Step 4 of the site-level federal fleet electrification process includes aligning site location planning with the agency's overall Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan.

Before proceeding with electrification plans, each agency site location must understand their agency's overall Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan (required under Section 204 of EO 14057), including how fleet electrification fits into the agency's overall fleet plans and sustainability strategy, while ensuring the agency complies with all federal fleet sustainability requirements. This includes deciding how the agency may integrate zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) into a multi-year plan for transforming the fleet and achieving an optimal fleet using a vehicle allocation methodology (VAM), while considering resource limitations. This fleet planning supports agencies in evaluating ZEV suitability and identifying ZEV opportunities, which in turn leads to determination of priority sites for EVSE installation. After answering the following questions, agencies can then execute their plans by acquiring ZEVs and deploying supporting EVSE throughout the fleet locations.

• How do battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) fit in my overall fleet plan?
• What are my candidate ZEVs, optimal locations for deployment, and EVSE needs?
• How do I prioritize facilities and infrastructure needs?
• How do I acquire the right EVs and EVSE?
• How do I install EVSE and leverage them for workplace charging?
• How do I support EV and EVSE operation, maintenance, and data collection?

Federal fleets develop, implement, and execute an overall fleet-specific operational and sustainability strategy by developing agency-specific multi-year fleet plans. This process typically includes the steps and components shown below.

1. Establish an overall fleet management strategy.

Agency headquarters fleet electrification managers should begin evaluating fleet electrification opportunities by assembling a baseline fleet profile. This involves constructing a database for each fleet vehicle that includes the vehicle characteristics (e.g., age, type, standard item number [SIN], fuel type, etc.), location, operations, and mission data elements necessary to evaluate suitability for electrification. This is pre-populated in the Zero-Emission Vehicle Planning and Charging (ZPAC) tool based on reviewing fleet data in the Federal Automotive Statistical Tool (FAST) and the Fleet Sustainability Dashboard (FleetDASH). FleetDASH also contains an Alternative Fuel Vehicle (AFV) Screening Tool with most of the necessary data for General Services Administration (GSA)-leased vehicles.

2. Align strategy with fleet regulatory requirements.

After setting an overarching fleet management vision and goals, the agency should establish quantifiable annual targets for ZEV acquisitions. ZEVs can help the agency reduce fleet petroleum use (42 U.S.C. § 6374e(a)(2)), increase alternative fuel use (42 U.S.C. § 6374e(a)(2)), acquire AFVs (42 U.S.C. § 13212(b)) and low-greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting vehicles (42 U.S.C. § 13212(f)(2)), install renewable fueling infrastructure (42 U.S.C. § 17053(a)), and achieve other required or important targets to the agency. For ZEV acquisition, this includes establishing gradual increases in longer-term ZEV acquisition rates to ultimately achieve 100% ZEV light-duty vehicle (LDV) acquisitions by the end of FY 2027 and 100% overall ZEV vehicle acquisitions by the end of FY 2035 (Section 102(ii) of EO 14057). The agency can use these targets to evaluate how ZEV acquisition and petroleum reduction strategies both achieve the overall fleet management strategy and comply with statutory mandates.

3. Determine ZEV acquisition rates, EVSE deployment needs, and petroleum reduction strategies for each fleet location.

To achieve the vision of EO 14057, meet mission-critical needs, and comply with all federal goals and mandates, an agency should evaluate: 

• The suitability and feasibility of electrification, as well as 
• The appropriate combination of the four core principles of petroleum reduction at each fleet location. 

This includes determining the best vehicle candidates for electrification and associated locations to deploy supporting EVSE. Details on the process and tools to evaluate electrification opportunities, including using replacement cycle analyses, identification of ZEV candidates using specific criteria, looking at site locations for EVs and supporting charging infrastructure, and agency review at both the headquarters and local level are discussed in Step 5: Identify ZEV opportunities and Step 6: Identify EVSE opportunities.

4. Create multi-year strategic plans for fleet electrification and petroleum reduction.

As required by Section 102(ii) of EO 14057 and EISA Section 142 (42 U.S.C. § 6374e(b)), each federal agency must develop both an annual Agency Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan as well as a Sustainability Plan (detailed here). Within the annual Agency Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan, agencies provide annual agency ZEV acquisition targets that ramp up to the FY 2027 100% LDV acquisition, FY 2035 all vehicle acquisition targets, and annual targets for EVSE deployment. Within the Sustainability Plan, the agency augments the Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan with lists of other planned petroleum reduction strategies and tactics for each fleet location, a project’s estimated reductions in petroleum consumption and increases in alternative fuel consumption to be achieved by each specific measure, and estimates compliance with federal fleet sustainability requirements.

Section 204 of EO 14057 requires that agencies with fleets comprising 20 or more vehicles, including leased and owned vehicles, must annually develop and update a Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan. To support agencies in reaching EO goals, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), in conjunction with the Department of Energy (DOE) and GSA, developed a Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan Template to assist agencies in completing this annual planning requirement.

