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  The Holden Commodore EV could look much like the Commodore pictured.

The electrification of Australia?s vehicle fleet is set to gather pace?

….following the announcement today that Australia’s biggest fleet management company will soon begin trialling seven “proof-of-concept” electric-powered Commodores.

Yesterday’s announcement sees GE, an advanced technology, services and finance company, join forces with a local consortium of partners, including GM Holden, the CSIRO and electric vehicle infrastructure and services provider Better Place, under the umbrella group EV Engineering.

GE’s CustomFleet arm manages 120,000 fleet vehicles in Australia and globally the company plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015.

The first two electric Commodores will be on the road by September, EV Engineering CEO Mike McCleave said yesterday, at which time GE will being assessing them in its fleet operations and provide feedback based on drivers’ experiences.

McCleave said the Commodores will have a range of around 160km but GE “ecomagination” director Ben Waters said the tie-in with Better Place meant range wasn’t an issue.

“Range is not a concern to us because the battery is a replaceable item. It can be changed as quickly as filling up a car,” he said.

GE sees fleet managers adopting electric vehicle technology as part of their company’s overall sustainability initiatives.

“Motor vehicle fleet operations have the ability to contribute significantly to a business’ overall sustainability goals,” Custom Fleet managing director Jim Cock said.

“As we move to a carbon-constrained economy we certainly expect to see interest from Australian fleet operators in an electric vehicle option as part of their portfolio of transport solutions.”

GE and Better Place announced a global partnership in September last year under which GE will develop battery financing plans. The logic is to lower the cost of electric vehicle ownership by buying the car outright but then leasing the battery, which can account for a third of the cost of an EV vehicle , from Better Place.

Introducing EVs into fleets is also a quick way to achieve “critical mass” for the technology and infrastructure. Better Place is already trialling its infrastructure in Israel and plans to have a major network of recharge points and battery swap stations in place by 2013.