Northrop Grumman – Joseph Walderman – 2021

Goals

The objective of this EDF Climate Corp project was to develop a fleet electrification strategy to support Northrop Grumman’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals and prepare for transformation in the vehicle market driven by the state-level requirements for transition to zero-emission vehicles. The strategy will serve as a roadmap for fleet electrification across the company and includes vehicle inventory, key barriers and solutions, and vehicle and infrastructure implementation recommendations.

Solutions

Joe approached the challenge in three stages:

• Identify and assess the company’s fleet vehicle landscape: Joe developed a fleet inventory (over 1300 vehicles) with a utilization analysis for approximately 400 vehicles. He identified challenges of vehicle electrification and recommended a variety of solutions to overcome them.
• Develop prioritization plans: Joe identified states with significant company presence that have a unique combination of incentives, high vehicle utilization, and high fuel costs that could yield strong savings in total cost of ownership through electrification.
• Analyze infrastructure requirements: Joe developed a draft 5-year replacement plan for one of the company’s largest sites using available electric vehicle models. He developed a charging strategy based on utilization data to minimize costs of infrastructure, charging stations, and electricity.

Potential Impact

The fleet vehicle electrification roadmap serves as a guide for the numerous fleet managers across Northrop Grumman. Electrifying 30 fleet vehicles would abate 1,450 metric tons of CO2e emissions per year. Utilizing a vehicle charging strategy could reduce costs of infrastructure, charging stations, and electricity by up to 40%. Leveraging creative ownership models could enable the company to defer administrative costs and prioritizing sites with high incentive availability could reduce the total cost of ownership of certain vehicles by an estimated 44%.