Sec. 204. "Each agency with a fleet comprising at least 20 vehicles shall develop and annually update a zero-emission fleet strategy that shall include optimizing fleet size and composition; deploying zero-emission vehicle re-fueling infrastructure; and maximizing acquisition and deployment of zero-emission light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles where GSA offers one or more zero-emission vehicle options for that vehicle class."

Several principles guided the development of the Zero-Emission Fleet Strategic Plan Template, including:

1. Developing a data-driven, systems-based approach that builds on current systems and streamlines reporting requirements where possible
    
2. Maintaining target setting as part of internal management processes, while sharing progress toward the FY 2027 and FY 2035 targets publicly
    
3. Balancing necessary immediate-term and long-term planning by using iterative multi-year planning to reflect the latest key information regarding vehicle model availability and relevant costs.

CEQ, DOE, and GSA have also developed the ZEV and EVSE Targets Planning Tool to facilitate completion of Section 1 of the Strategic Plan Template listed above. This optional tool reflects the latest agency-specific estimates of future ZEV model availability, ZEV and EVSE costs, and other key assumptions from government subject matter experts from CEQ, DOE, and GSA. Completing this tool allows agencies to cut and paste the three tables from the "Executive Summary" tab of the tool into the Strategic Plan template. An example executive summary of the ZEV and EVSE Targets Planning Tool is shown below.

Fleet managers may use fleet data to:

1. Identify potential candidate vehicles for replacement with ZEVs, including analysis of vehicle suitability, availability, and alignment with vehicle operating characteristics and mission needs.
2. Inform the selection, siting, and installation of EVSE at federal facilities.
3. Assess current progress in fleet electrification both overall and at each fleet location.
4. Evaluate the historical effectiveness of electrification strategies at each fleet location.

Agencies may use multiple systems to review ZEV acquisitions, inventories, fuel use, mileage, and charging infrastructure data, including the following systems.

The agency's fleet management information system (FMIS) should be the primary repository for data on the entire agency fleet vehicle inventory including ZEVs, as well as the fuel use (including electricity) and mileage of each of those vehicles. Federal Management Regulation (FMR) Section 102-34.340 requires that each federal agency "must have a fleet management information system that: (a) identifies and collects accurate inventory, cost, and use data that covers the complete lifecycle of each motor vehicle (acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal); and (b) provides the information necessary to satisfy both internal and external reporting requirements including: (1) cost per mile; (2) fuel costs for each motor vehicle; and (3) data required for FAST (see § 102–34.335).

GSA's Federal Fleet Management System (FedFMS) is a vehicle asset management system specifically designed for the management of federal agency- owned vehicles. FedFMS provides the information necessary to satisfy regular reporting requirements and data required for FAST.

GSAFleet.gov is a GSA-maintained system containing information on each vehicle registered to a federal government agency.

Federal agencies are required to use FAST to report accurate fuel consumption, mileage, cost, inventory, and acquisition data on each agency vehicle (including ZEVs) for each fiscal year—the reporting period begins on the first of October and ends on approximately December 15 following each fiscal year. Evaluating inventory, fuel use, and mileage data in FAST allows agencies to identify potential candidates for electrification by analyzing vehicle and operating data.

FleetDASH is an online tool that provides federal fleets the capacity to track agency fleet fuel consumption, GHG emissions, vehicle usage patterns, and vehicle inventories at the asset level and at regular intervals. In evaluating fleet electrification, FleetDASH augments FAST by providing more detailed analysis of vehicle operating data to determine suitability for electrification.

Identifying ZEV Opportunities

Fleet managers should consider focusing on vehicle operating characteristics when selecting which ZEVs to acquire, but the vehicle acquisition process cannot be undertaken without planning for EVSE. Timing should focus on ensuring that the EVSE will be operational once the ZEV enters service at the fleet location. At a high level, these are the two steps to consider when identifying ZEV opportunities:

1. Identify optimal ZEV candidates based on fleet operational and location characteristics. Evaluate operating characteristics for each vehicle candidate, including average and maximum daily driving range, route, and driving cycle, to determine whether a ZEV can meet the vehicle mission needs. Determine availability of BEVs or PHEVs to replace conventional-fueled vehicles. Ensure that replacement options will serve the agency's and vehicle’s mission and charging requirements do not cause undue burden on fleet operations.
    
2. Determine EVSE needs. The type of infrastructure needed depends on the types of ZEVs procured and the vehicle’s charging requirements (e.g., frequency of charging sessions, length of charging session versus dwell time). BEVs and PHEVs both require EVSE to charge. However, EVSE needs are different for each of these vehicle types. Some BEVs, which usually have larger batteries, may require higher-level EVSE (e.g., Level 2) compared to some PHEVs, which may only need lower-power charging (e.g., Level 1). Charging equipment can vary based on operating characteristics, size of batteries, and charging cycle.

As part of the Commitment Ready component of the ZEV Ready certification, the site ZEV champion and site location fleet managers should coordinate with the agency headquarters fleet electrification managers to complete the site location component of the annual ZEV Strategic Plan, including analyzing fleet data to inform electrification strategies.

Review the Federal Fleet ZEV Ready Center landing page and all 15 steps.