friends and other people in the industry that are having success. I think New York City runs a great fleet where they've put a lot of data out in the market where their operational costs are significantly down. So how that works when it comes to TCO, right? If you can run an electric vehicle two to three years longer than a traditional gas vehicle and you can do it without causing inefficiency to your business or frustration to your driver team, and that's a win. And so you sort of need to jump in a little bit and get some experience before you're going to see that full benefit of the cost of ownership shift. But I think three to five years from now, most fleets will have a majority of light duty electric vehicles because the costs are going to play out better in the long run. So

Angela Simoes: Can you charge a light duty electric vehicle at home? Is that something that you're seeing? Because I think when people may initially think charging your fleet vehicle at home, they're thinking sedan, maybe a truck more of a consumer bike vehicle, but are you seeing the lighter vehicles?

Tara Spencer: So it's not for everyone. So every fleet as they convert to electric will have to consider their options. So today, as a fleet manager, you think about gas stations, they're everywhere. It's not a complicated decision no matter what kind of car you own and operate. But as an electric fleet manager, you can charge at work and you can charge in public and you can charge at home. And today, there's a lot of challenges with those first two options because of infrastructure development costs for businesses. Home is essentially the cheapest gas station in town. So if we can help fleets, sorry, fleets and municipalities identify a way to capture that gas station cost,

It also provides some convenience to the drivers. So I think future fleets will not be stopping at all the gas stations around town. That won't be the way it will look. Everyone will be stopping at the cheapest gas at their house because that's also when they have the most convenient time to charge. But at the end of the day, I think fleets will always need all three solutions. Each fleet will have to determine for themselves what the right blend is, but certainly charging at the cheapest gas station while you sleep and waking up with a full tank of gas is pretty convenient for the driver team.

Angela Simoes: So let's talk a little bit about the education process for charging at home. If somebody doesn't have a home charger, they don't have solar, they just don't have, they're not set up at all, but you're given an electric vehicle is a part of any other jobs. I laugh about this all the time. And the reason I ask too is because, so personally, I don't drive a fleet vehicle, but I drive electric and we got the three year free charging deal with Electrify America. So we didn't buy a home charger. So we have the little trickle charger. Come to find out, it's actually probably costing me more to use that charger on the one 10 outlet than if we had bought the home charger and charge on two 20. So even though I tried to do the Electrify America as much as I can, I'm still charging at home at least when I sleep, right?

Tara Spencer: Yes.

Angela Simoes: So find out that I am spending more Also, we went, oh, okay, we'll get solar and then we will have a bank, and then we can do that. Come to find out we generate or we use too much energy. Even if I covered my whole roof with solar, it's not enough. But now seeing what the work that you guys do and understanding this process a little more, it's like, well, maybe if I at least paid for my car charging, it could be worth it. Maybe I'm not covering my whole household. So I would just love to hear a little bit about the

Tara Spencer: Education process. Yeah. Well, I think it is such an important conversation. I worked for a fleet management company for almost 25 years. I considered myself and still do one of the fleet management experts in this world. And up until I started in this role, I really didn't know a heck of a lot about electric view, virtually nothing. And now I'm an owner. I own a rivian and we love it. But I think the first thing that was an important discovery for me was that you don't actually need to have a level two charger in your garage to plug it in. You probably should if you're a high mileage driver, but I had no idea that every electric vehicle could convert to one 10 and could just plug in. So that was a learning curve. And then I got a charger. I had that whole experience and I learned that, well, I get a 30% federal tax credit for putting a charger.

You didn't know about that. And I get 50% of the installation cost back from my utility. So I'm like, well, that was a whole lot less expensive than I thought. And then I tried to charge out in public. I went out on a trip to Lake George with my family, and we decided to take the rivian, which meant we would have to charge in public. And for lack of a better way to put it, it was just really challenging. We went to a variety of stations and we had a hard time finding one. We had a hard time having the right map. And so I think that there's a lot of opportunity for the public network to work more cohesively for drivers. And until the infrastructure gets where we need it to be, drivers can plug in at home where and when they have the opportunity and it's going to save everybody a whole lot of time and money. Absolutely.

