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How Ford is helping Ecolab transition to EVs

Communications, training and a close working relationship with Ford Motor Co. are essential to the company’s electric vehicle transition. Read More

A photo of Ford's electric vehicle center in Dearborn, MI.
E-trucks being assembled at Ford's Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn, Michigan will help advance the automaker's renewed focus on vehicle fleets. Source: Ford Motor Co.

Ecolab, which offers water, hygiene and infection-prevention solutions and services, announced in January that it would purchase over 1,000 electric vehicles from Ford Motor Co. and convert all its sales and service vehicles in California to EVs by 2025. It’s part of the company’s plan to transition its entire fleet of more than 11,000 vehicles to EVs by 2030.

Ecolab estimates it will save about $1,400 in annual fuel costs for each internal combustion-engined vehicle it replaces with a 2023 F-150 Lightning Pro truck, according to a Jan. 30 news release. 

A key reason why the company partnered with Ford is that the automaker allows fleets to bundle EV purchases alongside related software and services, including charging, through the Ford Pro unit. 

“A one-stop shop is much more appealing,” said Mike Hauge, fleet electrification manager at Ecolab. “I don’t think you can replicate it quite as easily piecemeal.”

Why Ford refocused its EV strategy on fleets

In September, Ford said it would deemphasize consumer EVs and sell more commercial EVs as part of its new plan to improve EV sales and profitability.

Ford plans to launch a “digitally advanced” commercial van in 2026 and medium- and full-size electric pickups in 2027. The automaker also plans to update existing software and services such as BlueCruise and Ford Pro Telematics, which help fleets improve efficiency, monitor vehicles and driver behavior, and manage maintenance and repairs. 

“This will increase the installed base for software and services — improving Ford’s mix of sticky, profitable revenue over time,” according to an Aug. 21 news release.

The changes come as Ford and other vehicle manufacturers lose $4,000 per EV sold on EVs in 2024 thanks to softening demand, lower prices and high interest rates. The company is turning to its highly profitable commercial unit, Ford Pro, to turn things around. Since 2021, the company’s Ford Pro operations have brought in around $18.7 billion in adjusted earnings and $184.5 billion in revenue, CNBC reported in August. Meanwhile, the automaker’s EV unit, Model e, has bled red ink recently.

The automaker is turning to fleets to boost EV sales, in part, because “total cost of ownership is a big thing for fleets,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive, noting that government and manufacturer incentives and lower fuel and maintenance costs usually offset the higher upfront costs of EVs.

The typical consumer, on the other hand, is less likely to account for the total cost of ownership because they aren’t used to it and may not save much money compared with fleets because “the scale is different,” said Stephanie Brinley, a principal automotive analyst and associate director of AutoIntelligence at S&P Global Mobility. “I don’t think we’re going to have a drastic change in consumer behavior.”

Other automakers, including General Motors and Stellantis, are also ramping up their commercial vehicle sales to boost profitability. Fleet sales accounted for an estimated 17.5 percent of total light-vehicle sales in the U.S. in September, according to J.D. Power.

Ford declined an interview request for this story.

Smoothing the EV transition

Ford Pro’s software and services should also help Ecolab optimize its fleet operations. According to a Ford Pro survey of Sonoma County Winegrowers, respondents said that, on average, a solution such as Ford Pro Telematics would help them reduce their idling hours by 49 percent, time spent tracking maintenance schedules by 37 percent and time spent monitoring fuel usage by 58 percent.

Transitioning a fleet from ICE vehicles to EVs requires a robust approach to change management, including communications, training and deployment, Ecolab’s Hauge said. 

The typical EV buyer is usually interested in driving one for personal reasons and has researched EVs before purchasing one. But that’s different for employees using fleet vehicles. They’re often less informed about EVs and potentially less interested or even opposed to using one, Hauge said. “It can get very politicized.”

Ecolab has a change management practitioner to assist the company with communications and navigate the transition to EVs.

Ford also provided Ecolab with training assistance. However, Hauge said the training needed to be more detailed and specific to the company’s fleet. As a result, the companies partnered to develop training for Ecolab that Ford could potentially adapt to other customers or use cases. Ecolab wanted to provide drivers with “really detailed training” before and after they received their EV to ensure “they feel really supported with information,” Hauge said. 

The company has deployed about 350 additional EVs in California this year. Last year, it added 99 Ford Mach E EVs to its fleet as part of a pilot.

Ecolab also wanted to make it easy for drivers to get reimbursed for charging at home or public charging stations. While many organizations park and charge their EVs at centralized facilities, Ecolab’s fleet is almost entirely decentralized, meaning that the company’s sales and service vehicles are parked and charged at an employee’s home or another offsite location. 

About 40-45 percent of Ecolab’s drivers in California will have home charging stations installed and paid for by Ecolab, Hauge said, which requires the company to reimburse those drivers for higher utility bills. 

“I’d be a little stressed if I had to float an additional $300 or $400 a month if I didn’t get paid back on that [utility bill],” Hauge said. “We need to be able to turn those reimbursement reports quickly.”

Home charging

Ecolab uses Ford Pro Telematics to monitor driver charging behavior, including where and when they charge, and to generate and email a summary report to drivers that they can use to get reimbursed without needing to do the calculations themselves. Ford and Ecolab collaborated to develop the enhanced expense reporting functionality. 

Ford Pro Telematics also helps ensure that drivers charge their EVs at home, if possible, which costs far less than using a public charging station, Hauge said.

It also helps Ecolab minimize downtime for hourly employees by using DC fast chargers when it makes sense. 

“We can’t have them spending six hours a day at a slower, cheaper charger because that doesn’t pencil out either,” Hauge said.

Ford Pro’s integrated approach has helped smooth the transition to EVs, especially when troubleshooting and providing support, Hauge said.

“It’s the whole ecosystem, and frankly, I can’t imagine doing it without the telematics,” Hauge said.

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