Fleet data potential grows as connected vehicle penetration increases

The potential for the use of connected vehicle technology in the fleet sector is growing, new research from Epyx suggests.

It has found that for new vehicle registrations between 2020 and 2022, the percentage of connected internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and vans registered on its 1link Service Network platform has risen from 62% to 76% while the percentage of connected electric vehicles has also increased – from 94% to 97%.

Matt Waller, director of connected car at Epyx’s parent company Fleetcor, said the figures indicated the adoption of connected vehicle technology for fleets was already reaching a crucial tipping-point and that, by the middle of the decade, finding a non-connected car or van being operated by a business in the UK would be unusual.

“As we been discussing in the market, we see connected vehicle data emerging as the successor technology to telematics during the next few years, but this does depend on vehicles having the hardware fitted to make this possible,” he said.

“What this data shows, beyond question, is that this is very much the case.

“In fact, the penetration across the more than four million vehicles registered on our 1link platforms is tracking at higher than the overall European parc, showing that UK fleets are very much leading the way in this area.”

He explained that Epyx was currently trialling a connected vehicle solution with a number of fleets that was delivering impressive results.

“For many years, there have been three main barriers to connected vehicle data use by fleets,” he said. “First was the availability of data from manufacturers, second was the percentage of vehicles that had the technology fitted and third was the means to present that information to fleets in a format that makes it genuinely productive.

“The first two issues are quickly being resolved within the market and the third is very much an area of deep expertise for epyx, with more than two decades of experience in working with fleets to turn data into insight and then action.”

He concluded: “We see potential for connected vehicle data across the fleet management value chain – including service and maintenance, remarketing, risk management and more – and are very excited about the prospect of bringing our first connected product to the market.”