Top 10 EV Stories for 2023 Hint at Trends for 2024

2023 was the big pivot year for electric vehicles as the euphoria of a new mode of transportation gave way to some raw, real street realities that fleet managers must factor into their EV plans.

It was the first year since EVs gained some mass traction in 2019 that wider troubles arose, with OEMs losing money on EVs, charging infrastructure proving unreliable, and questions about safety, reliability, and overall cost value emerging. Fleet managers also started engaging with deeper questions and challenges related to fleet electrification while seeking more concrete information.

Here is the list in order of metrics, or ratings, of Charged Fleet electric vehicle content for calendar year 2023:

1. Why Most Fleet Operations Are Not Ready for an EV Battery Fire: When the EV battery blows, the zero-emission motor turns into a high maintenance nightmare capable of burning as stubbornly as an old tire dump or oil tanker.
2. True Costs and Hidden Considerations of Maintaining EVs: As EVs are still relatively new, especially in fleets, there isn’t yet an aggregate of empirical data to confidently measure actual percentage of savings. Do initial assumptions of cost savings hold in the real world?
3. Used EV Prices Tank as Demand Craters: Car prices and selling times overall have come off their pandemic-induced highs, with electric vehicles now the slowest-selling segment of the used car market.
4. Are EVs or ICE Vehicles More Energy Efficient? For every $5 gallon of gasoline, only $1 of it is used to move an ICE vehicle along the road. However, the cost of charging an EV is equivalent to $1.41 per gallon in the U.S., making it cheaper to operate than an ICE vehicle, a study shows.
5. Lessons for Fleet Managers on EV Parking and Charging: No electric vehicle fleet will operate right without a parking facility matched and scaled to charging infrastructure and power sources. Do you go with a parking deck, a big garage or warehouse, or an open parking lot, and should it be new or existing?
6. The Straight Story on the State of Electric Vehicles: Data shows a strong reluctance among U.S. consumers to buy and charge electric vehicles, indicating concerns that apply to commercial fleets as well.
7. Used EVs Tip Into a Freefall that Could Benefit Fleets: As the universal vehicle pricing rule holds, when manufacturers like Tesla drastically reduce the prices of new models, prices on used ones follow the same path.
8. EV Battery Life Better Than Expected in Study of 15,000 EVs: While EV packs are complex technology with battery management systems that carefully regulate charging and temperature, research shows EV batteries are holding up stronger than first thought.
9. Hertz Adjusts EV Plans Amid Unforeseen Challenges: The combined cost challenges of running electric vehicles shaved earnings margins for the third quarter of 2023.
10. Is the Future Supply & Demand of Electric Vehicles Sustainable? Accessible supplies of lithium, cobalt and nickel among other commodities do not match the expected number of batteries required for projected electric vehicle production worldwide.