Electric vehicles for Fellbach

City council switches to e-mobility following Fraunhofer IAO analysis

With eight electric vehicles currently in operation, Fellbach City Council’s vehicle fleet is now almost completely electric. In preparation for the switchover, Fraunhofer IAO scientists working as part of the elektromobilisiert.de project simulated various scenarios for systematically electrifying the council’s fleet and provided a cost and environmental analysis.

Is it possible to switch to an all-electric vehicle fleet – and if so, is it worth it? These are questions Fellbach City Council posed at the end of 2012, prompting scientists from Fraunhofer IAO and its cooperation partner, the IAT at the University of Stuttgart, to put the nine-vehicle fleet under the microscope. Is the fleet being used to its full capacity? How far on average do council employees generally have to drive? A field test was launched in parallel to the analysis using electric vehicles supplied by Fraunhofer IAO. This gave Fellbach council a chance to try out the electric vehicles, and Fraunhofer IAO was able to gather data on what routes were driven using software developed in house.

98 percent of routes are under 100 km
What the analysis indicated was that by implementing certain fleet management measures, the council could reduce the size of its fleet by two vehicles and make the switch to electric mobility. This is tied to the finding that in 98 percent of cases, the fleet vehicles are used to make trips of well under 100 km – a range that will prove no problem for electric vehicles. And since the vehicles are generally not in service during the night, there is ample time to charge them in the City Hall parking garage. All this puts Fellbach in an ideal position to make the best use of electromobility.

Fellbach City Council now has seven VW e-up!s in its fleet as well as a larger electric vehicle for use by the sorting office. The first public charge spot for electric vehicles is scheduled to be installed near City Hall in early 2015, with more planned for the future. The switchover also has an economic upside for the City Council: Downsizing the fleet reduces its fixed costs, ensures the remaining vehicles are well utilized and lowers the operating costs, too.

elektromobilisiert.de – custom fleet analysis
Under the banner of elektromobilisiert.de, public authorities, communities and companies are able to have their fleets professionally tested for their electro-compatibility – including the opportunity to undertake a practical trial using Fraunhofer IAO’s test fleet of electric vehicles. Taking into account such factors as range and charging times, software developed at the institute is used to evaluate data contained in the logbooks from existing fleets to determine their potential for conversion to electric power.

The basis for all work undertaken at the Fraunhofer IAO is a deep conviction that business success in a globalised arena is contingent on an ability to profitably leverage new high-tech potentials. In order to optimally exploit these opportunities, companies must be capable of developing and implementing customer and employee-oriented technologies faster than their competitors. Work organisation concepts must be simultaneously innovative and anthropocentric. A systematic design, in other words, is the outcome of pooled management and technical expertise. This holistic perspective when it comes to project processing ensures that equal consideration is given to commercial success, employees' interests and social consequences.

Through its close cooperation with the Institute for Human Factors and Technology Management (IAT) of the University of Stuttgart, Fraunhofer IAO unites basic university research with applied science and business practice.

Fraunhofer IAO, Michael Haag
Nobelstraße 12
70569 Stuttgart
+49 711 970-5140
michael.haag@iao.fraunhofer.de

This release was published on openPR.