WASHINGTON - The Electrification Coalition released a new report, titled Fleet Electrification Roadmap, which analyzes the benefits and challenges of electric vehicle deployment. The study recommends policies aimed at accelerating conversion of the 16 million government and commercial fleet vehicles on the road in the U.S.

The Electrification Coalition is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to development of an electric vehicle market. PRTM, a global management consulting firm, and GE Capital Fleet Services, contributed to the report.

The Fleet Roadmap also assesses the potential impact of fleet electrification on transportation, energy security, and sustainability. It is geared toward demonstrating targeted opportunities in which the lower operating costs of electric drive vehicles, coupled with the operational norms of commercial and government fleets, could make adoption of PHEVs and EVs highly attractive.

The report also identifies significant technological challenges facing fleet operators and recommends targeted public policies to help overcome those challenges, including:

• Federal fleet electrification, including the Postal Service.

• Guarantee of residual value for the first generation of lithium-ion batteries.

• Clean renewable energy bonds for infrastructure.

The Fleet Roadmap presents the results of detailed total cost of ownership modeling for PHEVs and EVs in fleet applications for a number of industries. The analysis suggests that with targeted, temporary policies in place, fleet adoption of PHEVs and EVs could result in a cumulative 200,000 vehicles on the road by 2015.

For a PDF of the Fleet Roadmap, click here. A case study of government light trucks can be found on p. 118.