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May 28, 2021
News, Press Releases

“Plug-in Fleet – Heavy Trucks” project receives over $1.2 million in funding from MELCC

Saint-Jérôme, May 17th, 2021 – The Innovative Vehicle Institute (IVI) is pleased to announce that it has just been awarded a $1,245,560 grant to carry out its “Plug-in Fleet – Heavy Trucks” project, which will help companies and municipalities with the energy transition of their heavy vehicle fleets. The “Plug-in Fleet – Heavy Trucks” project is financially supported by Action-Climat Québec, a program of the Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, which is part of the 2013-2020 Climate Change Action Plan.

Having completed a project to integrate electric cars into private and municipal fleets in Quebec, IVI is now turning its attention to the heavy truck industry. Although the shift to electrification of heavy vehicles in commercial fleets may seem more challenging, it will have a significant impact on reducing GHGs, especially since road freight transport is an essential service that cannot be bypassed.

This project aims to facilitate changes in behaviour and practices to encourage the adoption of a new technology by providing heavy vehicle fleet managers with the tools they need to make an informed decision about the electrification of their fleet. The project will be divided into three phases spread out over 36 months. The first phase will be devoted to the organization of 8 regional workshops prepared by IVI. These will be given throughout Quebec to about 100 heavy vehicle fleet managers from companies, organizations or municipalities. These meetings will allow them to learn about all the considerations associated with an electrification project and will be an opportunity for them to try out electric trucks. During the second phase, 30 companies will have the opportunity to have their usage data analyzed and will be guided to begin their transition. Finally, the third phase will allow 5 companies to test an electric truck in their fleets for one month.

Through its ‘Plug-in Fleet – Heavy Trucks’ project, IVI will facilitate the shift to electric vehicles in companies by working with its industry partners. We will inform, equip and train heavy vehicle owners and operators at no cost to help them electrify their fleets, in addition to offering demonstrations of electric trucks in the context of real operations.

François Adam, Eng., General Manager at IVI.

To carry out this project, IVI will be able to count on a strong collaboration from its partners in the transportation industry. They will act as experts and provide a clear picture of the field, its knowledge, issues and needs, as well as lending electric trucks for the ride & drive workshops and demonstration phases. The key information and views of these partners will be highly useful to IVI in order to offer solutions adapted to the reality and needs of the industry.

IVI is pursuing its objective of lowering the barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles in Quebec fleets, initiated with the Plug-in Fleet project, which had been financially supported as part of Action-Climat Québec in 2017. In total, no less than 30 companies across the province and over 300 employees had participated in the trials. In the end, 63% of the companies had changed their practices and adopted electric vehicles. We can therefore say that such a national awareness project brings concrete and lasting results, giving us great hope for the future.

 

Looking for more information? Contact us by email at flotte@ivisolutions.ca