GPS Tracking for Electric Fleet Vehicles

A diesel truck's telematics data centers on location, fuel, and engine diagnostics. An EV adds a layer diesel fleets never had to think about: state of charge, state of health, and charging behavior, all of which directly determine whether a vehicle can actually complete its route, not just how efficiently it does. Running out of charge mid-route is a different, more disruptive failure than running low on fuel, since charging infrastructure is sparser and slower than a gas station network.

That data isn't standardized the way engine diagnostics are across combustion vehicles. Electric vehicles don't follow a single mandated telematics data standard, which means getting real state-of-charge and battery-health data out of an EV requires the platform to work directly with each manufacturer rather than relying on one universal protocol. Geotab has built that manufacturer-level integration for over 300 EV makes and models, covering real-time state-of-charge, state-of-health, and charging and driving energy data.

Not every route or vehicle in a fleet is a good electrification candidate today, and guessing wrong is an expensive mistake, either buying an EV that can't reliably cover its route or passing over a vehicle that would have worked fine. Geotab's Electric Vehicle Suitability Assessment addresses this directly: it analyzes a fleet's existing telematics data, real driving patterns from the actual diesel or gas vehicles currently running those routes, to build a personalized electrification recommendation based on range capability, charging availability, and total cost of ownership.

That's a meaningfully different approach than a generic EV range chart, since it's grounded in how a specific fleet's vehicles are actually driven, not a manufacturer's ideal-conditions range estimate. A route that looks borderline on paper might be comfortably within range once actual driving patterns, not theoretical range, are the basis for the assessment.

Battery degradation is one of the most common concerns fleets raise before electrifying, and it's a reasonable one to want real data on rather than a manufacturer's marketing claim. Geotab's own analysis of real-world data from over 22,700 electric vehicles across 21 makes and models found an average annual battery degradation rate of 2.3%, and identified charging behavior, not just age or mileage, as the dominant factor in how quickly a battery actually ages.

That last point has a direct operational implication: how a fleet charges its EVs, fast-charging frequency in particular, is something a fleet manager can actually influence, unlike a vehicle's calendar age. Telematics data that tracks charging patterns alongside battery health gives a fleet the ability to see that relationship on its own vehicles, not just in an aggregate industry study.