Lightning eMotors, provider of zero-emissions, medium-duty commercial vehicles and electric vehicle technology for fleets, has released its new virtual Fleet Planner, a free configuration tool that allows fleet managers to input their individual fleet characteristics and receive a customized operating cost analysis and carbon reduction metrics based on the recommended Lightning EV that best fits their needs.

“One of the challenges facing fleets seeking to electrify is a lack of reliable information about how commercial EVs will perform under various conditions, and how big an impact they will have on key metrics such as operating cost and carbon reduction,” said Nick Bettis, VP of marketing and sales operations at Lightning eMotors. “Our virtual Fleet Planner takes the guesswork out of vehicle selection and provides personalized and understandable EV information based on the fleet’s unique needs. We believe the ability to compare operating costs with equivalent ICE vehicles will be an eye-opening look into the benefits of an EV fleet.”

Within the Fleet Planner, users first select the type of fleet they manage (passenger, cargo, school bus, or ambulance). Next, they input a variety of information that is important to effective fleet management, including route distance, payload or number of passengers, terrain type (e.g., flat or hilly), average temperature, drive cycle and driver behavior, shift duration, charging opportunity time and dwell time. This is a free tool that allows fleet and sustainability managers to configure their EV fleets and fully understand the cost savings and positive environmental impact of going zero emissions.

Using the information provided and more than five years of real-world data collected by Lightning’s industry-leading telematics system, Lightning Insights, the Fleet Planner displays recommended Lightning vehicles and the associated charge rates needed to fit the specific application. Fleet managers then can select their desired vehicle to see how a Lightning EV compares to an equivalent ICE vehicle in efficiency, total cost of ownership, as well as how much CO2 could be mitigated from the atmosphere with an electrified fleet.

“The level of detail fleet managers can see in our Fleet Planner is unprecedented in the market,” said Brandon McNeil, VP of Lightning Energy and Insights. “At Lightning, we have been putting Class 3 – 7 zero-emission, fully-electric fleet vehicles on the roads since 2018 and have amassed over 3-million EV miles. We have leveraged this arsenal of real-world data in Fleet Planner, an easy-to-use tool that will be extremely compelling and useful for fleet managers who are considering fleet electrification.”