Utility companies boosting commercial EV adoption

Utility companies are capitalizing on the growing commercial electric vehicle market in places like California by venturing into a new business model and boosting adoption. 

Utilities began reaching out to J.D. Power to gather data on commercial electric vehicles as companies began building out EV-related features on their websites, Greg Brink, director of digital marketing at J.D. Power, said today during a keynote speech at the Spring 2024 Commercial Vehicles Business Summit. 

“We were blindsided by this about a year ago; when these utility companies kept coming to us asking us for data,” he said. “These utility companies — Austin Energy, DTE Duquesne Light and Power, Anaheim, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) — these massive electric utility companies that are begging for adoption so they’re actually putting marketplaces on their websites now with vehicle inventory.”

Calculating total cost of ownership

PG&E developed a total cost of ownership model on the company’s website that allows customers to track key metrics related to EV fleets. PG&E, which services much of northern and central California, intends to capitalize on the growing need for charging infrastructure and electric vehicles in the region, Brink said. 

“They had a huge motivation to get commercial truck organizations to glom on to this initiative,” he said. “They put together, using a lot of the data that we have, a total cost of ownership tool for these folks to leverage and understand what the true [vehicle] ROI could potentially be.” 

PG&E utilized several financial data points, filters, and inputs from J.D. Power to build out the total cost of ownership model, Brink said. For many companies, the commercial EV space represents a potential revenue source free of some of the stricter government regulations they face as part of the utility industry. 

“Utility companies are banking on less regulation with some of the new products and services they can offer,” he said. “Some of these companies that are heavily regulated, specifically utility companies, are trying to create new channels for revenue that aren’t governed by regulators.” 

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