Case Study: Elis Powers Its Electric Transport Fleet with Mer
Elis operates 550 vehicles across 25 sites in Sweden and aims for a fossil-free fleet by 2030. Elis sought a charging partner to support their electrification journey and provide seamless monitoring of charging activities.
Optimised depot charging facilities
Smart charging and monitoring
Scalable EV infrastructure
The Client
French-owned Elis is a leading international textile service provider that rents textile solutions to various industries. The company manages the entire process from design to logistics, laundering, and recycling. In Sweden, Elis operates 25 facilities with 1,600 employees and distribution nationwide. Its fleet currently consists of 550 vehicles, ranging from distribution vans and light and heavy trucks to company cars.
The Brief
Elis has been actively working towards electrifying its vehicle fleet for several years.
The company recently had its climate goals approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, further intensifying its climate efforts. Additionally, many of Elis’s existing clients demanded fossil-free distribution and CO2 tracking, requirements also prevalent in public procurements.
Elis also introduced a vehicle policy. This policy states that all company cars must be hybrid or electric. This marks the start of their shift to an electric fleet.
The primary requirement for a charging solution was to ensure sufficient range and facilitate easy overnight charging at depots.
Many of Elis’s distribution vehicles are parked at their facilities overnight and deliver to customers during the day. The primary requirement for a charging solution was to ensure sufficient range and facilitate easy overnight charging at depots.
A big challenge in electrifying vehicles is their added weight. This weight lowers the payload capacity. As a result, drivers need to make more trips with shorter ranges.
It was crucial to test each facility individually to identify the optimal solution. Elis also required the ability to continuously evaluate charging activities and easily monitor each vehicle’s charging data to assess energy consumption at their facilities.
We needed a charging solution that would function seamlessly throughout our electrification journey towards sustainable transport, providing continuous statistics and monitoring, and could be managed alongside our operational leasing partner, Autolease. We've achieved this with Mer as our charging partner.
Patrik Nyholm, Purchasing Manager at Elis Sweden
The Solution
Elis chose Mer as their charging partner due to Mer’s ability to provide smooth support throughout the process. Mer offered the best system support for statistics and monitoring, which simplifies the administration and management of charging activities.
“Access to Mer’s web portal, which provides statistics and monitoring, makes it easy to track how much each vehicle has charged and to distinguish where the electricity is used, such as how much is allocated to production versus distribution.” — Patrik Nyholm, Purchasing Manager at Elis Sweden
Elis continuously reviews which routes can be electrified each year and how the charging infrastructure needs to be configured. They also consider developments in transport electric vehicles – regarding range, payload, etc.
Mer has effectively addressed our needs and challenges. Over the past three years, we've rolled out 22 kW chargers at our facilities in the first phase.
Patrik Nyholm, Elis Sweden
“Mer has effectively addressed our needs and challenges. Over the past three years, we’ve rolled out 22 kW chargers at our facilities in the first phase. Now, we’re entering a second phase where we need to operate our transport vehicles in more than one shift and adapt the charging solution accordingly. Therefore, we’ve also started complementing our facilities with fast chargers from Mer.” — Patrik Nyholm
The company was supported by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s “Ladda bilen” grant for the 22kW chargers. Elis also plans to apply for the “Klimatklivet” grant for the new fast chargers. They have secured electricity prices, allowing them to know exactly how operating costs will appear.
A Tailored Charging Solution
Elis will continue to expand its charging network, introducing more 22kW chargers for its distribution and company cars, as well as employees’ private vehicles.
Next, Elis will electrify vehicles running between depots and laundries. These routes cover a longer range, more shifts, and require ultra-fast charge points that provide a high-power charge.
About Mer in Sweden
Mer Sverige offers complete charging solutions for companies with large vehicle fleets, depots, heavy traffic, property owners and the public sector. Through our nationwide public charging network in Sweden, we make it easy to charge along the way.
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