Angela Simoes: Yeah. We have gone on a couple of long road trips and it takes a lot more planning, but just like, oh, you see the gas station sign on the side of the freeway, you pull over. It's a lot more planning that goes into

Tara Spencer: That. And not only planning to find the station, but also I think planning ahead to have the right apps downloaded, there needs to be a day in the near future where if you can go to a gas station and put your credit card in, I think you should be able to go to an EV charging station and put your credit card in. And that would really open the network for a lot of people. Absolutely.

Angela Simoes: So looking ahead a year, three years, five years, where do you see things going and where would you like to see things going? Are those kind of parallel or is it kind like, well, I'd like it to be here, but it's probably only going to be here?

Tara Spencer: Yes. I think there's a few things that really need to happen for the industry to grow the way that I would love to see it grow. I think electric vehicles, just from a pure vehicle standpoint, endpoint are such a great option for the fleet market. They're fun to drive, they're low operational expenses. Your drivers will really enjoy the experience and they're safe. So they might cost a little bit more to ensure from all that additional technology, but at the end of the day, they keep your driver alive and there's nothing better than that. So how do we make the opportunity to charge and use them better for fleets? Number one, I think we need to open up the network. Everyone that I look around is looking to own the data and own the network. Everyone wants their own charging network or their own OEM kind of plan. And I think for the future to get where we want it to go, people need to have flexibility. You need to be able to purchase whatever kind of electric vehicle works for your fleet, and that might not be the same next year as it is this year. And you need to be able to have flexibility in your charging network. You're charging approaches because everyone's going to have different needs

And every driver's going to have a different situation. Not everyone can charge at home, right? There are people that will live in apartments that won't have access, so you need flexibility for them. But just I think walk, crawl, run, get some education, get that out to your fleet team, build a network of resources in the market and then start with a pilot. But I think if you do it the right way and you keep yourself flexible, you can grow a lot faster. So I think next three to five years, I think we'll see more light duty EV fleet vehicles, then we'll see gas

Angela Simoes: Just in the industry in general. Yeah. Okay. And do you think that those will also be charge at home?

Tara Spencer: I think it's a great question. I think today plenty of fleets send vehicles home, and they do so because it makes good business sense. If the driver needs to start and end the day not from an office, then don't make them go to the office. And I think the same will play out with charging. If you have the cheapest gas station, again, I'll say it all day long in your garage, fleets are not dumb. Fleet managers are not dumb, right? They are paying attention to driver satisfaction. They're paying attention to their cost of ownership, they're paying attention to ease of use. And all of the factors play better when you charge at home overnight until something changes with the charging network. I think that's what we'll continue to see. So we

Angela Simoes: Are here at AFLA. We're recording this live from a, what are a few things that you're maybe action items or takeaways that you're hoping to get from the show? I

Tara Spencer: Love AFLA. I think ALA is one of the most fun conferences of the year because it is a giant reunion of all of the networking contacts and friends and colleagues in the industry. I've changed jobs over my career, but all the faces at ALE stay the same because the fleet industry is very small. So I certainly love that opportunity to connect. And I'll say there's a lot of education needed for even really seasoned fleet managers in the EV space. And so I love being here and talking about how we can help your reduce costs, help, we can help you maybe avoid some obstacles in gaining EV adoption. I really just would love to make it easier for fleets to have electric vehicles. And so the more I can talk about that this week, the more fun will be.

