GB512 Unit 8 Formal Business Report Example

Six Electric Vans in Year One: A Unit 8 Formal Business Report for a Beverage Distributor's Chief Operating Officer

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

GB512: Business Communications

Unit 8 Formal Business Report

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The beverage distributor, its fleet, its routes and every figure are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.

Front Matter

The report opens with a title page, a transmittal memo to Alan Brooks, Chief Operating Officer, and a table of contents.

Executive Summary

Coldwater should replace six of the twelve diesel delivery vans due for retirement with electric vans in the coming year, assigning them to routes under 90 miles a day, and decide on the remaining six after one full winter of results. Each electric van costs about $24,000 more up front than a diesel van after incentives and its share of charging equipment, but saves about $5,700 a year in energy and maintenance, breaking even in a little over four years and saving about $21,700 over an eight-year life. Six vans can be charged overnight on the depot's existing electrical service. The main condition is winter range: three of the twelve routes may exceed a winter-reduced range, and two clearly do.

1. Introduction

Purpose. To advise the chief operating officer on the electric share of the coming van replacements and the routes and charging those vans would require.

Scope. The twelve urban delivery vans and their routes, depot charging and available incentives. Long-haul tractors and sales cars are excluded.

Method. Coldwater's fleet and dispatch records, published research on vehicle costs and charging, dealer and contractor quotes, and conversations with the fleet manager and two long-serving drivers.

Limitations. Winter range comes from manufacturer estimates, not Coldwater's own testing. Prices and incentives are current as of this month and may change.

2. Findings

# 2.1 Cost of Ownership

A comparable diesel delivery van costs about $62,000. An electric van costs about $98,000 before incentives. The federal commercial clean vehicle credit under 26 U.S.C. § 45W (2024) and a state voucher together reduce the electric van's cost to about $78,000, a difference of $16,000. Each van's share of a depot charger, installed, adds about $8,000, for a total extra first cost of about $24,000.

Annual operating savings are about $5,700 per van. At Coldwater's average of 18,000 miles a year, a diesel van uses about 1,640 gallons at $4.00, about $6,550, while an electric van uses about 16,200 kilowatt-hours at the depot's rate of 14 cents, about $2,270, a saving of about $4,280. Maintenance falls from about 20 cents a mile to about 12, saving about $1,440. These estimates use the cost categories from the Argonne ownership study, adjusted to Coldwater's local prices and miles (Burnham et al., 2021).

Table 1, a five-year cost comparison, shows the electric van breaking even in a little over four years. Over an eight-year service life, each electric van saves about $21,700 compared with a diesel van.

Electric vans cost more to buy and less to run, and on Coldwater's mileage the running savings repay the higher price in a little over four years.

# 2.2 Range on Current Routes

The twelve routes served by the retiring vans run between 54 and 126 miles a day. Seven are under 90 miles, three are between 90 and 110, and two exceed 110. The electric vans under consideration have a rated range of about 150 miles. Manufacturers estimate that cold weather and cabin heating can reduce range by about 30 percent, to roughly 105 miles. Figure 1 shows each route's daily miles against rated and winter range. Seven routes are safe year-round, three are marginal in winter and two are unsuitable.

# 2.3 Charging Infrastructure

Electric vans would charge overnight at the depot, where they sit for about ten hours. Each van needs about 65 kilowatt-hours a night, which a 7.2-kilowatt charger supplies in about nine hours. Six such chargers add about 43 kilowatts of load, which the depot's existing service can carry with managed charging. Twelve would need a service upgrade estimated by the electrical contractor at about $45,000. Michael Nicholas's study of charger costs across U.S. metropolitan areas supports the contractor's per-charger estimates (Nicholas, 2019).

# 2.4 Incentives

The federal commercial clean vehicle credit applies to qualifying vans bought for business use, and the state voucher program has funds available this year on a first-come basis. Both can be combined.

# 2.5 What the Fleet Manager and Drivers Said

The fleet manager's main concern was downtime: if an electric van fails, Coldwater has no spare electric van, so a diesel spare must cover its route. He recommended keeping two of the retiring diesel vans as spares for the first year rather than selling them. The two senior drivers raised practical points. Both said the routes under 90 miles are the dense downtown routes with many short stops, where an electric van's quiet operation and lack of idling would be welcome. One noted that the longest routes include a highway run to the airport hotels, which would drain range quickly in winter. Their comments match the range findings and support starting with the short routes.

3. Conclusions

Electric vans are cheaper to own than diesel vans on Coldwater's routes over their service life. They can serve at least seven of the twelve routes year-round. Six vans can be charged without an electrical upgrade. The uncertainty that matters most is winter range on the three marginal routes, which Coldwater cannot test until it has vans of its own. The International Energy Agency reports that electric light commercial vehicle models and battery ranges are expanding quickly (International Energy Agency, 2024), so the choice for the second six may improve in a year.

4. Recommendations

1. Order six electric vans for the six retiring vans on routes under 90 miles, and keep two retiring diesel vans as spares for the first year. Owner: fleet manager. By March.

2. Install six depot chargers with managed overnight charging on the existing service. Owner: facilities manager. Before the vans arrive.

3. Apply for the state voucher and claim the federal credit. Owner: controller, with the company's tax adviser. At order.

4. Track cost, range and reliability for each electric van monthly, with a winter report in February. Owner: operations analyst.

5. Decide on the second six after the winter report, including whether to upgrade the depot's service. Owner: chief operating officer. By next April.

References and Appendix

References follow in APA. Appendix A lists each route's daily miles, stops and overnight parking time.

References

Burnham, A., Gohlke, D., Rush, L., Stephens, T., Zhou, Y., Delucchi, M. A., Birky, A., Hunter, C., Lin, Z., Ou, S., Xie, F., Proctor, C., Wiryadinata, S., Liu, N., & Boloor, M. (2021). Comprehensive total cost of ownership quantification for vehicles with different size classes and powertrains (ANL/ESD-21/4). Argonne National Laboratory.

International Energy Agency. (2024). Global EV outlook 2024.

Nicholas, M. (2019). Estimating electric vehicle charging infrastructure costs across major U.S. metropolitan areas (Working Paper 2019-14). International Council on Clean Transportation.

26 U.S.C. § 45W (2024).