Electrification is reshaping the fleet manager's job, from buying vehicles to managing charging, data and drivers

A role in the middle of the electric transition

Electrification is well under way in corporate fleets, and flotauto.com reported in September 2026 that the sector could view 2026 as the tipping point. Chloé Monthieu, a vehicles and mobility consultant with the EPSA consultancy group, told the publication that 80 per cent of her assignments now relate to electrification, with companies moving because of taxes and reform of benefits in kind, measures that penalise high-emission fleets and reward low-emission vehicles. ¹

The scale of change varies by operator. flotauto.com profiled a procurement manager at an industrial group with 600 employees where 5 to 10 per cent of vehicles are already fully electric, with management pushing for electrification on economic rather than environmental grounds, and a target of a fully electric fleet by around 2032. Titi Floris, a transport cooperative, managed 2,600 purchased vehicles including 350 electric as of May 2026, up from 335 a year earlier, while Sodexo is working towards all 3,056 of its vehicles being electric by the end of 2026. ¹

The day-to-day work is changing accordingly. Erwan Goudaud, deputy manager of the vehicle fleet department at Titi Floris, told flotauto.com that with electric vehicles, "our profession has changed a lot", while Marine Evano, general services manager at the Monnoyeur industrial group, described the shift as "change management work" on electric vehicles and said her job is now more interesting, with more added value, requiring her to keep up to date. ¹

Charging emerges as the central problem

Of the changes electrification brings, charging has become the dominant concern. Éric Gaigneux, founder and president of charging point operator Watt, which manages 18,000 charging points, told flotauto.com that fleet managers now have to manage charging for their employees, and that charging accounts for between 20 and 30 per cent of the issues to be addressed in a transition, involving significant sums of money. ¹

Gaigneux told flotauto.com that home charging remains the cheapest option at around 0.2 euros per kWh, but public charging rates on the road can triple, so managers need to track all recharges centrally and educate drivers to choose economical locations. Erwan Goudaud agreed that charging remains the main concern and the stumbling block, particularly controlling costs across on-site, home and road charging. ¹

Reimbursing employees for home charging is a related difficulty. Goudaud told flotauto.com he used the services of VoltaBack, a French start-up founded in 2024 whose digital solution separates professional charging from the rest of an employee's household consumption. He also noted that electrification adds complexity for operational staff who plan routes, since organising journeys without the predictable range of a diesel vehicle takes more time. ¹

Research points to responsibility without control

New research from the Arval Mobility Observatory, carried out with Econometrica and covering 200 Italian corporate mobility professionals, was reported by Il Sole 24 Ore in October 2026. The study found reducing total cost of ownership is the top priority for fleet managers, followed by ESG objectives, data reporting and management, driver satisfaction, supplier management and fleet electrification. The publication noted the most significant finding is that these pressures are simultaneous: companies are adding sustainability, data and technology requirements to existing responsibilities rather than replacing them. ²

Il Sole 24 Ore also highlighted the study's finding of a gap between assigned responsibilities and actual control. Electrification decisions ranked first among areas where managers perceive high responsibility but low control, followed by budget and costs, ESG policies and charging infrastructure; supplier selection was the best-balanced area. The publication described the resulting role as one where pressure shifts from execution to mediation, reconciling conflicting interests across costs, sustainability, driver experience and operational continuity. ²

Laura Echino, president of Aiaga, told Il Sole 24 Ore that the fleet manager is transforming from fleet manager to corporate mobility director, a new role linking efficiency, sustainability, safety and wellbeing, but that the evolution requires consistent governance, clear mandates and access to decision-making processes within the organisation. ²

Regulation and tax expand the skill set

Tax expertise is a new requirement. flotauto.com reported EPSA consultant Chloé Monthieu's advice that the impact of recent reforms is significant enough that fleet managers should rely on a tax specialist, including to drive the number of electric vehicles in the fleet to avoid an annual incentive tax and to choose between calculation methods for benefits in kind. She also recommended fleet management software to automate the calculations and provide a complete view of total cost of ownership. ¹

The financial stakes are concrete. flotauto.com cited Marine Evano, general services manager at the Monnoyeur industrial group, whose 800 company cars would have faced an estimated 115,000 euros in annual incentive tax penalties in 2026, rising to 300,000 in 2027 and 400,000 in 2028, had she not changed the fleet's composition. She presented the electrification plan and tax issues to her executive committee, and reported that the role is now more exposed and her name better known than before. ¹

Leasing company Alphabet has made a similar case from the supplier side. In its C-level insights series, Alphabet Germany chief executive Uwe Hildinger described fleet managers as strategic architects of the mobility transition rather than vehicle administrators, while Alphabet Spain's Alberto Copado noted that over 75 per cent of fleet managers in Spain already recognise the need to reduce CO2 emissions, a figure Alphabet expects to rise as regulations tighten in the 2030s. ⁵

The Australian context: mixed fleets and new standards

In Australia, 365 Roadside Assistance identified EV fleet integration under the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard as one of the key trends for fleet operators in 2026, writing in September 2026 that the NVES is encouraging more operators to use electric vehicles, with many fleets now running petrol, diesel and electric vehicles side by side, each requiring different maintenance schedules, charging logistics and roadside protocols. ³

The same publication listed broader pressures reshaping the Australian role, including AI-powered telematics and data analytics, predictive maintenance becoming a baseline expectation, Chain of Responsibility compliance obligations, electronic work diaries replacing paper logbooks for heavy vehicles, and cybersecurity as fleets become more connected. It noted that connected devices such as telematics units and work diaries generate and transmit data, putting cybersecurity on the fleet manager's desk rather than the IT team's alone. ³

Where the role is heading

Technology vendors see the shift accelerating. Webfleet, in a LinkedIn article in May 2026, contrasted a traditional fleet manager who trawls reports and reacts to incidents with a future-ready counterpart who uses generative AI tools to query fleet data directly, AI cameras for real-time driver risk prevention, predictive maintenance to protect uptime, and dedicated EV fleet management platforms to match vehicles to journeys and schedule charging at the cheapest times. ⁴

Analyst firm Oxmaint, in its 2026-2030 industry outlook published in February 2026, projects that 45 per cent of new commercial vehicles will be electric by 2030 and that electric vehicles will reach total cost of ownership parity with diesel around 2028, with AI handling a growing share of dispatch decisions. These are the firm's own projections rather than observed outcomes, but they point in the same direction as the operator experiences reported by flotauto.com: the fleet manager's job is expanding from procurement and administration towards charging strategy, data interpretation, compliance and internal advocacy. ⁶¹