With the signing of the Paris Climate Accords and extreme weather events in many parts of the world, climate change and decarbonization are at the forefront of many minds in government and industry. Solutions are being widely discussed, but research suggests that net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions need to be reduced much faster than anticipated to meet the targets set forth by the Paris Agreement in December 2015.1 Transport2 contributes roughly 10% of global GHG emissions,3  and reducing emissions from this sector is vital to meeting these climate targets. While current efforts are ongoing, the pace of transformation is unlikely to be sufficient, and barriers to a quicker transition (at scale) to zero-emission road transport must be addressed.

One of the key barriers facing this transition is the lack of coordinated investment in the shift from internal combustion engine (ICE) to zero-emission vehicles. In particular, fleets – meaning a (larger) number of vehicles managed by a single entity represent an opportunity to accelerate the zero-emission transition for two reasons. By targeting fleets, particularly of larger operators, multiple vehicles can be transitioned to zero emissions at once. Furthermore, the majority of fleets consist of commercial vehicles,4 which typically have a higher use rate, hence CO2 emissions, than their non-commercial counterparts. Concentrating efforts on electrifying fleets rather than privately owned vehicles could accelerate reductions in CO2 emissions by up to four times in the next 10 years, according to several studies.