Angela Simoes: This is my first ala and as an observer, yes, very fun group of people. I feel like it's more of just kind of a party, the times in the hallway. So it's been really fun to see. And to your point about having these conversations more and more here, and to our earlier point that some people just don't hard to change and people don't like change. And so you have people that have been in the fleet industry for 20, 30, 40 years and in comes this new trend and it's like, Ugh, really after all this time we're going to transition to this. Have you had conversations like that where people are just, and again, with our conversation and even other conversations, once you get in the vehicle, once you get in the Navy, it's really fun. It's like that's what it takes. But what else? What other conversations have you had where people are kind of resistant but then they sort of begrudgingly agree like, okay, I see this is where we're going, I don't like it. Well,

Tara Spencer: Unfortunately, EVs are a little bit political, and so that plays out very differently depending on where a company might be headquartered or what industry the company might be in or the fleet manager's personal point of views. All of these things sort of impact how openly someone considers electric vehicles as part of their fleet. And I think until it's a hands down, clear as day cost of ownership winner, they'll always be mixed reactions to them. We see a lot of organizations that are mandated either through climate goals or state law that have to go electric. And so I think where I sit, all of that is I understand and appreciate the benefit of an electric car. I also know who I was two years ago telling all of my fleet clients that they might not be the right fit for their fleet. So I understand that transition and I understand that they're coming. Whether you love them today or not, I can certainly help you get ready for them. And I think everyone needs to just work on the education piece, get ready for them, know where they're going to work for their business. They're not going to work everywhere and they're certainly not going to work for all fleets, but when they do work, they can bring a lot of benefit to your business. Agree.

Angela Simoes: And so you said that here at ala, it's the networking, it's the conversations is just a reunion. So you get that connection out of the conference. What are you hoping everyone else here at ALA sort takes away as action leaders? Yeah, I think

Tara Spencer: ALA is probably different for everyone. What I think is unique here is there's a lot of educational content, and I think I was in a session this morning and they asked who was a first time attendee and I think half of 'em raised their hand. So I think there's a lot of here people here that are newer to the industry that are looking to learn. There's a really wonderful women in fleet management organization that attaches mentees to mentors here. So I'm here also to meet my mentee for the year. And so I think, again, education connection. Some of us are playing some bad golf tomorrow. So a little bit of fun in the sun too. But I hope everyone has a great time.

Angela Simoes: So for our last question, we like to take a little bit of a twist and talk about work-life balance, something that we're all always trying to figure out the best way to do that. Especially a lot of us who work remotely, we sit front the computer all day. So what are some of the things that you do to achieve work-life balance, whether that's getting out in nature or just stepping away from the computer or whatnot?

Tara Spencer: Yes. That's a big question. I talk about that one all day long. So I am a working mom. My husband was a stay-at-Home Dad for most of my career. I had a very big busy corporate job. And I think work-life balance then and work-life balance now are different. And I think what everyone should remember, and what I try to remember is you need different things at different points in your life. You need to take time when you need it. And I do that willingly, and I do that without guilt or reservation. I think I'm a little bit older now and I'm a little bit more comfortable in my shoes. And so yeah, I work from home and that was a really big win for me because I've got three kids coming in and out all day. And even if I can just give 'em a minute of my time, I'm around.

So that was a really big help. I also have a wonderful partner who is very willing to accept my digital calendar at home and allow me to organize him. So we have a really good working. I get a lot of support with all the family stuff. So I just think use your village, use your resources, use a digital calendar and take breaks when you need it. Be selfish because there'll be times when even in this role today, I'll have to give a lot and be away from my family for two or three days right now. And so take that time back where you can.

Angela Simoes: I love how you talked about you need different things at different stages of your life and as you've gotten older that you've learned to not feel bad for taking the time that you need. And it's one of those, I feel very much the same way. And it's one of the things I appreciate most about growing Holder. I don't necessarily appreciate the wrinkles fair, but feeling more comfortable in your skin, not apologizing for who you are or the decisions that you make. It's quite a good feeling. Yes. And we get

Tara Spencer: Little girls in boys at home. It's an important message to send us as well. Absolutely. We have to model it for them. Yes. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Tara. This has been a really lovely conversation. Thank you so much. I appreciate being on. It was great to be here.