Fleet Electrification at Scale: What the EV Slowdown Debate Gets Wrong

Fleet electrification is scaling right now. Here is what fleet leaders and infrastructure experts are seeing on the ground. Headlines suggest fleet electrification is stalling, but the people building and operating EV fleets tell a different story. Siemens’ Head of U.S. Fleet, Adam Orth, joins Mike Finnern and John Heaton of WSP to unpack what is actually happening across public transit, private service fleets, and the charging infrastructure that supports them. Drawing on real projects and Siemens’ own experience, they explain how fleet electrification decisions play out in practice, and why progress looks uneven from the outside. Key takeaways: Why fleet electrification follows many paths, depending on duty cycles, geography, and operations How charging infrastructure and software shape fleet electrification outcomes as much as vehicles do What slows fleet electrification most often, including adoption, change management, and workforce readiness Lessons from Siemens as it passes the halfway point toward electrifying its full U.S. fleet by 2030 If you want a grounded view of fleet electrification beyond the headlines, this episode shows what scaling looks like when real fleets make the shift.